Rijswijk, June 23rd, late...

It took some time but... I added a few pics to the ocean updates.
If it works out, I'll try and upload some video's too .. tomorrow that is :-)

Thursday, June, 21st ,Rijswijk Netherlands

After a long day traveling we're back to base...

We had a long stop over at Lisboa, so we took the bus and went downtown for a few hours.

 For me the only place so far I went before on my to the Caribbean. A bit strange, but still nice even though, to my recollection, it was a bit warmer last November :-o

We all have to try and pick up 'normal' life again. In many ways, this trip wasn't just a vacation.

Being on the ocean for 16 days, covering almost 2100 Nm's on a small boat with 4 different personalities that are there for different reasons and hardly know each other is an adventure:-)

It all worked out great though and for me it's another unique experience which I share with people that are very dear to me.

I'm very lucky anyway because I'm still not there.. Next month the final leg, back to Scheveningen, is still waiting. I guess then it will be way harder to adjust to normal life again. So if anyone has any tips to share, please let me know :-)

Horta June 19th

At last, the sun is back :-)



The world looks very different now and way better to remember for our last days at Horta !

Monday, June 18th Horta Fayal

Still raining... never thought off so much fresh water for free, no need to rinse the boat :-)

We got the paint to put our mural on the wall but with this kind off weather there's no chance it will last for more then a day. I guess this will be a project for Rutger and Eline when we come back in July.

Last night we had a great time watching the match at Internacionale, the local pub. Bruno had our table ready, in the middle of all dressed up Portuguese.. I brought my Dutch flag and my fog horn, just in case...

It was an exciting and fun match to watch! Especially the first 20 minutes :-)

Since none of us is really really into football, we didn't mind that they won eventually, and it was a great match to watch.

After the match we had some drinks and Eline had to buy Bruno and the rest of the staff a drink :-o

Today more rain … so we did some jobs on the boat, adjusting the belt tension, putting some new rivets in the boom rail and the vang. The inverter also broke down but they can't fix it over here...

Tomorrow we planned to go on a whale watch trip. However.. when we checked later, the trip was canceled because of the bad weather... another thing left to do coming back in July :-*

Anyway, it still is a nice place to be but we all are quite curious how it'll look when the sun is shining

Saturday, June16th Horta Azores

Tomorrow Frits is flying home so today was his day.

We rented a car to explore the Island. We first stopped over at Mid Atlantic Yacht Service to pick up some stuff for the boat. It's a small shop but very well equipped and very knowledgeable staff.

The sailmaker recently had a double bypass operation and not in the mood to fix my gennaker. Well we'll see when I come back in July...

We had a very challenging drive all the way up to the crater of the vulcano. The [dirt]road was steep, with lots of hairpins ad the higher we came the thicker the clouds, until we couldn't anything at all.Half way up we had a flat tire, just in a corner of the road... but with 4 guys we had it fixed in no time.. :-)

The crater itself we never got to see .. but anyway.. we drove on to the West point of the Island where we did see the lighthouse and the lava stream that ruined the village some 50 years ago.

In all we had a great day anyway, in spite of the rain that's pouring down for two days now :-o

Later this week the weather is supposed to clear but the occlusion front seems to be very stable.

Tomorrow will be an exciting night. we're gonna watch the football match Portugal - Holland in a local pub ..

our table is reserved :-)

Friday, June 15th Horta, Azores

This morning at around 7:30 am local time we arrived at Horta. It took us 16 days in all. 16 days of great sailing, no storms, only 2 showers and only 3 days with no wind :-)

After clearing with port control, immigration, customs and the police we were free to go to Cafe Sport for lunch. Walking on the hard again was not easy. The whole place sees to be wobbling all the time..

