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Guest Blog – Cat, Crew & Cook aboard SV WelcomeLisbon, October 15, 2025 We arrived in Lisbon with sunlight bouncing off the water and dolphins racing the bow, about fifty of them leaping and twisting in unison, their silver arcs catching the light like a celebration. After days of watch rotations, wind shifts, and the…
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We motored into St. Peter’s Port in Guernsey around sunset on Wednesday. There was a discussion about whether we would cast off on Thursday or Friday, and the decision was to stay two nights at the marina. We were in Guernsey to accept legal ownership of the boat which was accomplished on Thursday morning with…
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We left Ipswich, UK, around 09:30 on Tuesday, 7 October. It felt like we had run out of preparation tasks and provisions to acquire and store. The forecast was for light winds and light seas. Mostly, we motored and occasionally motor-sailed. We are headed to Guernsey to complete the transfer of title of the boat…
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Today marked the fourth day of preparations for our departure from Ipswich. Our Captain Mark Durhan and crew/chef Cat Vizor showed up first thing. We have a great team! There have been lots of stowing spares, buying food, and rechecking the boat. Mark goes up the mast tomorrow for a rig-check. Our weather router, Bill…
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This is a clip from Neil at North Sails showing our route and sail trials on Sunday, September 28.
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We spent eight hours on the boat yesterday with our handover Captain Charlie and Project Manager Luke, learning and going through dockside trials of mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, and plumbing systems. The Oyster team has been fabulous and patient with us as we asked dumb questions and struggle to absorb their many years of knowledge and…
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On Wednesday, we found WELCOME on the docks in Ipswich. There were approximately ten people working on it, preparing it for the Saturday handover. Donna and I got to briefly step on board. Everyone was extremely kind, but it was clear that they were busy and would be more productive if we weren’t there. It…
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This post is testing two items: first, I (Jay) can successfully post. The second is about our boat, WELCOME. At our request, Oyster installed two retractable Remoran Hydrogenerators on the stern of the boat. This was a first for Oyster. These are a couple of pictures of the initial test run. The generators are producing…