Storm sailing, injuries, and running from PIRATES! Our SCARIEST EVER SAIL. 

¡hola! Explicamos en el episodio que, lamentablemente, el pronóstico del tiempo era extremadamente incorrecto. Habíamos esperado una ventana meteorológica y se pronosticaba que así sería, con condiciones similares a las que hemos navegado anteriormente por el Estrecho de Gibraltar. Desgraciadamente, el pronóstico estaba equivocado. Si lo hubiésemos sabido, habríamos esperado absolutamente.

@wayneholman8563 ah thank you so much 😊⚓️

@paulkent5755 Hey! That's a fair question. We have gone through the Straits in 30kt winds safely and happily before, and pretty much the same conditions (wind and seastate) were predicted this time. Unfortunately, the predictions were quite off with winds above 40kt and a high seastate, and we were caught out. It simply wasn't the weather window that we had waited for and expected. Additionally, I think that had we not been overcanvassed with a mainsail car jammed, even in the sailing conditions that we did have... it would have been a much more pleasant and safer sail, albeit rather more sporty than anticipated.

@@CutterboveSailing ok thanks i understand now

@@paulkent5755 you're more than welcome 😊 Thank you for watching!

They're needed across the Atlantic too 😅 Thankfully, since then, the medical kit has stayed in the cupboard.

@paulwallis994 Hi Paul, it's Bryony here 😊 I'd like to preface this (likely long comment) with... there are absolutely elements where I agree with you. Unfortunately, it was only in the dark when the winds really picked up further (swell was already big), and we realised that the line was too short for the 3rd reef/furling. We were in the cockpit considering the options when our crew member fell... bad things come in threes, right 😅 We also discussed rounding up, but 6m+ breaking waves with sudden extreme short wave intervals made trying to round up to deal with the wind increase that followed a *huge* risk for a probable knockdown, and consequent difficult self-righting with such little time between waves. We have been in big seas before, and those times did (and agree with) exactly as you have advised, but never have we been in seas this steep and short before, and we did not consider it a safe option for us under those circumstances. We dont mind uncomfortable (not sure I mentioned how violently seasick I was also being... I was swallowing mouthfuls of vomit when tending to our crew's injury, and my back hurt afterward for weeks😂), but we do mind unsafe, and upon weighing up the "every option is a bad option," we ruled out trying to round up for fear of knockdowns. Perhaps this was the wrong decision after all... but I'm not going back to test that theory. Once was quite enough! If the winds had built before the waves, we would have done very differently, and probably much/all of that which you have said, but unfortunately, that just wasn't the case this time. I think anyone who has watched our other videos knows we habitually reef early to avoid problems and are sensible sailors. There absolutely was some human error at play... we are human and know if we sail enough nautical miles, mistakes will get made, and we are humble enough to admit this and to show it on camera. But I think it's fair to say that there was also a degree of compounding unfortunate elements that were beyond our control. In many ways, I completely agree with you 😄 but I don't feel it's quiiiite fair to disregard a degree of things that were just bad luck. But it's all experience that we have taken onboard for next time, and we appreciate your input ⚓️

I would go with cutesy. Cutsie is like... cut-see. Totally different. Eh, what did you expect anyway? A video of them getting robbed? I consider it valuable info that there is piracy around the western coast of africa. You only really hear about it on the other side and south america. Just further douses any naivety about the world.

That’s mean, that being said…. go check out Sam Holmes Sailing. No Music, no ads, no cutaways, etc.

@christip20 I certainly did not intend to be mean. It looks like someone spent a lot of time editing these videos. And thank you for the recommendation. It looks like his channel is very popular and more like what I was looking for. Best wishes.

If we'd been the right side of the Straits I think we would have! Didn't fancy cutting across the shipping lane in the dark and taking those waves on the beam though 😅 It's not a stretch of water that we'll miss.

Thank you... this was a bit too stressful for us, but we survived 😄 We ran down to Trinidad to avoid hurricane Beryl! We had been in Bequia, and thankfully decided not to stop in Grenada but to keep heading further south. We are working hard now to get sailboats full of aid to those worst hit islands to support those who have lost everything. It's a little busy our end as a result!

@AndyUK-Corrival Hi! We are with Edward Williams, fully comp. We know friends who have made claims through them without any difficulties, although we also now know that they have a mixed reputation (as perhaps any insurers do). We haven't had to make a claim, so we can't attest to it ourselves, but they were the only ones that made getting insurance for the Atlantic a sensible process. I'd advise looking through reviews of E.W before making any decisions, though. It's very frustrating!

