Skipper's log

 Nassau  - Bermuda

Day 1 Left from Salty Cay around 10.30. Great to get going, we also had the best possible wind conditions, great speeds. The usual prior-departure fear and panic starts to fade away. Keeping an eye on the water tank leakage, its not something you want to have on a crossing!

Day 2 Discovered the floor of the storage room next to the bicycle as the best place to sleep. Nice scent of diesel and wet shoes, hard and relatively chilly floor, full overview of whats going on on the boat and minimum movement

Day 3 Emma says the highlight of the day was two huge waves which soaked us all in the cockpit. She was the only one who had gone down between the waves to change to dry and unsalty clothes. Todays noon report was epic DISTANCE COVERED IN 24 h 155 nm, which means average speed of 6.4 knots!

Day 4 Started log keeping, any info above is unreliable. Today the bananas got ripe and all fell down on the floor. Two highlights > 1. skippers quiz number one to celebrate half way to Bermuda reached in the night 2 visiting birdie resting on the reeling. Later the bird actually moved in and made a nest on the galley table. We called her Harriet.

Day 5 Until now, I haven’t had a night watch but have only been a back-watch for everybody else. This was changed today as I stepped in for 20-23 making the night shorter for the others. The effect was immediate, I slept really better, because I did it with good consesness. We entered a calm and had to motor through night. Gets on my nerves to motor, but it is well part of crossing an ocean. Sleeping on the deck next to the dinghy under thousand stars.

Day 6 Last night Emma woke me up because she saw a strange light on her night watch. “It’s a star”, I said, and went back to bed. The crew is doing great, I am woken up when there is something. Maneuvers go smooth, food is great, there is a lot to talk about, but silence is also natural.  Eva and I have a new tradition of a backgammon game in the evening. Observed tiny dolphins, but they were busy fishing and didn’t come to say hello.

Day 7 I have tied to emphasize the importance of fighting apathy among the crew. Eva learns to knit, good amount of initiative to fix stuff is taken, we are planning for a dinner where you have to dress up with something else than clothes (with maritime theme) I have given up with using email for weather, also grib file downloading mostly doesn’t work. Jelle sends me weather sms every second day and that’s alright. Miss looking at the data myself though.

Day 8

Arrived around 10 am and had an early morning to clear the deck, take down the two poles and prepare for both customs dock and anchoring. St Geoges turned out to be a really beautiful harbor with extremely friendly people.

Bermuda – Azores

Day 1

The moods are little down, guess we miss eva s company and we also start to wear off a little. Departure went smoothly in the end. Friendly customs officer (or her husband actually) helped me to pick up drogue from fedex on the other side of Bermuda. All in all, Bermuda was one of my favourite stops, people most friendly. Departure together with three other sailboats, all of them faster than us.

Day 2

We went good speeds, five to six knots and were hit by a squall and then calm at dawn again. Good day with Emma-quiz and training hour, cloudy and gray. We try with poled out jib, but there might be a night of motoring awaiting us.

Day 3

Most of the day under engine powers. Today we really have all kinds of weathers. Wore up for rain and gusty squall winds, after reefing down to third reef, wind gradually died and forced us to use the engine. Its not a good feeling to start burning diesel the third day. Afternoon was calm and sunny and there are thousands of Portuguese man-of-wars around us. Emma and I, we went for a swim and the sea is definitely cooler now. I am wearing socks, jacket and a hat during night watches.

Day 4

Drifting around without sails. Beautiful calm day, waiting for the wind which was due this morning. Emma made pancakes, don’t feel like starting the engine..

…and when I finally did start the engine, there was the weirdest noise and off it went again. After suspecting the propella (that’s where the noise seemed to come), and diving down to check it, I removed all engine covers and discovered that the dynamo had fallen off! Thanking all gods of diesel engines, this is something I can fix, and now Ford is running again and makes its usual humming. Normally I wear ear protection when motoring, but tonight I listen to it with the greatest pleasure.

