I must go to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and star to steer her by.
-John Masefield-
('Sea Fever', 1902)
Middling the pond
I get a weird feeling of satisfaction when I remind myself (and others) that this is my third Atlantic crossing. One south, one north and now one last one in the middle. Yet, I'm more nervous now than what I was when I crossed the Indian Ocean and the previous Atlantics. Youth and inexperience made me feel indestructible and immortal. I must be getting old. I try to forget the size of our next ocean, the last one and the biggest one. The Atlantic crossing from Cape Verde to West Indies is just over 2000Nm, the Pacific is no less than FOUR TIMES that distance - just over 8000Nm! Jeesusbloodyhell!
BLOG!?
Right! Here's how it works. We take off to the big blue. I write every now and then, a few lines, if I feel there's something worth writing. I send my e-mails using a 7-year-old Toshiba laptop, a 10-year-old Pactor modem and a 25-year-old SSB radio with a piece of copper wire for antenna. If any part of the setup dies, I will send nothing. My point is: Don't expect anything. My radio-e-mail goes to my friend MV, who will upload them to this website whenever he has nothing better to do. Mostly he has better things to do.
Atlantic Blog
10 January
Firstly, SOOOOOOOOORRRRYYYYYY...... Yeah, I know, got a bit slack there with updates. I told you I'm not much of a blogger. We obviously made it across and now sitting in Falmouth Hbr, Antigua. It's nice to be in two places at once, after all, we are in Antigua AND Barbuda. ha ha. Below is an update of the "blog" but there will be more shit dribbling appearing with appropriate links in the article list on your left.
The crossing was near-perfect. A HUGE thank you for Dave M. for the forecasts. Total distance 2138 Nm, total time 18d 4h. Average speed 4.9kn. A few very light squalls. Zero "real squalls". Max wind 25kn. Max swell 2.5-3m but only for a few days. Biggest complaint: wind directly behind plus rolling made it difficult and forced us to sail off-course a lot. Teasing the boat the minimum wind angle made a constant headache from the "banging" of the genoa, as it momentarily was left in the shadow of the main due to roll. Yet, we slept well and ate exceptionally well.
Day 10: 116 Nm (Good Sailing with wind eventually dying)
Day 11: 121 Nm (No wind, motoring, lovely weather though)
Day 12: 110 Nm (Sailing again, with a lot of roll and wind up the ass)
Day 13: 113 Nm (Light and rolly at night but good sailing during day)
Day 14: 114 Nm (Nice, boring, lovely and warm)
Day 15: 117 Nm (Lovely sailing but now the question is....
Day 16: 119 Nm can we make it before dark on Wed 7.1.???)
Day 17: 120 Nm (No comments, just staring at the ETA on GPS)
Day 18: 141 Nm (Thank you Yanmar!)
30 December
The SSB connections are getting better and we've been checking the weather for New Years Eve. Must be dry to launch all the fireworks and reasonably calm to have a good party. Must be sunny for the solarpanels, so we can play music all night. And so on.
Yesterday was the kind of day that is the reason for cruising. Little swell, 15kn on the beam, air and water 26C, blue skies and sailing quietly at 5.7kn. It was all good until about 4AM when the wind died, leaving the sails shutter the mast and rig and making sleeping impossible. Genoa in, one reef in main to calm it down, engine on, speed up to 5.4kn, back to bed. What the hell, we've got 300 litres of fuel and the old Yanmar only drinks 1.5 per hour. There is more wind forecast and at the moment it looks like we might have a near perfect crossing.
980 miles to go, ETA in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua in 7 January if good winds, 8 January if light winds.
28 December
(last position on 28 Dec at 1800 UTC: 18'North, 41'15W)
Day 6: 115 Nm (Perfect sailing at day, light squalls and rain areas at night)
Day 7: 117 Nm (Same again, early evening superb, but night filled with rain and roll.
Day 8: 107 Nm (Now same reverse. Day in showers, light winds and clear sky at night)
Day 9: Started with a good downpour of rain, followed by sunshine and no wind. I jumped over the side to have a look at the hull. It was surprisingly clean, except the prop. I scraped it clean and we went on motoring. Water and air both 26 deg C. Lovely. Fatty pizza for lunch. Gintonic. Rain ahead and still 1200 miles to Antigua. We've been naked for a week now, day and night. Yeah, it's starting to warm up and too much salt and sweat on the skin can be irritating. I've started putting talcum powder in my... you know...areas... feels rather nice, you know. ha ha. And it got rid of some pimples on my bum.
I thought I'd lose some weight at sea but Annina keeps making really decadent food with tons of cheese and cream etc. Can't ignore the healthy supply of cold beer in the fridge either... Catch ya!
