Barton customers and serious Blue Water sailors John and Alex have kindly sent us in a report of their new adventure into the Atlantic Ocean, sailing aboard their Halberg Rassy ketch ‘Free Spirit'. Over the coming months, we will be following their log as they journey south.

"We finally left Gibraltar after several goodbye drinks and get-togethers.

We met some special people in Gib' who made our long stay very sociable and memorable!

"Heading to Lagos, Portugal for lift out. We took our time to get to Lagos, there was no wind so motored most of the way and anchored overnight in a couple of bays. We had a great sense of ‘freedom' after having been tied to the dock for so long. The lift out and work all went well and we are now back in the water ready (almost) to go sailing. The boat has plenty of supplies on board, all our English favourites from good old Morrisons, Gibraltar!

"We will be leaving Lagos soon. There's not a lot of wind about so we're watching the weather and hoping for wind to carry us to Porto Santo, an island lying just above Madeira. They are holding a Colombus festival so we hope to get there in time.

Madeira will be the next stop before heading to Lanzarote!" John & Alex, S/Y Free Spirit.

‘Free Spirit' is equipped with our Size 7 triple block mainsheet system, Size 5 fiddle block mizzen sheet system, Size 5 fiddle block kicker system, Size 4 triple blocks blocks for man over board pulley, medium snatch blocks for spinnaker/cruising chute, medium snatch blocks for the boom preventor, lazyjacks for mainsail and mizzen, new DO 550 rope clutches, pad eyes for safety clips, winch for genoa furling line and mast steps for the mizzen mast. All in all, the voyage is a great test of the long term capabilities of our products.

If you have a sailing adventure you want including about your Barton equipped yacht in a future issue of Barton Newsline, please email details to Christian.brewer@bartonmarine.com