Day 5

Figured out that both me, computer and shipslog had been one day ahead, and therefore the weather forecast never matched with what we had. Been quite useless today, just daydreaming most of the time by myself. Checked the dynamo once more, and engine in general, slept a lot, what a weird day. Wind came this morning and we are sailing again towards Europe. Eva sends black story riddles over iridium!

Day 6

144 nm in 24 hours. Love this wind! We would need to somehow sneak further north to be less exposed to calms, but then we would need to strip down mainsail and Philipp, the weather man warns about too high wind speeds further north too. In this point I prefer 40 knots to zero. We celebrated quarter trip point by sending a message in a bottle and eating Nutella with crackers (sort of a cake). I have all these fears of running out of diesel (we need to charge batteries every 2^nd evening) with further calms in the forecast. We have enough diesel, but I still have this fear. Another fear is that something more goes wrong with the engine. Its not likely, and it doesn’t help to worry about it, but I still have these fear. Third fear is how the crew will do, I personally feel exhaustion sneaking in even if I actually got a lot of sleep the last days.

Day 7

Today was a rainy day with, perhaps 3 m wave. Perfect for studying French! I try to study one French lesson from Philipp’s German speaking book every day. These kind of thigs you would never manage in real life. We also played couple of rounds of Wavy Carcassonne. First time since Nassau, we have to live with port-tack. That means that the heads, kitchen and everybody’s beds are uphill!

Day 8

Only two oranges left. A four day calm in the forecast. We prepare mentally, I try to think of things to do. Calms are demanding, because it means constant trying to sail and often failing, banging sails and swinging boat. Anycase, today was a great sailing day, close hulled, made a degree of northing. Emma saw dolphins. Had a short circuit on the fuse panel. Uncool, but problem fixed now..

We ve tried to fish, caught only plastic.

Its getting colder, Wearing a beanie in the night, and socks and shoes.

Day 9

We made it to 36 degs north were the coming calm should be a day shorter. A day of solid six knots straight towards Flores is great for moral. Something is wrong with our iridium balance. Left with 180 minutes from Nassau, now only 35 left! No more grib files or riddles over iridium, weather com with Philipp only. Planning “wear anything but clothes“ - dinner as halfway celebration (if we ever get there…)

Day 10

My day in the kitchen. Did nothing else today- no weather, no noonreport no fench lesson. Finally reached -the oddly calculated- half way mark! Baking chocolate cake for celebration resulted in amazing amount of cleaning (the liquid paste was all over the stove, the diesel heater, over and under floorboards…) and matching level of crumpiness. The atmosphere lightened up when celebration costumes made of sail bags and covers, billows and driftanchors were put on, the chilled drinks and special meal incl. the cake were brought out. The main course had to be made twice because one of eggs added in the final face turned out to be gone sour. Calm finally hit us at dawn. Chatted over vhf with s/y Nivana, a second sailing vessel we saw since Bermuda.

Day 11

Motored through gray night without any reference. A group of perhaps 50 dolphins kept us company. Managed to make only 25 nm in 10 hours with 4 knots speed. How IS that possible? We were steering in circles on featureless gray and black see. Switched engine off eight in the morning and tried to sail a bit. Ended up drifting until early afternoon, when Angela found me (I was sleeping under the working jib in the bow : P) and pointed out that the wind was picking up and that it was three hours in to my watch. With two poled out jibs, we goose wing through the blue sunny seas dotted with thousands pink and blue Portuguese man-of-wars. We went though any life changing future plans this trip has brought our minds, Emma made pizza and just before sunset we almost collided with a turtle!

Day 12

Nothing much happened, but we are sailing 6 kn directly towards Flores with two poled out jibs. That is great! We are sneezing all together, a few days since we run out of oranges. Time to find c-vitamin tablets. Planning the shopping in Flores already, food is an endless topic for discussion. Stuffing box seems to be leaking more than before. Discovered also that our fresh water in the first tank is slightly salty. The only explanation being the lid on deck not holding. Luckily we have the second tank kept separate and plenty left in canisters, enough for couple of weeks.

