Life settles into rhythm Within a few days the Atlantic settled into its usual routine. Wind was varying in strength 18–22 knots TWS and in direction 100–140 TWD so, with six crew aboard, we devised a three-watch system: two hours on and four hours off. This gave a reasonable three hours’ sleep and minimised fatigue. My preferred watch ran from 2300 until 0100, then again 0500– 0700. Bron and I would emerge into warm tropical darkness, autopilot quietly steering Cattiba at ten-plus knots; Starlink gave us great connection to the world, with the AIS very occasionally showing ships passing comfortably two or three miles away at night. Although there were 140 other boats out there, it was a rare event to see any other vessel at all. Flying fish regularly landed aboard and the morning inspection required seeking out the hiding places of the ‘kamikazes’. Any unfound fish quickly had that unmistakeable smell, necessitating more than a “boy’s look” to locate them. John, as our resident hopeful fisherman, tried valiantly to catch some proper fish. With boat speeds rarely below 10 knots and lures rated for seven, it was a big ask. His greatest success occurred while asleep and the flying fish kept coming — as well as a patch of squid. Other boats were reporting various methods of cooking these but we didn’t see the need to add that to the adventure! Each morning began with weather routing updates, checking the Yellowbrick tracker to locate other boats, logging battery levels, running the generator, making water, charging batteries and producing enough fresh water for showers. Modern cruising is a long way removed from the image of ‘roughing it’ — our all-electric catamaran powered refrigerators, freezer, induction cooking, washing machine, Starlink, electric winches, watermaker, instruments and — yes, even hot water! — although Cattiba is equipped with over 2kW of solar panels, our electrical demands well-exceeded this capacity, particularly with sails and clouds regularly blanketing the arrays. A few litres of hydrocarbon fuel easily made up the shortfall. The little Fischer Panda generator became one of the hardest-working crew members! A cruiser never sleeps Although officially ‘just a rally’ none of us could ignore the competition. Our closest rival became Idefix, another Outremer 52, sailed double-handed by ‘Wouter’ and Petra with their eight-year-old daughter aboard. Amazing persistence: they never seemed to disappear! One night they were five miles behind; next morning ... still five miles behind. Another gybe. Still there. Then came the time his coveted A2 — which is larger than Cattiba’s Gennaker with angles deeper downwind — was lost. We had earlier joked that I’d exchange my Parasailor for his A2, and he sent me a photo of it streaming in the water behind the boat. Come and get it! He’d had to cut it loose after it went overboard during a drop. TAM BLOG POST #2 A big debate: mainsail or no mainsail? The Para definitely sets better with clear air and the mainsail probably doesn’t add to the boat propulsion, and troubles the helm a bit. But if anything goes wrong, you need to drop the Para, then you have nothing. So we have the mainsail set at the second reef. Wouter - Idefix is only 5 miles behind us. Hull number 23, built one before Cattiba. Aluminium mast, A2 at 210m2 now doing 9 knots at 160. Just Wouter, his wife Petra and their 8yo daughter. It’ll be interesting to see how they compare now to the Parasailor. We were 8 miles in front and our ASO is 196m2 so they caught up 2 miles last night plus another one whilst we hoisted Parasail. I’m actually looking forward more to next year’s CRUISES! TAM BLOG POST #3 Anyway, the green bananas are ripening as quick as Christmas is coming. So we’re going to start doing something about that … 67 Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Yearbook Mainsheet 2026 ARC Feature
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