Right now  we're all sort of exhausted and in for an afternoon nap.. probably till dinner time :-)

Thursday, June 14th Position 37°45.172 N; 31°02.610 W

We're sailing again:-) After a day and a night motoring this morning at around 6am, the wind picked up enough to set the sails and get a decent speed. While setting the sails, we had some real rain, first time since we left the Caribbean :-)

We didn't see much wildlife either. Some dolphins and an occasional bird. We did see a lot of Portuguese Warships, funny little jellyfish, quite colorful, sailing upwind. We tried to catch one but that didn't work out. I guess I'm fine with that, wouldn't know what to do with it and how to get it out of the net …

We're getting close to Horta now. While typing we were called over the vhf. A Portuguese fishing vessel called for a chat :-) For us the first sign of life in 2 weeks...

According to my latest grib files, the wind will hold for the next 24 hrs., by then we'll be there.
So, next update will have some foto's :-)

Wednesday, June 13th Position 36°53.466 N; 33°40.766 W

The wind has dropped a bit and we started the engine to keep up the speed. The ocean is flattening and there's only a nice swell that easily rock you to sleep :-)
Since its very calm we fueled up a bit. All went well without spilling a drop, but wen I got the hose out, the little chain that's securing the cap broke and next moment it was gone..
I had to use one of the wooden plugs as a cap and added another thing on my to do list when we get to Horta.

We thought to be very lucky catching a real big fish. There was something serious hooked on, and it took a while to get it in. However, when I could finally sea it, it turned out to be a fishing net, and of course no fish in it... So, corned beef stayed on the menu...Today Eline will show us how to catch a fish. That's what she promised anyway... we'll sea...:-)

Our ETA is now Friday afternoon, providing the wind picks up according to my latest grib files.
Sofar they were pretty accurate, so hopefully we don't have to motor the last part of our trip.
With about 250 Nm still to go, we all are starting to look forward to make landfall. Obviously we're all in for a real long shower and a nice long night of sleep After having some drinks at Cafe Sport of course !!

It would be nice if we get there Friday. That gives us some days to explore the Island.a bit.
Eline and I already booked our flights to Asd. leaving the 20th . Frits and Arie have to check at the airport when we get there. Frits is looking for a flight on Saturday or Sunday so hopefully there's still an open seat. Arie is planning to stay some more days, I guess he won't have a problem to get a ticket.

Monday, June 11th Position 35°38.483 N; 37°27.002 W

Today we again crossed a time line and gained another hour. Officially that is.... I was supposed to cook dinner tonight but woke up late from my afternoon nap, so I decided to stick to the time zone and adjust the clock tomorrow. So, I was still n time and we didn't have to change the watch times.
Captains privilege, ha.

Last night we had the best night so far starwise. The sky was completely clear and bright. There were so many stars, you could hardly find the ones you know, amazing!!

After breakfast we changed the sails. The night before we put in the first reef and furled in the staysail, still doing over 6 kts. We took out the reef, set the staysail again and changed the genoa for  the gennaker. For some reason the gennaker didn't hold, it wasn't the wind really. Anyway, we ripped it and an hour later we were back to the sailplan we started with...
Well I guess shit happens and sofar we're very lucky weatherwise, so it's not a big deal and easy to fix.

Tomorrow we're gonna celebrate Eline's birthday :-) and of course I'll give her a call over the sat phone :-)

Saturday, June 10th Position 33°58.090N; 42°02.437W

Since yesterday we have real great winds. We're sort of sailing on the edge of a high that gives us a 15 kts on a beam reach. With all sails set, we're doing over 8 kts for hours, heading strait to Horta.

With only 700 Nm to go, the chart plotter already gives us an ETA, estimated time of arrival, of about 96 hrs. Providing of course that the wind stays like this.

Every day we're looking for a reason to celebrate and propose a toast. Today is fathers day, what more do we need :-)
Eline made us all a nice tie: for the dearest father of the whole ocean!
She also backed a raisin bread, for sure the best bread she made, delicious !!
Too bad I can't upload any pictures from here, but I'll add them as we come to Horta.