Day 13

After some investigations it seems that the water collecting in the aft bilge has flushed over to the kitchen bilge with the amazing rolling movements we have had the last days. The freshwater for the tab is taken from a hose which lays in that bilge. Guess that’s how saltwater got in to our drinking water. All bilges are dried now and stuffing box tightened salty waters flushed out of the hose and hopefully problem solved. We had couple of yellow fin tunas following us (we could see them through the wave), but none of them would go for the bate hanging on a line behind the boat. After a lot of rolling and goosewinging we hoisted the main to stabilize us and hope to keep it up for the night to allow good night sleep for everybody.

Day 14

Two weeks out at the sea, four days to go. There wasn’t much maneuvering going on today. Kiwi does the sailing and we take turns to keep an eye on how she performs. She does well, we have 30 knots wind and go almost six knots with working jib only. We have three meter wave from aft so shes tossed around quite a bit. Makes life ombord very interesting.

Day 15

It’s kind of an anniversary: we sailed from Tromso exactly one year ago today. And what a year it has been! Was utterly knocked out today, and useless. Good we didn’t arrive yet, would have not managed to go in to any harbor in the shape I was in.

Talked to an Austrian catamaran on VHF today to practice my social skills. Didn’t go so well. Think I showed too much interest in their fresh fruit and veggie stocks and they got scared surely thinking we were pirates!

Day 16

A lot of sail changes through night with wind picking up to 40 kn. Subsequently the skipper slept past noon and were woken up for another sail change and pan cakes. There was a lot of sailing going on today, strong southerlies turned in to strong northerlies. Angela and Emma don’t always manage cooperate which means if there is anything to do with the sails, it has to be me with one of them. Little frustrainting, but then again, this is something I cant really do anything about.

Day 17

Don’t manage to arrive during light hours today. Aiming for daybreak tomorrow. That doesn’t help for the mood. Everybody soaked and seriously ready for landfall.

Day 18

Went in early to find the cutest harbor ever. Lajos turned out to be very unspoiled and friendly and the island lush and green and full of blossoming rodorendons. We did some great hikes and had a good rest before heading for our next leg over the Atlantic.

Crossing Flores, Azores – Brest, France

Day 1

Had a slow start because I decided to wait for Camille who fly from Faial with the morning flight. The boat is desalinated and tidy, Camille is fun and a welcomed addition to our group. Think we were starting to grow little tired of each other. Winds seemed hopelessly low, but we had a good start with 4.5 knots to the right direction, dolphins and a leatherback turtle.

Day 2

Another day of light but sailable winds. Poled out both jibs in the morning and this is how we went the whole day. Adjusting to new watch system with 3 hour watches. I am happy Emma and Angel help with explaining stuff to Camille. A lot of sun! In the evening we were visited by minkie whales!

Day 3

Kiwis future (if she’s sold or not, or if we sail her next summer and where) is unsure. The decision to sail to Brest this time is solid. I cant handle further changes in the immediate plan. The plan has changed so thousand times during this trip and its wearing me out. Light winds picked up towards the evening, Jelle warns about approaching low pressures further north.

Day 4

So much happened today. Emma’s birthday. I had a cooking duty, made a cake and we played fun games : ). Sea is getting rough so we were splashed wet several times. We played Kim’s game, precision ball throwing on main sail, we had a knot competition and a winching competition. Some action like this always helps for the mood. Crossed ¼ line in the evening.

