Sailing Across the Atlantic Ocean part 1

So this blog was easier to do from extracts from my diarie to give you this best over view of our trip so far. Hope you enjoy, it's a long one though be warned 😁 Thursday 21st January We set sail from Marina Las Palmas Gran Canaria the 21st January 2016 at 12.30hrs. With the weather forcast set for light winds meaning we can nicely ease our self's in 😄. The first day turned out to pretty uneventful but tiring and guess what? Even the weather predictions were actually correct. Friday 22nd We decided to boom out the Genoa pole, this of course turned in to the usual pantomime what with jamming in the roller track and faffing around with ropes causing a little tension, but that dissapated instantly when we had our first whale sighting 😃 Two whales just suddenly surfaced about 4 meters from the port side of the boat and then disappeared again just as quickly. After scanning the Sea's for a short while we thought that was it and then along came another one. As Nigel said "I don't think It's was a case of we have seen the whales, it's more a case of they saw us and came over for a nosey. We eventually got the genoa boomed out, but at some point the topping line had come off but luckily Nigel spotted this before it got dark so we were able to sort it with relative ease. The night was beautiful tonight with calm seas (although still making 3.5 to 4 knots) and an almost full moon making the night very tranquil. Saturday 23rd Early this morning while I was sleeping Nigel was entertained with lots of dolphins playing around the boat while altering the sails. We have at last made the decision to make Barbados our land fall (as long as we don't need to call in at Cape Verdes that is!) for a couple of reasons really. 1, it is more difficult to get back to that island from the others, 2, Gemma & Jonathan want to come visit us there, 3, our friends Sally & Jim are there, always good for a laugh and musos too so Nige gets to jam with them. 4, It sounds too good to miss 😃 We have been making better speed today which is good although slightly off to the west but making the most of the winds. We had some success with the tiller pilot (Billy) after doing the unthinkable and getting Nigel to read the instructions 😜 (Bloody Cheek - Ed.) As I wondered if it needed calibrating but apparently he was a little on the sensitive side (Billy not Nigel lol) so after a upping his sensitivity level he was up and running again. Great news. However the bad news is that Nige spotted the wind vane (wayne) bracket has twisted. We are going to need to 'Heave to', so that Nigel can hang off the back of the boat to realign this. We are going to wait till we have calmer seas plus we've had such a busy day already. Beanbags: We bought 2 huge beanbags (you might wonder were the hell we would stow them in a 36ft boat lol? shhh don't tell Nigel but so did I at first) There were two other sailing couples involved in our decision in buying these bulky and yes, luxury items. While in the marine we were moored next to a boat called Skye, who are the support boat for the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge. (in other words people rowing across the Atlantic 😲) anyway they had these bean bags on deck and looked like they were proper chilled out on them, we got chatting about them and Manfred the skipper was saying how he would not sail anywhere without them as they were the comfiest thing on his boat and that his body felt a good element of relaxation when sailing (because as any sailor will tell you you are constantly tensing and moving with the boat when sailing) and that if it was rough he also had a space were he could sleep on them without being bashed about and basically said he felt like a king sailing around on his beanbag lol 😂. The other couple that helped me, urrmmm us 😆 in the deciding factor where our friends Sally and Jim on SY Chaos. They had just sailed across the Atlantic and Sally had written her blog about the trip, it sounded quite arduous with been chucked about with alot of rogue waves and squalls. So after reading her blog these beanbags suddenly became very appealing and gave me a great argument for us to obtain a couple. 😇 Nigel was a little reluctant at first (Understatement - Ed) but soon came around to the idea. Luckily for us Manfred had actually bought them on Gran Canaria from a friend and and he even picked them up for us bless him 😄 As I said earlier I had no idea where we were going to stow them as they looked much bigger than the ones next door, that's because they were new! But like everything I soon found a home for them. So are they working for us? OMG absolute big fat yes! 😁 We can only actually fit one in the saloon but it's the most comfiest place to sit when underway, that really does give you respite from rolling from beam to beam whist sailing. Even Nigel keeps saying how wonderful it is. So there you go would we recommend beanbags on a boat? most definately now. I'm just excited to use them in the Caribbean on the foredeck drinking pina coladas 😃 Oh and on a practical note that probably only a man would say is "that if we needed air lifting off the boat, they are a nice SAR orange colour. We could also tie them off and float them next to the boat for higher visibility as they are bright orange and float".