Voyaging with the Vagrants

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Posted by Phil on September 14, 2024

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On our arrival in the Azores. The locals are friendly...

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Where is Vagrant?

You can see our voyage on the map from NoForeignLand.

We only update NoForeignLand when we have Internet access. When offshore, we log our position over satellite 'phone to PredictWind.

You can also find us on Marine Traffic.

Keeping the bilges dry

This is a technical post I've written because it will be of interest to other Boréal owners. You have my permission to skim read it! Vagrant came out of the factory with four Whale Orca 1300 electric bilge pumps and a manual one. The forward sail locker and aft lazerette are separate water-tight compartments, so each has an Orca pump. The remaining three pumps serve the central living area. I've added a sixth one. Why on earth is it needed? The electric bilge pumps are in the centre of the boat and serve two separated bilge sumps, one on each side of the centreboard trunk. These pumps rapidly clear water from the sumps, except for the last two or three litres. Their inability to pull out the remaining water is partly due to the pump design but also because the outlet pipe goes overboard a metre above the water line, via a check valve. When the pump is switched off, the water before the check valve back flows back to the sump. Consequently the sumps are never fully dry. The ...

Reefing Vagrant

This post is about how we manage reefing on Vagrant , a Boréal 47. I'm posting it here rather than to the owner's group since it may be of general interest if you're not lucky enough to sail a Boréal yourself. I'm writing this at 42°N 15°W, about 300 miles west of Cape Finisterre. It's late September and we're on passage from the Azores back to the UK. For the next 24 hours we'll ride a big low that is passing to the north west. Currently it's blowing 30 knots, regularly gusting to 40 knots, and there's a 3m sea with a nasty cross set. The NKE autopilot is steering to a true wind angle of 110° and doing its usual impressive job. We've deliberately taken a more easterly route using the edge of the low to avoid the chaos forecast towards its centre. I've just put in a fourth reef in the main and swapped from the genoa to the trinquette (staysail). We use the fourth reef very rarely – this is the third time in four years – but prefer to...

Go West!

The key to this part of our journey has been the need to keep on moving west. We are on a tight time limit, due to Schengen restrictions. We have only 90 days in the EU and in this time, we want to move the boat from our entry point in Sicily to the UK, via the Azores, in September. The need to keep on trucking has effected our choices significantly, and the wish to have spent longer in every place has been a constant theme. We spent twelve days in Sicily with our American sailing friend, Wayne. Cruising in Sicily was very different to Greece and Turkey, as you move between cities rather than small villages and isolated bays. Syracuse was our landing point and was our first huge city. The old town was beautiful and teaming with life. We did our first walking tour, courtesy of of Wayne, who had brought a Rick Steve's guide book. This name meant nothing to us, but apparently he is a legend in the US. From here we headed north up the east coast and were fortunate to see Mount ...

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Where is Vagrant?