The nights are getting cooler by the day :-) but during the day, it's real nice and warm and most of all sunny. Clear enough to take some more sights :-)

Friday, June 8th Position 31°33.147W; 47°54.005W

This morning we had bacon and scrambled eggs with champagne to celebrate half way :-)
At around 7 am we hit the 1100 Nm. Last couple of days we had good winds and sailed on a broad reach, doing around 7 kts on average.

Lack of sleep is beginning to take it's toll. Last night all the guys messed up their watch timing. Frits sort of fell asleep during his watch, I woke up 2 hours early, disorientated, Arie only slept an hour ad too was told to go back to bed again. Later, when I woke Frits for his next watch, he told me he'd be there in a minute. But 2 seconds later he was vast asleep again....

So, I guess you can say that if it wasn't for Eline, we wouldn't be celebrating this morning :-)

In all I must say that Eline is one of the most complete and most competent female crew members that I had on board sofar !!

On the sextant part we aren't that lucky. Although the weather is fine, the sun is behind thin high clouds most of the day, keeping us from taking a clear sight :-(
In all the weather is changing. Getting more North by the day, it's cooling of at night. Last night I actually put on a sweater. Anyway. During the day it's still warm, if not hot, with a nice cool breeze.

Wednesday, June 6th ; position 29°55.629N; 51°35.418W

So far we sailed about 920 Nm. And another 1300 Nm to go.
Today and last night we had good winds and could make up for the days of motoring speedwise.
Last night we had our first meal with canned meat, sort of rubberish meat balls, hmm..
The toast on Scott's birthday made it okay though. However this morning we caught a huge dolphin fish. With joined forces we got it on board while I was handling the rod, Arie managed to hook it. The baby bath to kill it was to small though. It took more then a couple of blows on it's head and a knife to make sure it was dead. After I gutted it, Frits cut it into nice peaces, enough for 4 days.
Anyway, for a start we had a very an nice lunch :-) Of course we also had a toast on Marc's birthday.
As the day went by we changed sails a couple of times. We started with the gennaker and later set the staysail too. Then the wind veered and we had to loose the staysail. Afterwards we went back to the twin genoa's. It's keeping you busy :-)
We also took some sights today and worked out the pro forma's. Tomorrow we'll do the plottings. The sun's out and very hot all day but most of the time not clear enough to take a sight...  anyway, it's fun to use the sextant again except for Eline, she  could not be persuaded to give it a try too. She's sticking to the old fashioned GPS :-) and steered the boat while we were fiddling around with the almanac and reduction tables. She also made some more yoghurt, the best sofar!

Just when I was about to write this update, I was called on deck because of some rope we were dragging. Hmm,... we couldn't find a simple way to loose it so I decided to heave to and put on my swimsuit. Once in the water, it was quite easy to free the rope of the prop and within 10 minutes we were sailing again.

June 5th position 28°21.972 N 54°53.578W

We just gibed, after 2 days motoring through the center of a high we picked up a westerly and had a great day sailing, first with the genaker and later, when the wind picked up a bit more, we set the twin genoa's,,
During the motoring hours I tried to explain Arie and Frits the basics of astronavigation. That's not that easy, but with the help of some books we managed.
In the mean time Eline backed a bread. She turns out to be very knowledgeable in making your own stuff like making yoghurt out of yoghurt. In all she's very enlightening …as she proved by setting my hair on fire :-)

Arie too backed some bread. So far it's not eatable, hard like a rock but it might get softer next day or so..
Sofar we didn't manage to catch any fish, too bad because we ran out of fresh meat and are now down to canned stuff.
Later that day we had a surfing competition. Frits had set the speed record at 9.6 kts. Arie got to 9.1 and Eline 9.4. Time for me to set a better goal at 9.9 kts. Eline tried very hard to beat me while Frits was riding a real rodeo down below trying to cook dinner. Luckily he knows this game very well and could anticipate the turns and hold himself more or less
We decided to stop the competition to give Frits a fair chance in cooking. That is.. Arie and I stopped... Eline only pretended and very sneaky clocked 10.8... poor Frits.

