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Falanda Sailing

Katie McCabe, age 14, is attempting to sail around Britain anticlockwise this summer in her 26' wooden restored Morgan Giles, 'Falanda'. She is leaving from the river Exe and going anticlockwise - along the Channel, up the east coast, through the Caledonian canal and back down the west coast of Scotland and Wales. If she succeeds, she will become the youngest person to sail around Britain singlehandedly. She wants to raise awareness of ocean pollution and money for 2 ocean charities.

White cliffs of Dover

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July 10, 2021

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Across the Channel for Paimpol festival

August 13, 2023

In the last week of July, Falanda and I set off across the channel accompanied by my parents on Karuna. The morning started out windless so we motored until torbay when the wind picked up and we started sailing, close hauled at about 4.5 kts. The wind increased and a few waves skirted over the stern, splashing the tillerpilot which in turn got wet and packed up. We then had a few hours of perfect sailing, the helm so light that falanda was steering herself, under full main and slightly reefed jib. At sunset we hove to so that I could reef the main and get changed into some dry, warm clothes before it got cold. Then it got dark, and we started approaching the shipping lanes, still sailing well at about 6 - 6.5kts. At this point my batteries were getting low, and I needed the AIS on as we crossed the lanes so I tried starting the engine. I then discovered that the batteries were almost dead rather than low, so faffed around turning everything off, whilst also...

Mousehole Sea, Salt & Sail festival (10 July)

August 12, 2024

The solenoid on Radiance’s engine had fried itself to bits on arrival at Brixham, so we decided to stop in at Topsham after the Regatta in order to have a look at it. It was a fast sail across the bay with all three boats in company, and I was only mildly upset to watch Radiance and Nora slip past us. Although I may blame it on the extra reef and following wind there was definitely some distance between us as they arrived at the fairway buoy. Sailing up the Exe without the reassurance of an engine is always slightly terrifying, and as it was Jake’s first time going up the river, and only his second sail on Radiance, he received a tow from Nora. After a week on my dad’s mooring at Turf, we both sailed Radiance back down the river with a reconditioned starter motor, heading for Falmouth. Initially the wind was pushing us along at just under 6kts, however by the early afternoon it had disappeared completely. We bobbed around for a couple of hrs in Torbay before star...

Back across the Channel

April 21, 2025

In order to leave France, we had to officially sign out of the country. Since Brexit this has got quite complicated and the rules seem to change every year. There are a series of online forms that must be filled out before departure of the EU and arrival in the UK. We had understood that as well as signing in online, you had to go into an official port of entry to get each crew member stamped in. You then had to do the same when leaving. There was apparently an exception to this rule for people attending the festival. The customs office had been closed during Brest festival and so we hadn’t been able to get our passports stamped. This then left us unsure of the correct procedure on departure. We had planned to sail from Camaret to Brest to sign out in person, so lifted anchor at the crack of dawn and set sail. After long VHF discussions, however, it was decided that since we had only signed in online, then we ought to only sign out online and didn’t need to present...