Friday, January 17, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1797NM WSW of Mindelo

Finally sailing fast again! In the evening, we set the mainsail into 1st reef, and overnight kept rolling in more and more of the genoa. At sunrise, we swapped it to the staysail and put the main to 2nd reef.

With that setup, we’ve made good progress west. There have been some squalls, but they’ve mostly missed us. The combined sunshine and fast sailing have also replenished our batteries quite efficiently.

Seas are a little bit confused with the varying squally wind directions. I actually fell on the floor from the saloon settee while making some video edits, as a wave broke under us. No damage to me or the laptop. But it looks like the wavetrains are starting to settle on a direction now.

We’re in daily contact with several boats currently doing this passage, and the speculation on the best landfall option is currently quite active.

• Distance today: 125NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: oven feta pasta

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1672NM WSW of Mindelo

In the night the squally conditions continued until the early hours of morning. Then finally we settled to clear skies and low winds. With both headsails we had no unnecessary flapping in our sails, so we slowly made our way forward. The same continued till about dinner time when a small winshift gave us the opportunity to raise the mainsail again and be on a starboard tack with true wind angle in 130°.

As Carribean gets closer we have been putting more thoughts into our arrival. Barbados would be the closest, but it has no protected anchorages, Martinique on the other hand has several, but is further away. The long time prognosis gives us a fair bit of wind for next week and beyond, so having a secure anchorage may weigh heavier on the scale. The online-only check in process for Martinique is also an added bonus as after this long voyage dealing with bureaucracy straight upon arrival might be a bit much. Instead I dream of a long uninterrupted sleep in a boat that only gently rocks and doesn’t roll.

• Distance today: 87NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: pea soup

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1585NM WSW of Mindelo

Due to the close by squalls, we decided to switch for the white sails for the night. What followed was a pretty perfect night sail under the full moon and some puffy clouds.

Morning followed with pretty much the same rhythm, but then in the afternoon, the area of squalls finally caught up to us. We managed to not get rained on, but there were still some quite strong puffs. And in the meanwhile, the base wind kept dropping.

With that, we were left with quite frustrating conditions: big rolly seas and light winds. Too light to keep the mainsail filled. The wind speed would’ve been fine for the Parasailor, but with squalls all around us, we didn’t dare to risk it. But at least we saw a rainbow.

We moved the ship’s time by one hour again today to realign sunset.

• Distance today: 107NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: tofu cashew curry

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1478NM WSW of Mindelo

In the morning the sleeping off watch was awoken to take down the Parasailor. A series of squalls were approaching and they can bring with them a fair bit of wind. The first came while the parasailor was up and with it, the wind went from 7 to 22 knots in seconds. The rule of thumb is, squall without thunder is up to 25kn and with thunder up to 50kn of wind. We got the parasailor down , with what by now is a good routine and hoisted only the staysail instead. With the following squalls we saw winds up to 28knots.

After the squalls had passed, the wind basically died down completely, so we decided to leave only the staysail up as we drifted along bobbing up and down. As the wind slowly started to fill up Suski rolled out the genoa and when Henri was awake again it was time to hang the parasailor up to dry.

• Distance today: 90NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: navy bean soup

Monday, January 13, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1388NM WSW of Mindelo

The night went quickly on a fast broad reach, with winds gusting up to 25kt. In the morning, we rolled out the genoa to wing on wing and continued along our course.

Seas are again quite big, but most of it is a long, gentle swell rolling from the north. Now we’re considering whether to continue with the white sails as the winds trend downwards on when to again hoist the Parasailor. Such things are best done at watch changes, which means either now or at midnight.

On such a long passage there is also time for some maintenance work. Yesterday, we retied the spinnaker halyard knot to get rid of some chafe. Suski also re-soldered the broken charging port on our logbook printer. And we have even been able to remotely debug some Signal K setup issues on another boat crossing the Atlantic a few days ahead of us. Remote debugging on the open ocean, awesome!

• Distance today: 130NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: spaghetti with tomato sauce

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1258NM WSW of Mindelo

At midnight we dropped the Parasailor and continued with wing on wing, main on 1st reef and genoa partially rolled in. The nearly full moon guided our way nearly until sunrise. The moon is so bright that it obfuscates the stars nearly completely. Only the few brightest ones are visible now.

During the day the wind died down a bit but as it is expected to pick back up for the night, we decided to continue with white sails up.

The distance to destination number has changed to mere 3 digits, so clearly progress has been made!

• Distance today: 136NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: bibimbap

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1122NM WSW of Mindelo

In the evening we ran into some lighter winds, making the night a slow but comfortable ride. Sea state had also quieted significantly. At sunrise, a milestone: we reached the halfway point of the trip. 1066NM behind, 1066NM ahead.

The off-watch was roused accordingly and the halfway point celebrated in the traditional manner, providing both for the sea, the vessel, and the crew.

Slightly afterwards wind shifted and picked up, and now we’re back on direct course towards Barbados, pushing ahead at almost 6kt.

• Distance today: 115NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: macaroni casserole

Friday, January 10, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1007NM WSW of Mindelo

The lighter conditions have us running with Parasailor for now. The first reversed watches took a bit of getting used to, but it is only fair that Bergie gets to enjoy the sunrises too.

Today’s excitement came with a passing catamaran Beachcomber as we passed only with 0.2 nm distance. We radioed to each other well in advance to make sure we have seen each other. We decided to take this opportunity to get some photos of each others. Havel vibes indeed!

• Distance today: 125NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: mujaddara

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 882NM WSW of Mindelo

The wind started picking up just as we were having dinner. Once the pancakes had been consumed, we put the Parasailor in its sock and bag and hoisted the regular white sails. This was prescient, as it was gusting to 25kt most of the night. We were first on a broad reach and then later wing on wing.

By morning, the wind had reduced again, and we changed back to the Parasailor. As we’ve had some trouble getting the windvane to steer accurately with it, we are now back to the electronic autopilot for the moment.

When sailing across oceans, you typically move the boat time by one hour every 15° of longitude. We’re now at nearly this point, and so at noon, we switched to UTC-2. This should again align the sunset and the dinner time. We’ll have another timezone switch still ahead of us before Caribbean.

We also decided to switch the watch schedules around. Now Bergie will cook, and Suski will get the dishes. Suski will also get the darker of the night watches, though this is less drastic now, as the growing moon stays on the sky for most of it.

In the afternoon, we saw a sail on the horizon. This fifth boat spotted on the trip was Lady Blue bound to Martinique, gybing across our bow. We had a short VHF chat. We’re also occasionally hearing Lucky Winny and Sawubona on the radio, so it’s getting crowded here in the mid-Atlantic!

• Distance today: 129NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: pea soup

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 753NM WSW of Mindelo

As the sun was setting we changed to Parasailor and gybed. The night flew by as we glides through the ocean guided by the moonlight, which now extends to also Bergie’s watch. Over the night we got sargasso weed stuck on our hydro and servo rudder. “Release the salad!” echoed in our heads as a reminder of the epic CCCamp2019 trip where we ventured with our previous boat Curiosity, together with Kumikana and Julchen. Curiosity swimming deeper than ever with bilge full of beer and drinks and Kumikana loaded full of food as the official “breakfast mothership”. Then too various seaweeds would tangle themselves to the props of our outboards and periodic “salad removal” breaks were called upon.

Progress under Parasailor has been excellent and the mood onboard is good. Both of us have been sleeping soundly under the gentle rocking of Lille Ø.

• Distance today: 132NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: spinach pancakes