Warmer and warmer ...

Position: 14°12.250N/39°53.924W, Wednesday Nov. 30th , 03:45 UTC

Today we crossed the 37½° longitude, meaning I had to set the shipsclock back an hour again :-)

We are not only getting further West everyday, we're getting further South too, and that we really notice. Just North of the 14th parallel, we're in tropical waters now. During the day the temperature gets around 31°C and at night it doesn't really cool off much. It stays about 25°C, which is very nice ;-). The water too is about 25°C so everyday we have a nice and warmish shower on the foredeck, still salt though :-o

When we left the Canaries, I had to put on a sweater and my shoes at night, now a T shirt is more than enough. This night, during my watch, some dark clouds came over and it started raining, not very hard, but enough to get wet... However as, soon as the rain stopped and even before the clouds were gone, the warm wind dried my shirt in no time.

The wind is very steady between 15 and 29 kts and coming just North of East. So, on our course over ground of 260°, it's a dead down wind sail. During the day we have the two genoas goose winged and the mainsail. The two genoas sail like a spinnaker but are more robust and more easy to trim. At night we drop one genoa and pole out the remaining one. That gives us a window of about 30°-35° to sail in. That's works really great. However sometimes the wind picks up a bit more and usually shifts then. Than the waves come from a different angle and that can give a very sportly course to steer. Like last night....  after a while I decided to trip the genoa from the pole and go to a more comfortable beam reach. By that time Marc and Jur also were awake, so we also gibed … it was a really rocky course... :-o. By now, these kind of manoeuvrings are a piece of cake, even at night. The beam reach wasn't that easy to steer too though, until we furled in the genoa a bit.

Today Rutger made an inventory of our remaining food and drink supplies. With about 8 or 9 more days to go we're fine on everything, on bread we're more the fine, with still 18 left :-o

We could have gotten  some more bottled water though, with the water in the tanks we are fine. That is, as long as it stays there... I just went to take a nap before my evening watch when Marc was doing the dishes and then he called me.... there wasn't coming water out of the tap.. ? The water pump was on....  it could be that the starboard tank had gone empty, but all of a sudden no water at all is very weird.

When I checked, it turned out that the hose of the nanometer was loose....  We had turned on the pump for washing the vegetables for dinner. Normally the pump stops when the pressure is on again but when the hose with the nanometer is gone, the pressure never gets there and the pump doesn't stop.... pumping all that was left in the tank into the bilge …. :-(

So we lost about 60 liters... The good news though, is that I have two separate water tanks and that the remaining port tank of about 150 liters is still full. Also I had just cleaned all the filters today, including the one of the bilge pump so pumping the bilge was done in no time :-o

Anyway, we're still fine on everything and if it comes to it, we also have the watermaker :-)

Half way... :-)

Position: 14°27.664N/35°55.519W, Monday Nov. 28th , 16:15 UTC

If the wind stays like this we'll be half way by dinner tonight !!

By then we´ll be 8 full days at sea. That would be about as fast as when Marc did the crossing 5 years ago. Since last night we were following a yacht. That was really nice, we could steer at his stern light :-). Early this morning we overtook her. Mala came from the Cape Verdies and was heading for Barbados. We talked a while over the vhf. She wasn't going that fast, flying only her mainsail but they found it more comfortable that way..

Anyway, we set the other genoa to goose wing with the first genoa. With the mainsail too, she sails more steady and with good speed. We actually have more sail then with the spinnaker but this is more robust and easier to trim. I'm glad I have rigged all these lines and sheets so we can fly whatever sail combination we want :-)

Yesterday we finally caught two dolphin fish. After loosing the fish several times two stayed on the hook. Rutger professionally killed them and put them in the fridge. It was my turn to cook. Because we usually eat in the dark I thought it better to filet them.... otherwise it would have been a spitty meal loosing all the bones... Marc wasn't that excited at first about eating the fish but when it came to it he really liked it, as we all did by the way. I cooked it with onions, spring onions, garlic and mushrooms, served with rice and a fresh cucumber/tomato salad; it was a great meal :-)

Tonight Marc's gonna cook. To celebrate the half way milestone he'll make hutspot :-o Well, with the champagne, I got for the occasion,  it'll be another great meal  :-)

1000 Nm

Position: 16°27.418N/31°30.746W, Saturday Nov. 26th , 21:35 UTC

Today we hit the 1000 nm milestone :-) For Jur, Rutger and me the first time we sailed such a distance in one trip. To celebrate this I backed pancakes with bacon which we ate with honey :-)

Today we also had to start fishing, the last bugers had gone off and we let them go...
It didn't take too long before the rattle started going but unfortunately the fish let go... it must have  seen the burgers … :-) That happened a few times today so we ended up eating a delicious carbonare cooked by Rutger.

