Diary of the passage

 So, we are still in Jolly Harbor in Antigua, we spent the day and the night in the marina. It was a lazy day yesterday and calm and a peaceful night. We cleaned the boat a bit, find the laundry service and had a good dinner in the evening. Today we are leaving the marina and are heading towards English Harbor, where there is a big Christmas party tomorrow that we don't want to miss.

Here below is the diary of our Atlantic passage, as it was written every day through the journey. I'm still gathering some pictures and thoughts and there will be more posts about the passage in near future.

Preparations

Guys were finishing boat project and preparing the boat for the ocean and Mirjana and I did the provisioning. It was much harder than I thought, there were tones of stuff to be brought back to the boat and even worse – they needed to be stowed away. I just hope to be able to remember what we have and where it is.

1^st day - 30^th November

We sailed off at 5 in the afternoon. There wasn't much wind, but waves were short and annoying. I had hard time cooking the supper (chicken fillets in cheese and garlic sauce) and then the crew had hard time eating it without letting meat and salad slide from their plates. I skipped the dinner, my stomach didn't want to get used to the movement of the boat just yet. During the night wind slowly grew stronger, and so did the waves. We decided on fixed 3-hours watches and during the night we were all tethered (tied to a boat with a rope).

2^nd day - 1^st December

Sea was choppy but at least sailing speed was good. In the middle of the day a huge flock of dolphins, about 50, came to play around our boat for half an hour. It was a real acrobatic show that they presented and we enjoyed it immensely. The highlight was without a doubt when couple of dolphins clapped on the surface with their tails. We haven't seen anything like it before. In the crowd of so many dolphins the turtle, that swam by, almost got by unnoticed. We spent the rest of the day repairing refrigerator that died on us that morning. After several hours the cause of troubles turned out to be the cooling pump, that stopped working each time when some air came into it. With waves like we were having that happened on each wave. We can only hope for the sea to get calmer eventually. The wind grew throughout the day and so did the waves. Cooking dinner was again a hard work (beef in mushroom sauce and tortillas), luckily this time we were all hungry and able to eat.

3^rd day - 2^nd December

From the forecast we knew this day and the following night the wind will be the strongest, so we were all a bit nervous about it. The wind wasn't gentle up till now and we all had some problems with the waves. We decided to have burgers for dinner, so no plates or knives and forks were necessary. As wind was growing stronger we were reefing the sails. In the evening we were sailing in 30 knots of wind and were surfing down the waves with great speed. The waves were coming at us from different directions and some of them managed to spit and spray some water into the cockpit. Then suddenly a giant wave came from the side, broke over the boat and managed to get a lot of water into cockpit and even down below. All of us were awake immediately and came out to see what was happening. There was no damage on the boat, so we started to get the water out of the boat. It wasn't to bad, but it was unpleasant work that we had to do in very unpleasant weather. During the night the wind got up to 35-40 knots and genoa got reefed more and more until it was just a small piece of cloth. It was a bit scary, but luckily in the morning wind started to calm down a bit.

4^th day - 3^rd December

The day was again rough, with wind between 20 and 30 knots and very choppy sea. And none of us got much sleep the night before. We tried to sleep as much as possible during the day and ate only “gentle food” - bread and butter, cookies and risotto with vegetables and chicken for dinner. The night was not so bad, even waves got tamer, so sleeping was a bit easier.

5^th day - 4^th December

First half of the day was great, wind got down to 20 knots and waves were bearable. We were all enjoying “normal” sailing and warm sun. In the afternoon we even catch our first dorado. What a beautiful fish. I apologized to it for taking its life. Anyway, we are eating fish tomorrow. In the afternoon seas got heavier again, just in time for cooking dinner (chicken in cheese sauce and potatoes). I'm starting to think this is happening on purpose.

6^th day - 5^th December

Night was terrible, sea was extremely choppy with waves from several directions. None of us got much sleep. Morning was grey and hazy with visibility down to half a mile, but waves got tamer and tamer. We still have 15 to 20 knots of wind and are traveling with good speed on full genoa – full for the irst time after the first day. By noon sun managed to come from behind the clouds and the sea was much more bearable. The good spirit was back again. And today we've eaten our yesterdays catch – we ate dorado as sushi with soy sauce and wasabi, from bones and head we made a soup and for dinner we had grilled fish filets and rice. Fish was exquisite in all variations, we ate it with great joy and gratitude, so it died for good cause.

7^th day - 6^th December

Finally things are getting into normal rhythm. We slept well and the day was like summer holiday. Wind got a bit weaker so we flew a genaker whole day. It was calm enough to make a barbeque. In the afternoon we caught another dorado, so we had grilled fish, burgers and tortillas and cucumber salad for dinner.

