20 April 2025
Bazza’s Birthday Blog
It’s my birthday today. My crewmates on Watch B sang Happy Birthday at 0500 boat time while we were on the 0400 to 0700 watch. The skipper baked a chocolate brownie cake and even put two candles in it for me to blow out. I stood at the wheel grinning like a fool – what a great start to the day. The thick cloud cover broke for a few minutes, and I was able to grab a quick sextant sight of Venus and the Moon. After a few hours’ sleep, I reduced the sights and plotted the results to give a fix of 38 deg 39 min North, 34 deg 5 min West. Just a couple of 100 miles to go to the Azores after an amazing 2000 plus from Antigua, all done by celestial navigation.
As a special treat, my watch let me sit out preparing lunch, and there was more singing at lunchtime, which was very touching. Vitalie is baking bread, which is making me hungry even though I’ve just eaten.
There’s been lots of time to reflect on things, particularly during the night watches. A massive sky full of stars, the sea all around to the horizon and the predictably unpredictable motion of the boat tend to set your mind running. I miss my wife, Ellen – I’d love for her to share this with me, but she’s not a massive fan of boating. Still, we’ll be able to catch up when we arrive in Horta. I’ve asked for a boat for my birthday, LOL.
I’ve made some good friends on this trip and so celebrating my birthday with my new-found mates has been a great experience. Every day I learn something new about sailing and about myself. It looks like we’ll get to spend a few days on Horta for some much-needed shore time and then the adventure starts all over again with a passage to Scotland.
19 April 2025
SV Bluejay approx. position 39° 03’N 037° 6’W.
Bluejay has emerged from a lively overnight sailing where all the crew had the opportunity to test their foul-weather gear! We continue eastward towards the Azores – now approx. 400 miles off our bow with a high-pressure system building ahead of us. The sun broke through around lunchtime today, and there was a furious rush to grab sextants and take sightings – and the inevitable queue to use the salon table to complete sight reductions and get an accurate position. In addition, the crew continue to be delighted with sightings of more dolphins, whales, sea birds and bioluminescence at night.
The lunchtime educational briefings continue to prove of value – today’s session focused on passage planning. Did you know that a well-prepared plan includes shore-based contacts, knowing where you are going and when you expect to arrive?
The crew were delighted to receive the 1st loaf of freshly baked bread today, courtesy of V! We’re hoping other crew members will take up baking bread!
Answer to previous Trivia Q: The 8 competent crew knots are: round turn and 2 half hitches; bowline; clove; reef; stopper knot; rolling hitch; figure of 8; and sheet bend.
Fun Fact! Bluejay was originally commissioned as one of the Clipper Round-The-World Race (RTW) boats for the 1st edition in 1996. This fleet of Colvic Craft (Colchester, UK) boats completed 3 RTW editions before the introduction of the Clipper 68s. Bluejay is a proven and reliable bluewater expedition boat that continues to offer world-class sailing voyages!
18 April 2025 (Good Friday) – Celestial Miles and Knotty Nights: Bluejay’s Northward Push
Approx. position: 38° 22’N 041° 0.0W
Having passed through a very calm (and windless) patch of high pressure, we are making good progress north and eastward towards the Azores – our intended stop on the journey towards Largs, Scotland. We have sailed 1,730 miles (close enough for government work!) to date, as best we can determine using pencils, paper, sextants (and clock). The crew have been busy taking navigation sightings as well as those of moonrises, navigating by the stars, and occasional dolphins, whales, and other vessels. There was even talk of ordering pizza – pizza being the common denominator of the seven different languages spoken aboard – from our nearest neighbours, but delivery from the International Space Station was deemed problematic. So beans are back on the dinner menu!
It’s gratifying watching all the crew work together to improve the standard of seamanship. We have an impressive amount of experience on board, beyond that of the highly qualified skipper and mate. In addition to qualified RYA Yachtmaster Ocean (YMO) and Day Skippers, we have four YMO and two Competent Crew candidates. The crew have been enjoying evening ‘Knotty Boyz’ watches where we practise our knots in the dark and one-handed. Every day is a learning experience! It makes a nice break from the usual banter associated with rummaging for resources, precious knitting, or whether your bunk is so small it must have been ordered online!
Trivia Q: Do you know the names of the eight Competent Crew knots?
Answer next time!
