The Canary Islands to the Caribbean: A Full Atlantic Crossing

Three thousand miles, eighteen days, and a rudder lost 800 miles from the nearest land. This is the full story of Paikea’s crossing from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean — from the chainplate problem discovered before we’d even left, through the sail changes and daggerboard work that make up the everyday reality of an ocean passage, to the morning the boat started feeling “slewy” and a GoPro camera confirmed a rudder simply wasn’t there anymore.

None of it happened in isolation. The chainplate movement found in the Canaries came back later as a full replacement job at anchor in the Caribbean. The rudder loss reshaped every sail decision for the rest of the crossing. Read start to finish, it’s one continuous story — read in pieces, each post stands on its own too.

Getting Ready

Before any of it, there was prep — and one problem that wouldn’t surface fully until much later.

  1. The Canary Islands: Preparation for Atlantic Passage — Bow pole maintenance, night-time reefing prep, and the last stretch of readiness before departure.
  2. Discovering Chainplate Movement — A small amount of play found in a chainplate during pre-passage checks. It looked minor at the time. It wasn’t — this is the moment that eventually forces a full chainplate replacement at anchor in the Caribbean.

The Crossing

The first stretch: real ocean miles, a genuine repair under pressure, and the everyday texture of sailing a loaded catamaran across an ocean with a family aboard.

  1. Atlantic Crossing, Part 1 — A light-airs start from Las Palmas along the Moroccan coast, and an unexpected approach from a Moroccan patrol boat.
  2. Mid-Atlantic Repairs and Growing Crew, Part 2 — A 3D-printed batten receptacle blows out under reefing load and gets a mid-ocean Spabond fix, while the kids take on real jobs on deck.
  3. Downwind Spinnaker Trim — Why the asymmetric spinnaker flies from the windward bow instead of the bow pole, and what that setup is actually solving.
  4. Daggerboard Control, Watermaker Maintenance & Speed Secrets — Real “champagne sailing”: downwind sail configuration in 20+ knots, using a daggerboard for steering control, and running watermaker maintenance mid-passage.

The Rudder

Then the boat felt wrong. Not a bang — just wrong.

  1. Losing a Rudder 800nm from Land — The boat starts feeling “slewy,” the autopilot works harder than it should, and a GoPro underwater confirms it: the rudder isn’t there anymore.
  2. How We Sailed 800nm With One Rudder — Weather routing, sail plan changes, and the daggerboard trim that kept the boat balanced and steerable the rest of the way.
  3. We Lost a Rudder in the Middle of the Atlantic — The full, unflinching 18-day debrief: what happened, why, and every lesson from the crossing worth carrying forward.

Landfall

  1. Navigation Systems Onboard Paikea — The satellite communications and navigation setup that made weather routing and family updates possible offshore.
  2. Did Losing a Rudder Damage Our Hulls? — A proper underwater inspection once safely in St Lucia, and what it revealed about the original failure.

For the deeper engineering story behind Paikea’s rudders — the design, the eventual rebuild, and everything that came after this crossing — see Paikea’s Rudders: The Full Story.

Scroll to Top