8^th day - 7^th December

In the night the wind got weaker so for the first time we wished for more wind for faster sailing. We are still doing above 5 knots in average, but our overall average from first few days was 6 knots. In the morning we pulled up a genaker again, but the block at the top of the mast, that was holding genaker halyard, fell apart after ten minutes, so we quickly pulled it down again. Then we pulled out the genoa again and put a flock in another track on genoa roller, so now we are flying wing-on-wing with both genoa poles. Sea temperature rose to 28 degrees, so we opened a “open bathroom” season – we were “bathing” on the platform at the back of our boat with sea water. The calm day was just right for another barbeque, this time we had T-bone stakes and potato and cabbage salad. We opened a good bottle of Lanzarote's red wine and the day was perfect.

9^th day - 8^th December

Night was calm, the only thing disturbing our sleep was noise from genoa poles rattling against the mast when wind weakened. Which happened a lot and stayed that way throughout the day. Shortly before 10 in the evening we crossed 1000^th mile of our journey. Day was sunny and warm and we were reading books, talking and lazying around. No luck with fishing today, so we ate beef in mustard sauce and rice and tomato salad made of our last tomatoes. In the evening wind changed direction so we pulled down the flock and pulled up the main. We are hoping for more wind tomorrow.

10^th day - 9^th December

Night was very slow, due to very gentle wind and partially due to sailing on genoa alone. We pulled the main back down because the wind was changing directions so much it was difficult to keep the boom from flying over the boat. So this morning we put flock back on. Wind is getting stronger and stronger so we've been sailing fast whole day. Since yesterday evening it is very cloudy, we hope no rain or anything more unpleasant is cooking up. I bake my first bread on this trip today, we ate the last of bread we bought on Lanzarote yesterday. We also finished bananas, pineapple and tomatoes. We still have apples for couple of days and some cucumbers, red and green peppers and red and green cabbage. When we will finnish all this, we will switch to canned fruits and vegetables.

11^th day - 10^th December

The wind is getting stronger and stronger and seas heavier. We are all pleased with the good speed we are having. Today was a fish day – we caught first dorado already in the morning before breakfast and second, the big one, in the early afternoon. It was cloudy all day so it seems this is the right kind of weather and visibility for catching fish. But life on the boat in this kind of sea is hard, even taking a shower is a hard work. Not to mention cooking. Or eating – on several previous occasions stakes and potatoes were flying around the cockpit. We ate fish stew for dinner – from bowls.

12^th day – Sunday 11^th December

In the evening we pulled down the flock and reefed the genoa, since wind was getting stronger. Even so we had average speed of 7,4 knots in the night and 7,6 knots this morning. Unfortunately our genoa pole broke, so we are sailing without it now. In strong wind this is not a problem, even in 5m waves as we are having. The day was cloudy and we even had some rain in the afternoon. I bake the bread again, and we ate grilled fish steaks and tortillas for dinner.

13^th day - 12^th December

The night was very windy and the sea was rough with waves up to 5m from several directions. It was quite a work keeping a watch and it was not easy to sleep either. This morning the weather didn't change, we had wind of 25 to 30 knots and heavy seas, and again a lot of clouds and some rain. We are sailing very fast, we had average speed of 7,2 knots in the night and 7,6 in the morning. But the wild movement of the boat is making life on board difficult, even simplest tasks are a hard work. So there isn't much one can do except read, sleep and eat. And cook of course. And because of the heavy sea we ate again food from the bowls – pasta with vegetable and fish (made of fish we caught, of course).

14^th day - 13^th December

Night was again windy but waves were a bit more round, so some of us got a bit more sleep during the night. There were couple of short showers in the night, like we are having now for the third day in the row. But in the morning the weather got even worse – there were already couple of showers between 7 and 9, and afterwards a big cloud has grown from behind us over the sky and with it came very strong wind and a lot of rain. It seemed like heavy rain has flattened the sea and the boat was flying over it, we had average speed of 7,7 knots. It was my watch, so i was the one that got very wet. By 11 rain was gone but it wasn't until afternoon that we saw the sun. The wind got steady at 20 knots and we were again sailing pretty fast. Waves were not so pointy and erratic as last days. Regardless it was difficult to cook and eat, so we ate from bowls again – cooked potato and veal and beans stew. We are hoping for quieter night and some sunshine tomorrow! Can't believe we are already sailing for almost two weeks! At this speed we shall be on Antigua in 7 – 8 days. Can hardly wait to step on land again and have a peaceful night on anchor – without watches.

15^th day - 14^th December

The night was a bit quieter and we slept better, there were again some short showers during night watches. The day was surprisingly sunny and with little clouds, but the sea was still choppy and sailing bumpy. There was enough wind to keep the good speed between 6 and 7 knots. Today we passed 2000 miles of our journey and a bit later got closer to Antigua than 1000 miles. Other than that nothing really exciting happened. We cooked fish curry with boiled potatoes for dinner.