26 December, 1000 UTC
Sorry for not "blogging" much. I'm not much of a "blogger". Here's the update:
Noon 21st, Day 1: 100 Nm (some motoring in calm)
Noon 22nd, Day 2: 97 Nm (still light winds)
Noon 23rd, Day 3: 132 Nm (25kn and swell growing but all going well)
Noon 24th, Day 4: 137 Nm (Passed the point opposite Cairns)
Noon 25th, Day 5: 115 Nm (A two-meals-size Mahi Mahi with our xmas present lure)
Not bad for the old lady. Aliisa is happy and moves along with ease and comfort. Fresh 20-25kn NE trades, occasionally some 3m swell but mostly less. Some light squalls / rain areas but in general the Atlantic has been fine so far. We've been heavily reefed down for comfort. A couple of reefs in the main takes the pressure off the helm (autopilot) and Aliisa seems to be keen to reach 6kn even then. Sure, a positive current is helping us.
The big Simrad AP12 does most of the steering as the little Simrad WP32 tends to over-work in a following 2m sea. Both excellent machines and the big one much stronger than me. Right now the wind is light and inside feels like a rolly anchorage. Very comfortable. Night watches are a breeze. The AIS keeps a watch, the off watch sleeps in the aft cabin and the on-watch sleeps in the saloon bunk. I've let Annina do her full 10 hours in bed. She likes her sleep and I'm restless and up every 1/2 hour anyway.
Xmas eve was candle lit. Spanish tin meat - the best kind - with oven baked garlic potatoes and red wine. Presents: Box of Lindt chocolates (thanks Annina!), a bag of multi purpose mini-clamps, tin of butter biscuits and a squid-lure. (Thanks Amy and Symian from Sy Quartermoon!) Today I had to play with my presents and threw in the lure. I had a strike-alarm set and held together with those multi purpose mini-clamps. Just one hour later I was filleting a 4kg Mahi Mahi on the back deck. You beauty! I made a speech in the honor of the fish who gave his life for us. Then we ate it with garlic and herbs, mash potatos and white wine. Chocolates for dessert.
At the moment, there's no better place to be than 18N latitude, westbound. (long 36deg45' @1000UTC 26 Dec)
The 26th dawn promises a fine day. I hope for more sunshine. Until now, the sun has spent a lot of time in hiding...
21 December
Nice start yesterday goosewinging ourself out. Just west of the islands wind died and seas went horribly sloppy and standing up. Three swells and a current. Motored off and continued under power until late night. Now sailing just under 4kn. Slow, comfortable,light winds, day breaks cloudy and the night was very warm and humid. We slept naked and well, which is a first for us at sea since leaving Finland.
20 December 2008
Believe it or not, Mindelo harbour in Cape Verdes had a functioning wi-fi. To the point: We are departing. A little nervous, yes. We hope for not too many squalls and shit like that. Forecast is good for the first two days and after that it looks like more blustery and possibly some rain too. Christmas will be spent in 25 knots of wind unless the prognosis changes. I will let you know in a few days...
12 December 2008
After a blustery but fast passage, arrive in Mindelo, Cape Verde. 150 litre water bladder broken with all contents in the bilge. No other problems. In fact, that wasn't a problem either. There is a marina here but it's too expensive for us. First at anchor and now in a local's mooring for about 5 euros per day. Winds in the harbour have reached nearly 50 knots in gusts, due to the acceleration over the mountains. Locals are friendly and first impression of the place is lovely.
7 December 2008
The first night is always the quiet night with both of us sleeping and feeling a bit ill, getting used to things. First 24hrs made us 112 Nm, a respectable amount for fully loaded Aliisa in winds ranging 6 to 18kn. Annina watched a movie in her morning watch and went back to bed. Dolphins and Sun are both out and though the water is still "only" 21C and the air "only" 22, the feeling is good. Gentle 15kn ENE and still dancing along at 5+ knots. Fishing line is in. I want a Mahi Mahi! 685 miles to Mindelo, Cape Verde.
6 December 08
Finnish independence day. Aliisa is ready to go but before we pull up anchor, it's time to hoist a full size flag of Finland up the port spreader and blast Jean Sibelius "Finlandia" out from the cockpit speakers. I was impressed with the volume and so was the rest of the anchorage.
We took off at 11am under completely overcast skies. After two hours of "charging the batteries" we continue in search for blue skies, under sail. Water temp 21 C, air 23.7 C.
1 December
The morning started with apologetic smiles: "Good morning. Sorry about last night..."
Still in the small, crowded and over-priced marina of San Sebastian, La Gomera, Canaries. I went looking for a hardware store for some last minute bits and pieces but instead I found only a chinese shop full of cheap shit. Came home with a €10 set of outdoor LED christmas lights! What's wrong with me?
November ended with a bang. A beach BBQ without the beach. Sym, Amy, Simon, Lindsey, Annina, me and Shackles-the-cat. At the end it got a little blurry but I'm sure the other yachts in the marina will remember our performance for a while.
