Tilly Mint's travels

Tilly Mint is now one step closer to Sardinia, where she will be based for the season. 5 days was all it took to sail from Gibraltar to Malta, with a rather steady wind blowing directly from behind us and an incredible amount of traffic at every hour of the day and night. Overall an easy trip with the poled out genoa, and many dodging maneuvers - always keep in mind that the tanker coming straight at you doing 18 knots is about 12 times bigger than you, which mostly cancels any priority rule there could be... Better safe than sorry! Leaving Gibraltar at sunrise Dodging tankers - a national sports in Gibraltar! So Tilly Mint and her crew are now happily docked in Manoel Island Marina, just across the harbor from the capital Valletta. Why happily? Because after 6 weeks of wearing foul weather gear, boots and beanie hats, we have finally found the Summer again! Yes, we might very well be spoiled, but you have to understand since we have started working in the yachting industry, ...

After 1.5 years and many miles, we have sailed Tilly Mint back to where we had come on board for the first time. During the crossing we passed over 30,000 miles on the log, but Tilly Mint is showing no sign of exhaustion! In fact, she behaved beautifully in all weather conditions and took us from Antigua to Bermuda in 5 days, and then from Bermuda to Gibraltar in only 16 days. In the midst of some heavy weather and a few days of dead calm, we were lucky enough to have some absolutely perfect sailing weather. With 15 to 20 knots on the beam, Tilly Mint was perfectly happy and never went under 9 knots for 3 days. After 2 full weeks at sea, the yacht and her crew are now resting for a few days in Gibraltar, where the weather has so far been surprisingly nice (this, after all, is England). By the end of the week we should be ready for the next leg, that will take us to Malta, before sailing on to Sardinia, where we will be based for the summer season. As much as we love the Caribbean, ...