Behind the Scenes: What BROKE in 4000 Miles of Ocean Sailing [Ep. 77]

Our weather window for the season is quickly shrinking as we make much needed repairs in Brazil, then the bad news arrives and threatens our plan to sail around Cape Horn & the rest of the world. Bluewater sailing isn't always easy.

#sailing #brazil #sailingaroundtheworld

We've arrived in Ilhabela Brazil and have been accepted into the country to make repairs before our plans of heading south to Cape Horn. We try to make quick work of it and even make a few friends in our short stay there.

Smiles and good times are shared after our longest passage at sea. Brazil turned out to be such a beautiful surprise and we are so grateful for their hospitality. But soon we are confronted with a big decision after reading news that could alter our plans significantly.

So who is this crazy sailing couple making fun videos to share? Well, we are Kate and Curtis. As race winning regatta sailors, we already knew how to sail before we both sold up and headed out to sea, and had the goal of sailing around the world via Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. We brought our mixed rescue dog along with us as she loves sailing and swimming too! We enjoy both solo sailing (while the other is sleeping) and doublehanded sailing (as a couple).

Many people want to know if we are like Sailing la Vagabonde, well not quite. We don't have a catamaran, there are no kids (yet), and our plan from the get go was to go around the world via the southern ocean. Before we left we did watch (and still do), and were inspired by other sailing channels such as Gone With The Wynns, Nahoa, Sailing Uma, Project Atticus, and well of course the original, SV Delos.

Our boat is a year 2000 J Boats J/46. We searched for 3 years for our perfect sailboat for sale, when we found it, we knew it was the one. We spent 6 months doing a bit of boat restoration and re-fitting in Rhode Island with solar panels, lithium batteries, a watermaker, wind power, and more and then went for our shakedown voyage in Maine. We stopped in Annapolis for a bit to do some more refit work and offshore modifications, installing a inner forestay (cutter rig staysail) and new rudder bearings, then we set off to the open sea. We went to the Bahamas, Miami, US Virgin Islands, BVI, Grenada, Carriacou, St. Maarten, where we enjoyed outdoor adventures, scuba diving, and have now did an Atlantic Crossing to the Azores where we had a chance to fly our drone (and learned how to fly a drone from a boat) and one of our favorite past times, mountain biking. After leaving the Azores we sailed to Tenerife. From there we have left on a huge voyage, transatlantic again, this time to South America as we head for our goal of rounding cape horn to enter the pacific ocean. We now live off grid on our sailboat, and we have sailed over 10,000 bluewater miles to date.

More about us at https://www.sweetruca.com

Enough of this, we hope you enjoy our relaxing video on #sailingsunday!

XO XO Sailing Sweet Ruca - Kate, Curtis & Roxy

Music from Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/ey2t4k