In this episode we make it to the entrance of the Panama Canal, sailing past crocodiles and container ships along the way, and then I get to work replacing one of Tally Ho's hybrid motors.
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Music;
Audionautix - Front Porch Sitter
Quincas Moreira - The Trapezist
2026-02-14 16:27:15 +0000 UTC View Post
The Panama Canal was an incredible experience - chaotic, exciting, and challenging!
We had a great crew on board, an excellent local canal advisor, and now - for the first time since 1968 - Tally Ho is back in the ocean that she came from.
Her home waters still feel a long way away, and the most challenging part of the trip is definitely still yet to come, but this is without a doubt one of the major milestones of this adventure.
I'm afraid a livestream just wasn't practic...
2026-02-09 22:10:25 +0000 UTC View Post
We are scheduled to transit the Panama Canal on Sunday 8th Feb, in two days. You can watch us go through on the Panama Canal Live Webcams - link below. We will be going through the Miraflores Locks at around 6-7am EST, the Pedro Miguel Locks fairly soon after, and the Gatun Locks much later in the day. You can select the webcam for each of these locks from the page linked below.
Would there be much interest in a livestream from Tally Ho? I'm not sure how well it would work, but I'll lo...
2026-02-06 21:52:53 +0000 UTC View Post
With our new belt installed, we get going - headed South with a good crew.
Between fixing things, we do occasionally have time to reflect on how lucky we really are.
2026-01-25 21:41:09 +0000 UTC View Post
If you saw our last video you will know that we currently have an issue with one of the electric motors in our hybrid system - which means we can't charge our main battery bank.
However, we realised that if we had a shorter belt on board, we could just run ONE of the motors until we can pick up a replacement for the broken one in Panama.
I made a couple of calls, and against all odds a good friend of this project managed to source this unusual belt, at short notice, on a public ...
2026-01-21 17:40:00 +0000 UTC View Post
In this episode we show you how we actually physically operate Tally Ho’s Gaff Rig - from tensioning the Bobstay to hoisting the gaff topsail. We explain the jib traveller, the difference between stays and shrouds, and the multi-part purchase systems that allow each crew member to multiply their lifting strength by 12 times!
At the start of this video we also document the complex customs / immigration procedure that we have to go through when visiting a Central American country by boa...
2026-01-17 16:38:19 +0000 UTC View Post
...after hearing a worrying grinding sound coming from the engine room, I investigated and found that one of the electric motors in our hybrid system has failed - the pulley-wheel won't turn freely, has play, and is spraying small metal filings! Probably a bearing failure, leading to collisions between the rotor and the stator.
At this point we had half of our sails up, so we continued to hoist everything and then after a short journey we anchored under sail to investigate further.
... 2026-01-14 20:32:40 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been a while since I posted any updates, because It's been such an eventful week!
Here, Patrick and Marit are sweating the peak halyard at the beginning of a journey that did not go as planned - shortly after this we heard a worrying grinding sound coming from the engine room.
...more to follow...
2026-01-13 19:12:52 +0000 UTC View Post
We saw these beautiful Blue-footed Boobies and Frigatebirds on Isla Isabel, back in Mexico. I still have a lot of amazing footage from this part of the trip, so I'm going to be putting together a video eventually (even though it will be out of sequence with the rest of the story).
2026-01-06 20:53:58 +0000 UTC View Post
In this video, we transit from Mexico through Nicaragua, where we spend an unusual Christmas. We cross the notorious Papagayo winds, we have to work on the engine in the middle of the night, and we test out our storm sails. Finally we arrive exhausted in Costa Rica with an amazing downwind sail, and meet up with our old friend Patrick!
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Music;
Brooks Williams - Goodbye Walker Percy
2026-01-03 16:32:50 +0000 UTC View Post
In Nicaragua (where we just arrived) and in Mexico, Christmas Eve (Nochebuena in Spanish) is more important than Christmas day itself.
The bureaucracy in this part of the world can sometimes be frustrating, but we've generally had good experiences with port officials, who have usually been very friendly and helped us through the maze of officialdom with a smile. This time they even bought their nice dog with his little booties on!
Top tips for navigating these situations; Attemp...
2025-12-24 20:31:04 +0000 UTC View Post
In this video, I lay out what’s really going on aboard Tally Ho - it’s not all beautiful anchorages and cocktails on deck…
After a voyage from Acapulco to Huatulco, we talk about our route decisions, our challenging timeline, and the reason for our rush - and we have an exciting announcement about our next crew member!
