Crossing the Atlantic - The First Half
25 November 2019
Lorraine and Chris Marchant
Here we are at the start of our Atlantic crossing. The Cape Verdes are at the elbow of our route line opposite Senegal. Our voyage to the Verdes from the Canary Islands was 804 miles, this current journey to Grenada is the whopper at 2180 miles. On the screen shot of the chart you can see a red circular marker which is Jobiska, the blue diamond markers are our waypoints showing quarter, half and three quarter distances to be achieved along the way, far to go at the moment.
16/11/2019
Sailing goose winged under our genoa and biggest jib started us off well particularly as the wind dropped later into the 10-12 knots band which is not much use for downwind sailing, 15-18 knots would be grand. Despite the drop in the wind the sea is even more rough and lumpy, perhaps a spin off from foul weather elsewhere or from previous days, we did have some strong winds in harbour. By nightfall the wind was steadily increasing and by midnight it started rounding up to 24 - 26 knots so we had to reduce sail. We dropped the jib and reefed in the genoa, this took the strain off the rig, gave a slightly better ride but still kept us going fast through the night in these strong winds. Never keen to make this kind of sail change in the dark but needs must. With life jackets, personal GPS transponder and a harness hooked onto deck safety lines under a good deck light it works pretty well.
17/11/2019
We had started out in the company of Dveke, a 13 metre Danish yacht and Moroia, Swiss 11 metres. They were both gybing down the wind as they were using their mainsails which doesn't work that well for downwind sailing as they keep pulling the boat round trying to turn up into the wind. We were with them for most of the last 24 hours but they are further north than we want to be now and have disappeared from our AIS. The sea swell is really high with rushing white horses, we'd like it to calm down, it's quite wearing.
The wind has dropped a bit and settled at 19 - 21 knots which is quite strong enough for us. We have the goose wing rig in operation again but with a smaller jib poled out on the main boom and the well reefed genoa on the spinnaker pole. This is working very nicely as the boat is well balanced and giving us an average speed of 5.8 knots. There has been some sun but more often cloud cover, not the trade wind puffy polls but great grey spreads moving with us and sending rain showers occasionally. Ah but it's warm.
18/11/2019
Well it seems that the wind is tending to speed up at night as we had another increase up to 24/25 knots last night and had to drop the small jib. Jobiska is still careering along at 6.5 sometimes 7 knots with a heavily reefed genoa on the spinnaker pole and nothing else. Our last day's run was 143 miles which is not bad for a 38ft yacht, average speed has crept up to 5.9 knots so we are making up for the slow patch we had on day one. It's sunny today and the solar panels are making lots of power together with the towed generator which is working frantically at these speeds.
Unfortunately the Atlantic is not being too kindly. There are very big cross swells which one expects here but they are also very steep causing a good old jerk as the boat almost falls diagonally off the top of the wave instead of sliding sedately down. Thankfully apart from attending the rig there is not a great deal to do but every task needs extra concentration because of the sea state. Hot meal preparation feels dangerous at times when the cooker has a wild swing on its gimbals. Foods such as pasta involving straining off boiling water have gone on the back burner (forgive the pun) until the sea settles down - soon hopefully. So it's keep calm and carry on, strap on the galley bum strap and stay alert.
We've just had 30.5 knots (see gallery for a shot of this) dropping to 26 and now 25, it's not easy to move around and difficult to sleep when it's like this, normal necessities become a chore. A jar of mayonnaise becomes a lethal weapon hence at lunch times it is strapped to the mast support post which goes through the table. It is too rough and wet to eat outside as there is plenty of splash into the cockpit.
19/11/2019
Another sunny day. The wind has hardened off and we are getting it in 2 blocks of about equal amounts both of which are keeping the sea quite rough, lots of high swell and white horses still. The 20-23 knots we would like to drop down to 15-18 but it is still totally preferable to the 23-25+ knots that are very tiring. Of course, when running before the wind as we are the effects are much less dramatic than if we were on a reach or tacking which would be a very unpleasant kettle of fish. At least we're getting the speed although with less wind we would have smoother seas and could also get more sail out so it would probably make little difference to the speed.
A Japanese fishing boat, 58 metres, showed up on AIS but too far away for us to see it in the flesh as it were. Strange to see a Japanese fishing boat here, we think it is too small to be after whales, probably a tuna boat as they are having trouble with levels of mercury in tuna in home waters. Apart from the two yachts we left Mindelo with this is the only other vessel we have seen.
Chris did his usual round of inspections this morning, checking for chafe, making sure we haven't lost any split pins, checking pulley blocks and the rig in general. He took down the Cape Verdes courtesy flag as we are now coming out of the Cape Verdes basin. He found three flying fish on deck and a medium sized squid on the cockpit floor which must have been thrown in by a wave. He arranged burials at sea. At these speeds in this rough sea we don't want to do any fishing as the idea of dealing with a large thrashing fish and having to prepare it for the fridge in these conditions just doesn't appeal. Making bread, cole slaw and hummus is difficult enough at the moment!
We've had three pods of dolphin visit, racing at the stern, leaping and diving at the bow. One pod were small, brown with pinkish speckled bellies. The other two pods were the large almost black dolphins with big dorsal fins, more athletic than the little brown guys. We also passed through a school of tuna that were jumping high out of the water. Not sure what was after them, we don't think dolphin as we understand that dolphin and tuna often hunt together. Our other visitors are two shearwaters which are following in the vicinity of the boat and come in closer at night, another reason we don't want to fish as we know shearwaters will dive for the lure having accidentally caught one in the past - extremely upsetting for both parties. We've seen about 6 petrels which are such tiny birds looking fragile in these big seas but they are supremely agile and fast, not at all phased by crashing waves. Beautiful creatures all.
20/11/2019
It is 02:30, 50 miles to our first quarter waypoint marker. That will leave 1635 miles to go. Must be time for a cup of tea.
The morning has brought a bit of a wind change and at last we are getting the 15 to 19 knots we have been hoping for with the occasional spike up to 20/21. The sea is starting to calm down but it will take a while as the strong winds have been so sustained. Our shearwaters are still with us and petrels are still about but we have seen little else other than flying fish. Flying fish are such a good colour when flying but dull when found on deck, we also do not like their odour.
21-23/11/2019
The better wind continues, seas have slackened, white horses infrequent now and as predicted this has made little difference to our speed. It is starting to feel like proper trade wind sailing, altogether a more peaceful life on board, able to move about more easily and deck work such as sail changes and inspections much less intimidating. We can haul water on board properly now so we're able to have full sea water baths and hair washes rinsed off in fresh with the deck shower which has been wonderful. No water maker on this boat so we can't afford to use up our valuable fresh water supply on cleaning out things like coffee pots but today we made some real coffee as we're now able to deal with the spent grounds easily, just the smell has been a treat let alone the drinking of it.
Shearwaters are still with us but not sure if it is the same pair. We are nearing half way, should make that by morning but for now goodnight.