Jur by the way had some more luck with the fish.. when he went to the foredeck for a shower he came back with a flying fish that had landed on deck.

Rutger and Marc played a game called: I see, I see what you don't see and the collar is …
After an hour or so they finally decided that this was not a very good game to play on a boat mid Atlantic...

Anyway, the weather is great and tonight the sky is crystal clear full of stars, the wind is okay and slowly backing to NE and we're on our way to the next milestone, the half way passage

One third ...

Position: 18°00.742N/29°06.394W, Friday 25 Nov., 20:50 UTC

We hit the 900 nm today, meaning we have covered about one third of the distance to Tobago. In 3 days or so, we'll have our midway party :-)

Jur has already definitely won the beard competition.... I had a shave this morning. Marc and Rutger are still in but Marc should better quit too … it's going nowhere and it's not a pretty show :-)

All the manoeuvrings with the gennaker and poling in and out the genoa are going very smooth by now. At sunset we dropped the gennaker, also getting ready to give way for the Elandsgracht, a Dutch coaster that crossed us. She was giving way but passed us close by to call us over the radio. I didn't get the message at first but when I asked to repeat it, they told us there were 6 (ARC) yachts ahead of us …  and wished us a safe trip.

Just before dinner we could shoot Jupiter with the sextant and then Wega, Denheb, Polaris and Capella, .. our first planet and star sight :-)  Good I have the book on how to do these calculations. We got the pro forma's, but the calculations are different and Marc nor I would know how to do them without the book.

Dinner was the last one with fresh lettuce and meat. The mince we got was frozen for us but only for half a day so that didn't last very long. The fridge started to smell a bit and we dumped 3 packs of mince and 1 pack of chicken. The burgers were still okay but won't last too long either.

So, as of tomorrow we'll be on tinned meat and fresh fish... hopefully.

Back in time

Nov 24th, Position: 20°24.230N/26°20.046W

Yesterday we set the shipsclock another hour back so the first watch, mine, was an hour longer. But that was okay since it was only one hour... The new system is a bit more complicated but we all feel it works better. We all get to sleep some more during the night and that does make a difference :-)

Taking sightings is going better too. Yesterday Marc and I did took two sightings and plotted our position. We came as close as 8 nm! Also Rutger took some sightings and his plotting was very accurate too :-)

In the mean time, our average speed has gone up to 7.5 kts. That's good for over 180 nm  in 24 hrs!!
We haven't seen any ARC yachts yet. I guess most of them aren't fast enough to catch up our head start.
What we did see though were two whales. Jur spotted them as they were cruising about 200 m behind us. Rutger tried to film them but on the camera you can't really see them :-(

We also get to see a lot of stars at night. Most of the time it's very clear. The good thing is that you can point on a star. That's way better then looking at the compass the whole time :-)
With help of  'Stellarium' on my laptop we now know where Betelgeuze, Rigel, Aldebaran and Capella are :-) I could steer at Sirius for quite a while last night. And of the planets, Jupiter is always there.

Last night Marc also saw a huge freighter or containership coming at us with over 20 kts... They also saw us according to the sea-me.... They had to give way but didn't seem to do so. So Marc called Jur and me on deck to get ready to gibe. Then they sort of stopped but still holding course... and gave me 5 flashes, meaning: alert, wake up!! We gibed ..  What had happened probably, is that our echo was misinterpreted. On radar we look like a freighter too with the sea me.... As a freighter we should have give way but we didn't... so they stopped their engines... getting a bit pissed too I guess. Being a yacht and sailing however, they should give way but since they had no clue on what we were, they didn't... They could have known though. We didn't have a steaming light and our speed was 'only' 7kts. Anyway, after they passed they went full throttle to make up the lost time...

Early this morning Rutger spotted a – empty –  horse shoe, probably lost by a yacht ahead of us. So we might have been caught up after all...

Energy....

Tuesday, Nov. 22nd , 18:10 UTC. Position 23°55.585 N/23°07.216 W

The log reads 428.6 nm so you can say we're well underway :-) We're steering 210° heading for the trade winds and doing about 160 nm per day. The weather is still very fine and also the nights go good too. With help of the manual espresso machine Marc brought as a present and the energy drinks we took along, it's not too hard to wake up for the night watch. Still, we decided to change it to a 3 hr schedule with 2 hrs overlap so we all get to sleep at least an hour more.

