S/V Kestrel - Atlantic Circle

Atlantic Circle

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Kestrel has just completed a 2-year (June 05 – June 07) Atlantic circle. The 12,000 mile trip took Kestrel from Chesapeake Bay to the Azores (John and crew Rupert Knowles double-handing), then to Ireland (John single-handing), where she spent the winter, then in the Spring of 06 up the Irish Sea (John and crew Adrian O’Donovan double-handing) to Scotland where she cruised for June and July (John and Kathy only). In August 06 Kestrel sailed to La Coruna, Spain (John and crew Niall Vaughn double-handing), then down the Portuguese coast to Lagos (John single-handing), from where, in September, she jumped back out into the Atlantic to Madeira (John and crew Martin Morgan double-handing). In October 2006, John single-handed Kestrel down from Madeira to the Canary Islands, where he expected his Irish friend Adrian O’Donovan to join him for the trade-wind passage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Tragically, Adrian was dying of cancer as that leg began in early December. John wound up single-handing that 3000-odd mile passage from Tenerife, Canary Islands, to Martinique in the Caribbean, arriving on Christmas Eve of 2006 after 22 days at sea. There Kathy came aboard, and Kestrel spent the entire Spring of 2007 cruising up the Antilles chain to the Bahamas, thence home via Beaufort Inlet in North Carolina, through “the ditch” back to Chesapeake Bay where it had all started two years before. Kestrel is currently at her home berth in Deale, Maryland.

Pre-departure, Herrington Harbour, Deale, Maryland, and Cape May

On the way to the Azores

Singlehanded bound for Ireland

Trawler Encounter

One day out of Crosshaven, in Ireland, Kestrel collided with a 150-foot steel trawler, hitting the trawler amidships. This group shows the damage to Kestrel, and repair progress on the hard in Crosshaven. The repair photos were taken in November 2005.