😉 Sunday 24th January We both slept a little more this morning, we're obviously still trying to find a pattern that suits us both. I noticed that during the night we have gone to 4 hr watches which can only be good for us as only 3 hrs sleep during the night really is a killer. We have had lovely calm weather all day and managed to maintain 3 to 5 knots throughout the day which is good as we have now covered just over 300 nm (nautical miles) We are 10% of the way there 😉 and appear to be averaging just under 100 nm a day. Monday 25th January Well it's been a bit of mixed bag of a day really and very very long one! There was a little excitement this morning when the AIS target alarm went off as we haven't seen any other boats for a couple of days and this was a sailing boat called Viking. Nige tried to call them via DSC and ch 16 but there was no response which was a shame but hay ho, it gave us something to look out for for an hour 😜 Then we saw cargo ships on AIS and then in the afternoon the target alarm went again there were 2 boats following one a cargo ship and another sailing vessel. It's now 22.20 pm and the sailing vessel is on the same track as us but sailing around a knot slower so continues to remain about 10 miles behind us! It has been like bloody picadilly circus round here today 😅. So Wayne the wind vane is definitely not going to work 😢 parts of it have come loose and have moved by quite some degree. Nigel has been working away with Billy again as he is still not quite spot on yet. He is trying to get the programming side of it correct to settle it down. At the moment he has had some success but if the sail backs up it send him off again (which apparently the book says that he will do this 😕) Sleep has been eluding me today even though I have felt so so tired I could not sleep 😪 Maybe it's because we have quite big rolly Seas which make life a tad uncomfortable the only truly comfortable place is on the beanbag 😊 but alas one has to share 😣 and really, staying in the same place all day is a no no anyway as you need to stand and move. Believe me when I say having to sit around all day everyday is no fun! At sunset we put 3 reefs in the main sail and half the genoa ready for the night it's 11pm and were still making 5+ knots so we are definatly making headway 😊 Tuesday 26th January What a start to Tuesday! Nige woke me up at 4am as it was now my watch although I'd had a crap sleep and really struggled to get up 😔, everything seemed fine after I had done my checks albeit still very windy, bumpy and rolly. No sooner had Nigel got in bed when all of a sudden I could feel the boat whizzing off to an odd angle, after checking the COG I quickly reallized the main autopilot had kicked out. I darted up the companion way shouting to Nigel to help and tell me which way we had to go, anyway long story short, after my initial panic and neither of us realising the wind had shifted we did eventually get the boat to settle 😥 that is after a little hysteria from me of course 😆 although in my defence Nigel telling me that this is how we could end up putting the boat on it's side really didn't help! Oh and if that was not enough when Nigel was snuggling himself back up in bed I spotted it was only 3.30 not 4.00 😲 Nige was really apologetic though and really thought it was 4am when he woke me, and did offer to let me get back in, but of course I was far too awake after such an abrupt start to my watch 😩 (We have two clocks on the boat. One on UTC is 1 hr ahead. -Ed 😕). Even though the main autopilot tripped out Nige realised that with such strong wind changes that most autohelms would trip out Anyway, it was good to see that we were covering 100 nm a day now and that we had done just over 500 nm. We decided that we were on a good course and had picked up the trade winds nicely, heading for the Caribbean. But still with at least a days opportunity to veer off to Cape Verde if needed. We both favour going straight to Barbados all things willing. So gin clear seas, golden beaches & pina coladas are our driving point 😃 Mid afternoon the winds had abated a little and Nigel wanted to try Billy again just as I got comfy with my rug making 😠 anyway, skipper needs his boss mate 😁 so I went to help. (WTF is a boss mate? Ed.) After setting Billy up Nigel wanted me to stay at the helm to watch for him tripping out. At one point I spotted the wheel slipped quite some distance making Billy throw a wobbly which with my quick action was able to save him from kicking out 😆 With this I realised that maybe Billy was not at fault all the time with kicking out if the wheel is slipping Nigel agreed, which would answer why he wasn't working properly here and there (another rum barba for me awaits me Barbados for spotting that one 😎) He rigged something to prevent the wheel from being able to slip but with quick release With finding this out Nigel is now happy about proceding straight on to Barbados. The Sat phone is playing up again today we can only get one bar of signal! Which is not good as we had email we wanted to send and more importantly weather to download! Try as we might it was useless, thank god we could get one bar so we could send tx with this abysmal signal strength. Nigel was able to contact the meteoligist, Steph to send us weather by SMS text. One thing we needed to know, was if the wind was in our favour to cut some of the corner off to head towards Barbados. After a couple of ping pong texts, all looks good for us to do this. 😉 We also recived a text from Asprin & Ann Louis (our sailing companians on SY Cassie) with his cordinates saying all is well. It was a bit of fun to plot on the chart where they are in relation to us. Which is 135 nm away and much further south than us as they're heading direct for the Cape Verde Islands. The wind is dying down at the moment which is nice, a bit of respite from the excessive rolling. We have also done the first 1 hr of turning the clock back to account for the daylight change. Exciting that we have done our first out of the 4 hrs that is required 😁 At around 7 it was pitch black out you could hardly see your hand in front of your face, but the star gazing was pretty fantastic I've never seen so many.😊 Wednesday 27th January Today has been pretty uneventful just rolling around, although we are making good speeds of between 4.5 and 6.5 averaging 5.5 most of the day and on into this evening Nigel calculated we should be arriving in Barbados in around 19 days give or take a day if we keep up this pace. Thursday 28th January Nigel handed over to me that he has spent his night watch 12 till 4 cleaning bilges and sourcing a leak which like everything at the moment is no easy task on the boat. He eventually cleared all the water (salt) but found it was not coming from the engine. And then he anxiously looked at the stern gland (we had so much trouble with that a few years ago we don't want even think about it) Phew, it was' t that 😥 He eventually found that it is coming from the new stuffing box on the rudder post. He informs me that it is a steady drip and should be able to fix it in the morning! What a relief water inside the boat really is a nightmare. The day is getting worse. 