This morning we had some bad luck with the genaker. We had just set it when the wind picked up. We were already on our way to drop it when a gust came and ripped the genoa. We could get it back in and it's not badly damaged but we can't use it anymore before we make landfall. We still have the one from Marc and also the spinnaker, so we're still fine.

Then the genoa didn't want to furl in. The leading eye the rigger fixed in Puerto Calero was gone ?
Anyway, this time Marc went up the mast and with a little slack in the halliard it works fine again.

Later we all used the shower I made. That works really fine and is very refreshing although the water is quite warm. Showering with salt water is something you have to get used to though. The first few times it itches after a while :-)

This afternoon I wasn't feeling too well so I had a good sleep and that helped a lot. Marc in the mean time shot the sun and worked out a position. After some recalculations the YES !! was there... meaning he was right on target. After I woke up I took a sight too but I didn't get to do the calculations yet …

Anyway, the plan is to take daily sights and get some more practice. If it works we will use them to navigate going west.

HeySailing the ocean :-)

Monday, Nov. 21st, 14:30 UTC. Position 26°20.540 N/21°11.360 W

We're 2 days at sea now and are having a great time! The weather is nice, warm and sunny although the cockpit is a good deal of the time in the shade because of the course we steer.
The wind is about 15 to 20 kts which gives a very gentle breeze if you sail down wind :-)

Life on board is starting to get into a rhythm. We do 4 hr watches from 7 pm to 7 am having 2 of us on deck. During the day everybody can steer, sleep, read or whatever else like playing with the spinnaker or sextant.
After lunch we have boat check and do a daily cleaning of the galley, heads and cockpit.

We all cook in turn and the one who's cooking also does the dishes so whatever mess you make, you clean it yourself :-) To prevent dehydration we all have our own water bottle that we have to drink each day.

So far everything works okay although the wind direction meter decided to go his own way. Most of the time it gives a random direction … :-o Instead we now sail on the wind vane at the top of the mast.

It's really nice and peaceful and we very much enjoy the sailing. The motion, the sound of the water  and the boat …. :-) Last night we saw another yacht going the same direction of course, but also a freighter that was going East. Apart from those  two we only see dolphins, not that many so far, but it is always fun to see them.

I guess we'll have to start fishing again in a week or so. By then the fresh meat will have run out or gotten off .. Well, we'll see, we have plenty of other stuff we can eat. So far we've been too busy :-)

PS Mascha and Leonie, Jur did get your text messages on the sat phone

La Palma continued...

After Jur and Rutger stowed 18 boxes of food, drinks and other stuff, we sang for Laurens :-)

In the mean time, Marc and I got the last things and had the meat frozen. That took a while to explain but with the help of a dictionary it all worked out.

After lunch we toured the Island a bit. It was a great trip all the way up to the top, Roque de los Muchachos., 2426 meters high and bloody cold, 5°C.

The road had the most hairpins I ever saw but the view was great... from time to time that is.

We drove through a pack of clouds too and then we could only see for 10 meters max.

Anyway, la Palma is for sure the most beautiful Island of the Canaries. Forests of pine trees palm trees and a lot other combined I never saw before. Also the rocks of granite and lava were astonishing.

After we came back and returned the car, we cleared the last few things, topped up the diesel and had a bite to eat.

And now we'll slip the lines and are heading for Tobago :-)

So the next updates will be with no pictures but as soon as we have a decent internet connection I'll add some …

La Palma …. happy birthday Laurens

The sail to la Palma was great. God winds and nice weather. So for Marc and Jur a god trip to get used to the boat.

The marina at la Palma is owned by the same company as in Puerto Colero and as good, with lots of room :-)

The next day, Marc and I did some shopping while Jur and Rutger cleaned the boat and reorganized the lockers. It took us 5 hrs to get all the stuff except for the meat, we'll get that today.

Luckily they will deliver it to the boat. Otherwise we would never be able to get it all there. The car we hired is way to small.

Today is Lauren's 19^th birthday :-)

So after he gets back from work we'll have a skype session and sing for him :-)

Then, when we stowed all the supplies, we'll have a short trip around the Island and after dinner we'll set sail for the Caribbean. Last night we talked through the plan and the way we'll organize the watches, cooking, cleaning and stuff. We all feel very comfortable and are more then ready for it.

Nov. 15th... waiting for Marc ..

Yesterday Jur arrived and this morning Marc would fly in but he decided to take the evening flight :-o

Anyway, we're about ready to take off. We'll go to La Palma first to let Jur and Marc used to the boat before we do the crossing.