Later in this video I go through our job list - revealing all the things that have broken or have never worked since we launched Tally Ho.
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2025-12-21 17:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Since Marine Traffic doesn't seem to be picking up our AIS at the moment (probably something to do with the shoreside infrastructure), here is our live location - we just left Mexico yesterday afternoon, and we are currently passing Guatemala on our way to Nicaragua and Costa Rica to pick up a very familiar crew member!
My schedule was a bit disrupted by departure bureaucracy so I didn't post a video yesterday, but I'm going to be posting it at the usual time today instead! Watch it to...
2025-12-21 13:27:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I want to shine the spotlight on a British boatbuilding business that means a lot to me; Butler & Co was my first real boatbuilding employment after my apprenticeship, and Ashley Butler and his colleagues became important teachers and mentors. Over the years I've gone back and worked for them on various different boats, in various yards, and I've always learned something new from the wonderful work that they do.
Butler & Co is still going strong with a team of traditional ...
2025-12-20 17:16:08 +0000 UTC View Post
We actually had a great weather-window right after my last post, having waited for a few days in the anchorage. We experienced almost a flat calm the whole way across - we are so bored of motoring, but in this case we were glad not to have the extreme Tehuantepac winds! During the 2 day crossing I saw more Sea Turtles than ever before - we probably passed 200, and had to swerve to avoid a few of them. We arrived in the night, which is not ideal timing in an unknown port, but is sometimes nece...
2025-12-19 20:24:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Playa La India - Part of Huatulco National Park, on the Southern Pacific Mexican Coast. We've made a lot of progress to the South in the last couple of weeks and should be approaching the Mexico/Guatemala border in the next few days, providing we can safely cross the "Tehuantepec" - a notorious and brutal local wind that funnels across a flat and narrow part of Mexico from the Atlantic, and is compressed and accelerated by mountains on either side.
The second picture shows the weather ...
2025-12-17 18:54:45 +0000 UTC View Post
EPISODE 235
In this bonus video, Nic and Joe take over the camera and document their experience of visiting us on board Tally Ho - taking us behind the scenes of the regular videos and picking up a lot of the interactions that never normally get recorded.
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Check out Nic's project restoring Argonaut II on his channel; https://www.youtube.com/@MV_Argonaut
...and support Argonaut II via Patr...
2025-12-13 15:20:11 +0000 UTC View Post...a far cry from the Pacific North-West!
2025-12-11 20:14:00 +0000 UTC View Post
In this episode we take a detour from our journey to spend a couple of weeks exploring part of the amazing Sea of Cortez - “The World’s Aquarium”, as Jacques Cousteau called it.
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Music;
Brooks Williams & Aaron Catlow - First Dusk
2025-12-06 16:09:45 +0000 UTC View Post
We've been doing a lot more of these recently - obviously this drill was in favourable conditions, but even then it was shocking how quickly one can lose sight of a big white buoy. I've also been upgrading our lifejackets AND we have been practicing getting an unconscious casualty back on board shorthanded.
Would there be much interest in a video dedicated to our MOB and other safety procedures?
2025-12-04 20:50:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Many of you will be familiar with the Underfall Yard in Bristol - a small but active boatyard that is a really important part of our historic waterfront. I started my apprenticeship here in 2010, helping to build one of the Pilot Cutters in this photo.
Underfall Yard was tragically damaged in an arson attack in 2023, and the building where I used to work was burned to the ground. The Underfall Yard Trust are raising money to start rebuilding the yard - work is scheduled to start in Dec...
2025-12-02 17:32:14 +0000 UTC View Post
The Baggywrinkles in the last post are of course for reducing chafe on the mainsail - they are made from "small stuff" (short bits of old rope) tied onto a longer line that is then wrapped around the shrouds that the mainsail rests on, and are particularly useful for long downwind passages.
There were many hilarious responses to my question, but probably the most popular was that Joe and Nic have been making some kind of replacement for toilet paper 😅
Meanwhile, here is a photo...
2025-12-01 20:27:35 +0000 UTC View Post
We've had another friend visit us in the Sea of Cortez - it's the wonderful Nic, of Argonaut II fame!
Nic and Joe have been making "Baggywrinkles". Do you know what these bizarre-looking things are for? I'd like at least a few ridiculous answers please 😅
2025-11-29 19:17:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Marit's friend and bandmate Mae also joined us for the Sea of Cortez leg of our trip, so we've been enjoying a lot of amazing live fiddle-music on deck!
...unfortunately I haven't been practicing enough to be able to join in 😅
2025-11-27 19:52:51 +0000 UTC View Post