😢 After breakfast Nige fixes the leak the best he can, it's still weeping but manageable. While he was doing this I was having to Billy sit again as the sail kept backing and of course Nigel needed the main rudder to be still whilst working on the gear. It's good job I was there as Billy kicked out about 3 times and the waves are getting bigger 😨 (force 6). After a job well done (we thought 😝) it was time for a well deserved cup of coffee. Just as we had taken our life jackets and lines off, I kept hearing a clunking sound, Nige was like it's just a block clattering on the deck. After hearing a couple more times I was unconvinced! So Nigel went to investigate. To our dismay and horror the wind vane rudder had come off and was litteraly held on with a tiny rope lanyard! We had to retrieve the rudder immediately, this was going to be tricky and risky as Nigel would have to go down the back ladder to try and tie another piece of rope to it before he could cut the bit that was holding it on. (Bear in in about how big the waves are getting that I have just mentioned) I ensured Nigel was well and truly secured on with several lines (my man was going nowhere!) While trying to time the waves with the decent down the back ladder,it soon became apparent that trying to attach another piece of rope would be pretty much impossible. I saw that the boat hook might work, Nigel agreed and the quicker we could get this damn rudder on board the better. After I had gingerly retrieved the hook from mid ships, Nigel had to do his dare devil manover over the back again. While we were watching the huge waves to pass by I couldn't help myself but to ask how he fared at "Hook-a-Duck" as a child. 😆 Nigel looked at me and could not believe I had just cracked a joke but he couldn't help but laugh anyway, while watching the huge almighty waves approaching. Well his hook a duck manouvers where not lost over the years, he hooked it first shot. Then it was over to me to grip on to said hook with heavy rudder with dear live while the sea was tossing me side to side. It took some effort to hold on but Nige soon had cut it free and it was on deck 😥 I have to say Nigel was so brave hanging off the back like that in the huge waves we had. (Puff puff, clear throat, ahem, - Ed...lol). After this we decided that we should definately try and aim for Cape Verdes even though it would not be a fab point of sail on a 90 degree beam reach, but we would make it to the Cape Verdes in 2 to 3 days. What with the wind vane not working, and now the wind vane rudder that is required for the tiler pilot, (which by the way had totally sheared off not by the pin but the whole solid post 😲) we were definatly now reduced to 1 out of 3 self steering systems and the main auto helm is 20 years old albeit does work very well (but what if! Handballing 24/7 doesn'nt bear thinking about with only 2 of us) Then we have the leak from the stuffing box in the main rudder and the sat phone does' nt work properly. It's is all stacking up against us 😩 So our heading is now 170°.We will head for Mondelo and fix the leak,repair the wind vane rudder. To say we were pissed off is an understatement. 😟 Friday 29th January Thankfully nothing much to report today except the motion of the boat is very hard going we are broad side on to the waves making for extreme lurching. We have had countless waves in the cockpit and hammering into the side of the boat plus it is almost impossible to do an eyeball look out as you can't see over the waves 😕 All being well we should arrive in Mondelo tomorrow night but will have to heave to for the night as entry into the marina/anchorage is not advised in the dark. Saturday 30th January The waves have continued to be relentless all through the night and pretty much continued that way until early evening. Although we did see what seemed like hundreds of dolphins at around 14.45 (time for my inner 5 year old to suface 😁) they were so much fun to watch in the waves, we took it in turns and managed to sit in the companionway to watch the show. They were amazing, using and playing with the waves to propel themselves along or perform some spectacular jumps across the crests and diving under one side of the boat and coming up the other side. With the large waves, it really was quite mesmerising 😊 We decided that we would have showers on board with lovely hot water warmed by the engine, as we would be in the marina tomorrow. Very much a luxury as we have heard mixed reviews about the drinking water on the Cape Verde Islands. But by god, to wash my hair after 8 days felt bloody lovely 😃. (I joined in the celebrations by donning a fresh pair of underpants. 😀 Ed. ) It's now 21.10 local time and we are just short of 13 mile away from a point where we will Heave to for the night before heading for the marina in the morning. I'm so glad the waves have died down as the watches need to be much more vigilant now in case of fishing boats. It is now 23.00hr I am on watch there is a slight eerie feel to the nightair with a light howl to the wind and it is pitch black, but yet where only 12 mile off shore with only 6 mile to go for our Heave to waypoint. Where is that moon tonight to act as my guiding torch? As someone has obviously forgot to turn the lighthouse on! (Welcome to Africa- Ed.) At least we can rest up after tomorrow and have a full nights sleep 😉 Sunday 31st January We are now safley moored up in Marina Mondelo relaxing and drinking coffee with our lovely Norwegian friends Asprin and Ann Louis. We have decided that as we have just sailed 250nm to get here, then we will also stay for the carnival next week. 😁

#2016 #Atlanticcrossing #Sailing #GranCanaria #Dolphins #Repairs