In the mean time the technician that would have a look at the windlass was able to fix it so that's great news :-)

We also had a SNARC-event. All the sailors from the boats in the bay went to the beach to have a So-Not-the-ARC drink. That was really great. There are people from all over the world. Most of them started a trip for a year or so but that was 3 to 7 years ago :-)

It's nice to talk to those people and listen to their story's. We had our own story too of course, about the rescue in A Coruna..

Anyway about all the jobs are done and when the last item I ordered comes in tomorrow, we can set off for the next leg :-)

Nov. 11th Las Palmas

We left Gran Tarajal and sailed to Moro Jable just another 20 nm south. We had a sort of race with Mike and Alexandra. The wind was kind of light and they were overtaking us... So we set the genaker and were catching up fast. Then we entered an acceleration zone and we sort of took off :-) still, we had to drop the genaker, the wind was to strong. With one reef and the genoa we still made over 10 kts. Mike and Alexandra had to much canvas and had to bare away, so we won :-)

Next morning we left for las Palmas, Gran Canaria, a 60 nm trip. It was a great sail, sunny, warm and with a great 15 kts of wind. I knew there was little chance we would get a berth in the marina because of the ARC. Actually there was no chance at all... :-o

Just north of the marina is an anchorage though. That too was kind of crowded but we found a nice spot. The anchor seemed to think differently though... it dragged. So after Rutger hauled the anchor by muscle power, cheered by the crew of the next by boats, we found a better place also according to the anchor... it held perfectly.

Next morning we rowed to the marina and found a place to fix the outboard. You can row in a dinghy but that's just for emergency... Manjana it would be ready...

Next thing was to find someone that could fix the windlass.. Also I needed to have the gascanister filled.... well first things first. One thing I learned is that you just have to take things as they come nothing gets to be planned.

Anyway, next day we went to pick up the outboard and it was fixed. It make's a lot of noise for some reason but it works. Getting the windlass fixed was another thing though. Because of the ARC all the mechanics were too busy.

We spend the time to reorganize the boat a bit more. We need to stow a lot of stuff for the crossing, stuff that needs to stay dry too.

We also had the chance to clean the outside of the boat from the dinghy. After I finished I could use a bath too so I jumped out of the dinghy and had my first swim :-o The water was great, clean and warm but, has it's own inhabitants like ... jellyfish... This one was just a tiny one but stung like hell. I got out of the water and put a sponge with vinegar on my arm. Since we had just reorganized the whole lot I knew were to find it :-)

Getting the gas canister filled too turned out to be not possible. There is this Disa company that does gas but the filling station is about 20 miles south. You can't take a gascanister in a cab and if you'd rent a car there's still no guarantee they can or will fill it...

According to the pilotbook there should be a service station in las Palmas also. So next day Rutger and I spend the afternoon exploring the town in search of this station. We had a great walk through the place and did actually find the station. The manager told me to bring the canister so he could have a look and if possible it was no problem to fill it. Since it was already 4 pm we aggreed I'd come back next manjana. When I did, he wasn't there and the others had no clue. If I would come back in an hour they would get in touch with the guy I spoke to yesterday...

Anyway I had to get to pick up some stuff at the chandler y, which hadn't come in yet... manjana or worse.. Monday, because manjana is Saturday... Being there though I ran into the mechanic and if I would leave the windlass at the shop he would pick it up and check it.... :-) Well, we'll see.

Anyway after I returned to the gas station, they couldn't help me. They weren't allowed to transport my canister because it's not a local one … If I would bring it myself... to the airport they would see if it was possible to fill it but.. no guarantee . Well whatever, I'll use the camping gas I also have.

We'll just have to take things as they are and happen. Maybe the windlass gets fixed after all.. manjana... :-o

Adrift

Nov 5th - We left Puerto Calero Nov. 4th heading for Corralejo, Fuerteventura. The wind was westerly and about 20 – 25 kts. So on a beam reach we made over 8.5 kts of speed over ground. The sailing was great!

However with that speed we would be in Corralejo in less then 2 hrs.... We had been too long in the marina for so short a trip. We decided to keep on sailing and go to the next place on our list: Puerto del Castillo. At around 4 pm we went into the narrow channel leading to the marina. I knew from the pilot book that the marina wasn't too big so I called them by vhf... no response... We went up the channel anyway. No response isn't that uncommon..

The marine was indeed kind of small and looked kind of crowded, too. I was already having second thoughts on entering, because the 25 kts of wind was on the beam and would leave me little room to manouver. I called them again  and again; no response. Then I realized it wasn't 4 pm yet and thus still siesta time.... We went up and down the channel until they were awake again. This time I got a response …. the marina was closed ….  well, whatever … So we set sail again and sped to an anchorage, Pozo Negro, just 9 nm further South.

