“You start on Monday with the idea implanted in your bosom that you are going to enjoy yourself. You wave an airy adieu to the boys on shore, light your biggest pipe, and swagger about the deck as if you were Captain Cook, Sir Francis Drake, and Christopher Columbus all rolled into one. On Tuesday, you wish you hadn't come. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you wish you were dead. On Saturday, you are able to swallow a little beef tea, and to sit up on deck, and answer with a wan, sweet smile when kind-hearted people ask you how you feel now. On Sunday, you begin to walk about again, and take solid food. And on Monday morning, as, with your bag and umbrella in your hand, you stand by the gunwale, waiting to step ashore, you begin to thoroughly like it.” Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men in a Boat”

Blue Tarn’s Atlantic Adventure

The Boat

Blue Tarn is a Nicholson 35 Yacht. The vessel’s principal dimensions are 35’ 3" LOA, 26’ 9" LWL, and 10’ 5" Beam. By today’s standards, this design is purely a cruising boat, although when originally designed, she would have likely been considered a cruiser/racer. The hull features a low-aspect fin keel with a large, unbalanced spade rudder mounted on a full-length skeg. The 35 has a very attractive sweep to the sheer, nicely balanced overhangs and a low-profile cabin house that results in a handsome look that, although nearly 30 years old, does not seem dated or old-fashioned.

The Crew

Skipper – Michael Foreman

Crew – John Mactaggart & Tony Leighton

The Plan

To depart Campbeltown at the end of September, sail across The Bay of Biscay, down the coast of Portugal, out to Madeira and then on to the Canary Islands.

There we will join the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (The ARC) http://www.worldcruising.com/arc/.

This annual transatlantic rally starts this year on November 23^rd in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The Rally is the largest transocean sailing event in the world. This year there are 225 yachts entered from all over the world. (There is one yacht that is smaller than Blue Tarn in the event.) The Caribbean destination is Rodney Bay in St.Lucia, one of the most beautiful islands in the Lesser Antilles. The 2700 nautical mile passage on the NE tradewind route should take us between 21 and 28 days.

The skipper and crew plan to return to the UK for Christmas and the New Year. We will then return to the Carribean which we intend to fully explore before sailing back via Bermuda and the Azores, arriving back in Campbeltown in June 2009.