That's really great to hear! That chatter won't be going anywhere, we promise 😄 A whole world to explore and talk about. Thank you!

The speed at which things can escalate onboard never fails to amaze! I'm looking forward to editing the Gran Canaria episode, it was exciting doing preparations for the Atlantic and we met some REALLY cool guys there that I'm excited to show and support. Should be a nice vibed vid, with no near-death experiences included!

Hi! Crash jibes can and do unfortunately happen, but we appreciate it can be terrifying! Our boom break drum is designed primarily to slowly allow the boom to move across/spill wind in a jibe rather than anything violent, but a lot of the time we can tighten it on a winch to the extent that the boom can't jibe. In the Straits when we crash jibed unfortunately it was a mix of the new lines on it being too sleek and not enough grip, and probably that we were stuck overcanvassed so the amount of force was immense. The traveller slipped at the same time so we had an extra level of crash jibing going on through that too!

@@CutterboveSailing thanks for take time & effort to reply, much appreciated! It's always good to learn lessons from happenings, including happenings to others! I'm really pleased for you that there was no injuries nor damages to the boat! Keep on keeping on with your adventures!

@optimus163 hey! Yeah we stopped transmitting AIS and turned tri lights off. I think we just kept cockpit compass lights on for navigation, but would have switched off too if they got closer. Not gonna lie... it was a bit frantic, and I can't recall what else we did or didn't do! The report we received was really helpful, though, as the sailor documented what he had done/tried during the incident, so I think we copied a lot of that, but with advantage of forewarning. Although having said that, it could just have been fishing vessels that coincidentally all turned to diverge ahead of us at the same time 😅 But after that report, we weren't hanging around to find out.

We like to reassure people that we don't do clickbait. If we promise something, it's real 😄 Although times like this, we very much wished that it wasn't! A few lessons learned the hard way, and a stretch of water we don't want to see again in a hurry.

@psystealth We took a while to sort everything out in the Canaries after this 🤣 Weren't going to rush across before we knew the boat was happy again and ready! It's not the type of scare we ever want to have a repeat of. Ever.

Very much so this episode! Thank you for watching 😊

Thank you 😊 And thank you for watching our little channel!

Its a pleasure

Hey! This was further south, off the west coast of Morroco. Honestly, we didn't think there were any pirates around there either, but the message we received with a report from the sailor that had run into trouble 48 hours before seemed so genuine and sincere (and appropriately detailed) that it felt anything short of foolish to not take heed! We could only go by the information we were being given, and with that decided going further offshore was the appropriate move to make. There's always the chance the report we got was made up, of course, but we really didn't think that a respectable sailor would do such a thing, or that it was a risk worth taking at that point.

There have been more and more human traffickers trying to escape west africa and Sub sahara africa by going round the outside rather than cross the Med . Meantime some have been Sticking large nimbers on yatchs anything they can get .. one with 55 people on a yacht this size sank a week ago off Greece. It was floating and upright but had sunk above deck level in the water . Most of the 30 odd fatalities were below deck

@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665 yes! I meant to add this in but didn't, so thank you 😊 It's a prolific people trafficking route now. I (Bryony) worked in a refugee camp for a while, and so this did cross my mind whilst we were in that situation 😅 There was also a piracy charge related to this just a few months beforehand from this area. However I think due to the report we had through saying that the problem vessels both had AIS with the same MMSI numbers bar one ending in 2 and one in 3 (and pretending to be a large pleasure vessel), I felt it was probably more of an organised crime than desperate migrants. But people smugglers are parts of multimillion dollar operations that no doubt have fingers in a lot of pies, so I expect there's some relationship there.

@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665 I'd also like to thank you for highlighting the fatality rate this week in a singular incident in the Med. I think that regardless of people's political views on the matter, we all have enough humanity in us to know that's 30 souls lost-at-sea too many.

@@CutterboveSailing Hmm good to know in general. I only knew of the piracy in the red sea and around the horn... Hopefully by the time I could dream of such crossings the regions have been pacified.

@01dumbfrog sleep, right... I know you're just talking about sleep 😄🤣 Oh, 100%! We tied off the traveller to backup cleats after that chaos... we were NOT trusting only the camcleats for the rest of that passage. And then we threw the lines in a washing machine in the Canaries to rough them up a bit. That was a hard way to learn a lesson!

Nobody is allowed to say we ever make up drama... Tony is too busy downplaying the real excitement 🤣