Day 5

Port tack with kitchen and toilet uphill is demanding. I am on kitchen sofa now, which is an excellent place for sleeping. Last night we had a weir encounter with a Dutch sailboat, which slowly overtook us. I had warned them on the radio about our position and course, we were anyway almost ran over by them in the middle of the night and had to change our course to avoid collision. In the morning we see same boat heading to an opposite westward full speed. On vhf they say they are fleeing from a depression and later asked if we had newest weather report since theirs was three days old. I told them there was nothing to worry about weather-vice, but excellent sailing winds. We didn’t see them turn back but can obviously expect anything…

Day 6

Out of movies to watch! I have fever and muscles so week that just standing makes them shiver. Snapped at Angela. With this wave direction we sometimes experience toilet products entering splashing up to the cockpit. Sailing sucks!! Almost collided with a cargo ship too.

Day 7

Half way this morning. High pressure arrived and we hoisted 150%genoa. Happily making 5 knots in big swell. Celebrated halfway with pirate costumes and some good games. Discovered broken babystay and had a very adventurous trip up the mast to remove it. I am not well, I am exhausted, my legs barely carry me.

Day 8

Got to sleep 4h in the middle of the day and feel much better. I woke up for laughter from the cockpit, best sound in the world. Evening brought finally the calm we have been expecting and we ended up motorsailing into the night after a great beam reach through the day. Worked with figuring out tides for arrival in Brest and on my jury Babystay.

Day 9

Gray day without much wind. Motorsailing throughout the whole day.  Not many words spoken onbord, Emma has lost her good spirits and has a broken back. Camille is full of energy. She and Angela are well rested it seems, and offer their help where they can. I am exhausted, but fine. Philipp wrote “enjoy the last days” in his weat0her SMS. That seemed like a joke, it feels like a survival struggle for me. Had some classical music on my driving watch and admired the gray desolated sea and tried to think how I will miss this scenery and how lucky we are to get to travel like this.

Day 10

Beautiful sunny day with extremely flat seas and motoring. We could see whale blowing in the horizont, quite some carbage and a gannet like bird with a fishing lure on his peak. Could say we have arrived to Bay of Biscay! Installed the jury babystay.

Day 11

Started sailing at midnight with very optimistically light winds. After 49 hours under engine we all were ready for some sailing. We are close hauled as hell and point to England, but also will not have enough diesel to bring us to France. We have to sail the wind we have. Angela has changed a lot, she takes great responsibility, is not afraid of taking initiatives and after Emma hurting her back, really contributes hugely onboard.

Day 12

We were followed by pilot whales today. Starting to doubt how we will make it with these non-existent or head winds. Rather horrible day. Broke 150% genoa.  I need to sleep, but there is always something to do or worry about. Thunder weather, turbulent winds on and off. A lot of work with up and down with the sails, on and off with the engine, no rest. Waves are violent and I fear more things will break. Ended up motoring most of the night even if I try to spare diesel.

Day 13

Much better moods today. Hoisted sails in the morning, wind lasted through the day and everybody got to rest. Waves are smaller and in the evening wind veered Northernly and we could finally point to Concarno with 5 knots speed. My jury-babystay works fine with the innersail. Emma is still dreaming of catching the ferry on Friday. I cant let any kind of pressure build on me now. My focus is to bring us to France before we run out of food, fuel and water and in good health and shape. Around midnight we arrived to the shipping route from English channel around Finnistere in Spain. Extremely busy on AIS compared to what we are used to, in reality, we have in times lights of one ship in the horizont to admire. The ocean is so big.

Day 14

Arriving to the continental shelf finally. Beautiful day with sunshine, closehulled, we sail slow but steady towards Concarnoe through and area with a lot of traffic. Had a bath in the cockpit and figured it is kind f chilly after all. We were visited by about a hundred pilot whales. They stayed a good while and we could hear their song through the hull. As it is in the end of any expedition or a trip of considerable length, the eagerness of finishing is shadowing the spirit of a good trip. We have done really well, but now it’s time to home.

Day 15
Approach was easier than I tought. Tide around Concarneau allows for us to enter any time of the day, something you really appreciate after 41 days Atlantic crossing! Land was sighted only 5 miles before reaching it, weather is hazy and hot and there are moonfish everywhere.