Early this morning we decided to gibe and are now pointing directly to Horta. The wind picked up a bit more and now we're doing 8 kts average and set the speed record to 13.8 kts [Frits] The whole maneuver took a while and knocked out Eline. She's asleep now while Frits's teaching Arie how to surf better and I'm fighting my keyboard that got coffee soaked and now all the keys come up with random letters … argh

Friday, June 1st ; position 21º 52.345 N, 60º 12.064 W

The sail yesterday became perfect after all when a pack of dolphins came by and played around the bow for 15 minutes or so. Eline and Arie tried to take pictures.. only Frits got a whole dolphin and not just a tail or splash. But then again he was smart enough to film them ha :-)

We had dinner a bit too late. On the crossing to the Carib it was dark around 6 pm which was a good reference. Now it's not getting dark before 7:30 meaning we eat around 8 pm which is already during the sleeping time of the second watch :-* So starting today we'll eat a bit earlier.

The night went very well and with full main, genoa and staysail TC sails really well and very balanced.
Early in the morning we had a bleep on the Sea me. It took a while before we could actually see the vessel. It was a weird boat, no freighter or fishing vessel. If we had been around Venezuela I would have expect it to be pirates. The gave us right of way but there was no one on deck nor did they tried to contact us. Hmm, they didn't seemed anxious to be contacted either so we just waved and sailed on. Leaving Eline a  bit disappointed cause she'd love to meet up with Johnny Depp.

In the mean time we all get along even better by the day. We also get to learn each other pretty well. Sometimes to our surprise.. who would ever think Frits would like to eat muesli for breakfast and salad [which he made himself with some help of Arie] for lunch? Eline turned out to be very creative with food. To celebrate her parents 53rd anniversary she made special hamburgers on sesame sandwiches with lettuce tomato and cucumber:-) Congratulations Wim and Anneke !!   

By the way, even with lunch Eline was very creative with the waste and made Arie a set of Theo and Thea teeth from orange peelings.

I installed the shower on the swimming platform, after 3 days we all could use a bit of washing :-) Also it's a nice way to cool off a bit. It's getting real warm. When we sailed to the Carieb we went east – west, meaning that in the afternoon the sun was behind the main sail. Now we sail NE and the  sun is shining directly in the cockpit all day.

So whatever we need to do,we do in the morning before it get's too hot. This morning Eline and I cleaned the fridge while Frits and Arie were hacking the coleslaw... hmm next time … :-)

Thursday, May 31st ; position 19º 43.078 N, 62º 06.850 W

We left Ange de Colombier, St Barth around 20:30 UT after spending a beautiful day in a more beautiful bay. We thought to at least have one lazy day before setting sail for the Azores.
It wasn't all lazy however. It turned out the alternator wasn't working. After an hour or so we found the problem, a simple fuse .. :-*
I also tried to mount my new tricolor. However, when one bolt of the old one would not come off, I  decided to leave it. I didn't want to break something on the day we planned to leave. Still, working at the top of the mast, I just touched the propeller of the wind speed meter and it come off right away, completely dried out.. So all information on wind speed is an educated guess :-)

While Frits and I were checking the alternator, Arie and Eline prepared dinner, so we didn't have to cook the first night under sail.

We took off with a very nice breeze, around 16 kts, and had e wonderful sail! It pretty much stayed  the same so far, giving us a great speed. So far we do over 7 kts most of the time, except for the time we were dragging a fishing line with a couple of buoys.. Luckily I  could cut the line quite easy.
The night went smooth and fine. I decided to work with the 4 on 4 off watch system to start with, so that there would be 2 on deck all the time. We all felt more confident since it's a new boat for the most of us.
The sailing so far is very close to perfect!!, Nice breeze, sunny with some occasionally clouds, running close reach at NE course and all enjoy it very very much!!