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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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Friday - Weymouth to Yarmouth, Isle of White

July 02, 2021

Not much wind this morning so had to motor sail untill it picked up in the afternoon. It was a bit of a grey, foggy day, and we passed the Militery Firing Range without being shot at or bombed! We had the tide with us at St Albans head, wizzing us staight round, and the tide stayed with us untill we arrived at Yarnmouth. No problems passing the Needles, although poor visibility untill the Lighthouse. I slowed down before we got to the Needles, so Dad on Amaryllis could catch up and we could take some photos of the boats sailing. Hence why he was so close. The bad weather looks like its coming in on Monday night, so as long as it does't change, we're hoping to get to Eastbourne to shelter for a day or so. Its quite stressful trying to predict the weather when each forecast is completely different, and I need to let each Marina know exactly what time we will be arriving, a couple of days in advance. Sailing past the Needles Approaching lighthouse at the Needles Leaving Weymou...

Aborted Azores trip in Karuna

July 31, 2023

On the 20th June me and dad left the Exe heading southwest aboard Karuna, his Rival 34, with a vague plan to sail to the Azores. By sunset the tide was turning against us as we approached Start point, and after beating into the southwesterlies all day we pulled in and anchored off Salcombe until 3am when the tide turned. We then continued on to St Maws, where we dropped the anchor and caught up on sleep. The next morning we set off, tacking out into the Channel. By midnight, we had reached the French shipping lanes so changed tack and headed more west. At this point me and dad had been cooped up on his boat together for 3 days and the novelty was begging to fade. On the fourth morning the wind began to pick up and the boat set into a horrible slamming motion, making living much more difficult. Anything from cooking to going for a pee was horrible and we avoided going below unless to sleep. By the next morning the wind had picked up and was accompanied by a relati...

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...