The anchorage was nice but desolated.  About 6 to 10 houses on the shore. We stayed for the night and I cooked dinner for the first time this trip … pasta with tuna sauce :-)

I had looked at my watch for the log and had seen it was Saturday … meaning we had to get to a supermercado to stock up. So next morning we left Pozo Negro sailed to Gran Tarajal, a short trip of about 15 nm., a real sort of town were we could do some shopping.

The marina at Gran Tarajal is also not too big and most yachts anchor just North of the marina in a beautiful bay. There were already several yachts at anchor. We found a nice spot, but not for long... the anchor dragged and since the windlass for some reason had given up on us Rutger had to pull the anchor in by mussle power... :-o We found a new place, but again not for long... this time it was my turn to haul the anchor in.... :-(

Third time it held..  We launched the dinghy to get ashore. It turned out the windlass had a companion in failing; we couldn't get the outboard started. The pulling cord was jammed. I got that fixed but nonetheless it wouldn't start :-(

So we rowed ashore.... By that time we were in for lunch … I didn´t want to leave the boat by itself and the dinghy by it´s own on the beach, so I went to do the shopping while Rutger would keep an eye on things.

When I came back the dinghy was gone...  so was Rutger … I saw the boat a bit further offshore steaming up to the beach … ? I saw Rutger dropping the anchor and then another yacht came along side and I saw Rutger rowing over with another person...

Later, when he picked me up from the beach, he told me that when he went back to the dinghy he noticed that the boat was further away. We had the boat all the time in sight when we had lunch. I even took some pictures and all seemed okay then.

Anyway the anchor did drag again and was about half a mile away. Since Rutger could not see me coming back yet, he took the dinghy and started rowing. A yacht that was just leaving the bay gave him a tow. It turned out that the first yacht had noticed that there must be something wrong, no one would anchor that far from shore and when they called there was no response from us. They notified the people at the marina but by that time Rutger was already back on board. The people of the yacht helped Rutger out in steering the boat while he hauled in the anchor.

Anyway, all went well and we invited the couple from the yacht that helped us out over for a drink. It turned out that we had met Mike and Alexandra before in Oeiros and we had a nice chat. They're sailing the ARC by the two of them.

While Rutger rowed them back later, I let out some 10 meters more of anchor chain. You would expect that 30 meters of chain in 5 meters of water should do, but the 'sand' over here is more like gravel - very loose and not very holding... Well, everyday is a school day I guess :-)

All set again :-)

Yesterday the rigger finished his jobs. He also closed part of the hatch of the anchor locker. On the front the hatch was completely open, meaning that every time we had a serious wave over, the anchor locker was filled with water in a split second. The self draining holes aren't big enough to let it all out in time for the next wave so over time the bilge got filled also :-o

In the mean time, Rutger and I got to tick off a lot of jobs from 'the list' and cleaned the boat inside out and  now we're all set for sailing again.

So today we'll leave Lanzarote and sail over to Fuerteventura to hop down the East coast. The wind is West so that will give us some nice and sheltered anchorages. In a few days the trade winds will be back and then we'll hop over to Gran Canaria.

It will be daysails mostly with also time to snorkel. There are some nice reefs out here according to the pilot book :-)

Change in plans

Sunday night Phil and Kim came over after dinner and we had very nice evening. They're planning to go cycling next year first 6 months in Argentina then Europe and after that they want to go to New Zealand. So there won't be much sailing for Phil then anymore... :-o

Anyway, when the rigger came on Monday to change the fitting of the halliard he was done in 15 minutes. However, since he was up the mast he also checked the rest of the rigging and it turned out that the inner fore stay was broken. Apparently the 40 kts coming down here had taken its toll.. :-(

Well, we can't cross the Atlantic with a broken stay. It's not hard to fix that but not on the spot so the plans had to change.

Andy had to be in Las Palmas on Wednesday to get there in time for his flight home and we couldn't sail there. So he booked a flight from Lanzarote to Las Palmas for Tuesday.

Well that was the end of his trip... we all enjoyed it very much. The 6 weeks were quite eventful and looked way longer, until it's over,.... then it seems only a week ago since I picked him up at Schiphol.

Rutger and I spend the whole day cleaning and doing all kind of little jobs. Also we got the inner fore stay off and it was definitely broken.

Wednesday, the rigger will come over to pick it up and hopefully Thursday the new one will be ready. We'll see. In the mean time we'll reorganize the boat a bit to get it ready for the crossing, we have to stow a lot of things then.