April 17 2025. Halfway There: Bluejay Between Antigua and the Azores
036° 02.211N, 044° 39.416W / Course: 53° @ 7.1 knots
We’re about halfway across now. Somewhere between the heat of the Caribbean and the rugged welcome of the Azores. The middle stretch. The place where time can see to disappear and days roll into one. We’ve been through three different oceans, all without leaving the Atlantic. First, the trade winds. Soft, warm, forgiving. Bluejay moved like she was meant to with her sails full, crew light-hearted, the miles ticking by almost too easily. Then the rhythm shifted. The tail end of a low brushed past. The skies dimmed, the sea state built, and we had to get our heads back in it. Not hard, but not easy either. Just enough to remind us this is the real Atlanic Ocean. Now we’re in the Azores High, where the sea flattens out and the wind disappears. We’re finally motor sailing to keep us moving. One eye on the fuel. One ear on the engine. It should be off in a couple of hours anyway as the wind rebuilds
This is of course all navigated by celestial nav only. No GPS, no screens. Just the crew with sextants trying to pin down where we are on the planet. Yesterday, five crew got solid fixes, even with the overcast conditions. They’re figuring it out by the day. Sun shots, lots of them, but now also the moon, Venus, bits of sky you miss when you have Google Earth in your pocket. Each night, we take the day’s fixes, spread them out in the chart table’s soft light, and start looking for the route they’re trying to tell. We adjust the DR, log the position, and see if it all adds up. So far, no emergency calls from HQ, which means we’re probably still more or less on track! Azores in a few days? Still the plan.
This afternoon, dolphins showed up for the first time this trip, making their long arcs under the bow, quick flashes of silver. They’re gone before the moment even settles in, but they were there, with us in the middle of the Atlantic and we saw them, and that matters more than it should. There’s real a rhythm to the crew now and to this part of the ocean. We’re all tuned to every sound and every change in the conditions. Every fix, every meal, every glance at the horizon has purpose. This is the most wonderful Atlantic sailing.
Blog Entry 1 April 11 2025
The celestial navigation crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on Bluejay is underway. After two days of intensive classroom training in Antigua with Bruce, the crew was more than ready to get out on the ocean and start putting theory into practice. On Tuesday, we slipped lines, hoisted sail, and pointed the bow north for the long passage to Scotland, navigating the old way, without GPS, using just sextants, the sun, the stars, and a few sharp pencils.
Conditions couldn’t have been better so far. Classic champagne sailing with bright blue skies, white sails drawing cleanly, and a steady breeze driving Bluejay forward at 7 to 8 knots. The yacht is in her element. We’ve been charging up the western flank of the Azores High, aiming to position ourselves for a clean swing east once we reach the top of the system. A Bermuda stop was an early option, but the forecast closed that door. We’re going direct to the Azores.
The crew has settled in fast. A few early cases of seasickness, as expected, but most are finding their sea legs and leaning into the rhythm of life at sea. The watch system – on watch, off watch, and standby – is working well. Everyone’s learning to make the most of their new routine and find the moments of calm between sail changes and log entries. Night watches in particular have been a standout, steering under moonlight, scanning the sky for familiar constellations, and watching the Milky Way stretch across the black Atlantic sky.
The real focus, though, is celestial navigation. Every day brings more sextant practice. For many, just bringing the sun down to the horizon cleanly is a major win and a breakthrough moment that turns the theory into something real. We’ve already got some sun-run-sun fixes plotted, and they’re surprisingly accurate. There’s a quiet satisfaction in figuring out where you are, using nothing but the sky. We’re starting to prep for star and planet sights now: Mars, Jupiter, and more. Each reading is a step further away from electronics and closer to something timeless.
On deck, it’s been lively. Bluejay is constantly powered up and heeling at 30 degrees. Moving around takes some agility, and galley duty is a contact sport meaning chopping vegetables on the lean, dodging flying mugs, and trying to keep hot pans from sliding off the stove. But spirits are very high. The crew are hands-on, involved, and pushing themselves in all the right ways. We marked Vitaliy’s birthday today with cake and a round of singing, adding some extra fun to the pace of life offshore.
Now several hundred miles from land, it’s starting to hit. No AIS targets. No shipping. Just ocean. In every direction. Out here, things slow down. The distractions are gone. You start to notice the small details such as the sound of water under the hull, the exact moment the sun touches the sea at sunset, the constellations rising one by one after dark. It’s hard not to feel it – the scale of it all, the remoteness, the calm that comes with being this far removed from the noise of everyday life. There’s something utterly spectacular about it.
We’ve got more days of life on the lean before we make our turn east. The wind’s still holding, Bluejay is powering forward, and the crew is locked in: helming, navigating, fixing positions by the sun, and experiencing the Atlantic the way sailors once did. One sight at a time!
