After a scary spell sailing through an electric storm, the Followtheboat team hoist their Code 0 ‘The Kraken’ and explain their choice of light wind sails

Battered by waves all year, the isolated island of Pulau Enggano is a dot in the Indian Ocean. Rain forest covers the high slopes of the interior, along with carefully-tended fruit and vegetable plantations. Every home has chickens and fishing is plentiful in this part of the Indian Ocean.

We had the friendliest welcome we’ve ever had when we landed the dinghy. The island is beautiful, abundant and self-sufficient. Tucked away on its own, unaffected by the rest of the world, Liz felt she could live here!

But we had to crack on before our visas expired, and managed some solid work from our Code 0, aka ‘The Kraken’ when we began the 200 nautical mile sail to Java and Krakatoa.

Apart from the electrical storms, inconsistent winds and losing our wind instrument after lightning hit the sea next to us, it was a good sail…

In this video we address the thorny question of light-wind sails. Which one (or more) is the most useful on a bluewater cruising boat?

“Code 0, code D, jib, genoa, gennaker, spinnaker, screecher, parasailor, to a non-sailor like me it’s all jargon. I’ll ask 10 people and get 10 different answers!”

We attempt to find the definitive answer to some of these questions…