Position: 14°17.939N/46°25.904W, Friday Dec. 2nd , 11:40 UTC
Today we'll clock the 2000nm. and we're 13 days at sea now so we're doing just over 150nm a day.
That would leave us another 5 – 6 days to get to Tobago so next Wednesday or Tuesday we should be very close :-) Saturday Clare and Elisabeth will fly in. Monday Kitty will then come over from Curacao so our timing is very good :-)
Shooting sights every day helps us keeping track on time and dates, otherwise I wouldn't have known … At sea there are just three times... it's getting light so it must be around 6 am, it's getting dark, that means 6 pm and you're starting to get hungry,... lunch time...
Also distance is getting a new dimension.. A trip of over a 100nm used to be a real trip! Crossing the channel is about a 100nm. Now, this feels more like a day sail :-o
Another thing is the constant motion of the boat. 24 hrs a day, non stop, the waves are there. Everything you do has to be synchronized with the motion of the boat. If not, well.... you bump your head, knee or whatever else or you gonna spill whatever you have in your hands... I know that last time I was at sea for 5 or 6 days, I really had to get used to the steady ground again. I actually felt seasick the first few hours. I wonder what it will be like when we get to Tobago. Although.. we will be staying on the boat.... there`re no marinas in Tobago, only anchorages :-)
But, I guess we'll be spending some time ashore too. The Island is very much worthwhile exploring according to the cruising guide and, after 19 days at sea, it will be fun to get to shore again too :-)
vrijdag 2 december 2011
woensdag 30 november 2011
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 :-)
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 :-)
maandag 28 november 2011
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 :-)
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 :-)
zondag 27 november 2011
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
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
zaterdag 26 november 2011
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.
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.
donderdag 24 november 2011
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...
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...
dinsdag 22 november 2011
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.
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.
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