16^th day - 15^th December

The wind and waves got a bit calmer in the night, so we had a good night. This changed in the morning with strong gusts of wind to 35 knots and heavy rain and heavy sea, and by the evening we were all wet several times and very tired. It was a terrible day, all of us were really tired after each watch. We eat only sandwiches, it was to wild inside of boat to prepare anything and most of us were not hungry anyway. Forecast said that tomorrow will be another rainy day, but with less wind and we hope also less waves. The wind is suppose to turn to W to NW, weaken to 5 – 15 knots, which is not the direction or strength we would like. If so, we will use motor more and catch up with sleeping and eating.

17^th day - 16^th December

Last two yesterday watches were stormy and rainy, but clouds were already breaking and now and then there were couple of stars. The rest of the night went even quieter and we got some rest from the hard day. Morning was nice and sunny and we had some short showers before noon with long periods of sun in between, and it was completely different from stormy grey depressive yesterday. Around noon a flock of dolphins came by to say hi, the first ones after more than one week. Afternoon was sunny and warm, we enjoyed the summer. We even saw a couple of whales splashing in the distance. Wind was getting weaker and the waves smaller, and wind turned from S to W. Luckily the forecast wasn't completely right, there was enough wind to sail, but it was blowing from the wrong direction. Hopefully wind will turn to NW, so we can proceed in better or even right direction. We ate steaks and tortillas and cucumber salad for lunch, this time from plates and with forks and knives again. We are hoping for a quiet night and tomorrow for a sunny day without rain and moderate wind from NW. So if Santa is reading this ...

18^th day - 17^th December

The evening was calm, we sailed under a starry sky until 4.30 in the morning. Wind was still blowing from W, but we had enough speed so that we were still doing between 2 and 3 miles per hour in direction Antigua. Towards the morning wind weakened so we started the engine. In the evening we saw the light of another boat on the horizon, and later we saw yet another vessel 16 miles away on AIS. None of them came close enough to make a contact. Day was warm and summery, but unfortunately with little wind, and even that from wrong direction. Santa is obviously not in the office yet ... We pulled up the sails again in the morning and tried tacking towards west, but it was to frustrating. Our speed was not so bad considering the gentle wind, but we were hardly making any progress towards west, where we should be going. So we made a break to swim in the ocean and had a barbeque in the afternoon – to make the most of the beautiful day. We had T-bone stakes and potato and cabbage salad for lunch, and a bottle of fine red wine from Lanzarote. In the afternoon we started the engine again – until the wind turns or at least get stronger.

19^th day – Sunday 18^th December

The night was calm, in late evening there were traces of wind from NW, but they soon faded away. So we motored for the rest of the night and whole day. It was a sunny day with clear blue sky, like it should be in tropics. We made a stop for bathing in Atlantic again. There were no ships, no birds, no dolphins and no whales to be seen, just a flying fish or two. We ate fish salad (made of fish we caught, the big one, and froze) with freshly baked bread for lunch and chicken and salad for dinner. In the evening there was a bit of wind again, but not enough to sail on sails alone, so we motor-sailed for a while. After midnight we were motoring again.

20^th day - 19^th December

If we hadn't have these couple of days with no wind, we would be on Antigua tomorrow. So it will probably be on Thursday. Although these last days were slow and nothing happened, I rather liked it. Much more than storm four days ago. The day was cloudy with no wind, but enough sun to make a stop for bathing again. We had pasta-chicken salad for lunch. We motored until 5 in the afternoon, then big rainy cumulus clouds came closer from the north and with them came some rain and the wind. It started moderately, but soon the wind was blowing stronger and the sailing got fast again, up to 9 knots.

21^th day - 20^th December

Night was stormy and bumpy and it was not easy to sleep. The morning was the same – wind was strong – up to 30 knots, there was some rain and waves got bigger to. So it was same kind of wild sailing we've already got used to by now. I really thought, we would have more stable weather, with stable wind around 20 knots from E or NE, waves up to 3m and less rain. But obviously i had wrong impression how sailing in trade winds should look like. In the afternoon at least the sun came out, the wind and waves stayed the same. We ate fish curry with boiled potatoes – from the fish we caught, the big one, that we froze. We ate from bowls again, of course. In the evening we had a marvelous sunset and then some more bumpy and rocky sailing through the night, luckily without the rain.

22^th day – 21^th December

The morning was sunny, but windy and the waves even got bigger. No one got much sleep in the night, but since we are only 100 miles away from Antigua, we will get enough sleep soon. In the night we tried to slow down the sailing, to be able to get to Jolly Harbor in the morning on Thursday, to avoid entering the port in the dark. It didn't really happen, there was to much wind and the ride was even bumpier at lower speed. So we are expecting to be there between midnight and 3 in the morning. We changed the route to avoid any reef or rock in wide circle to get there safe even in the dark. We are all eager to see the land again and return to civilization and the mood is good and faces happy. Today we saw more birds, even a frigatebird, which means land is close. We ate veal stew with pasta, from the bowls again of course. We are keeping the watch system till the landfall, although we will probably be all out on the deck the whole evening, not to miss anything. Champagne for celebration is already getting cold in the fridge.

23^th day – 22st December

The evening and the night were bumpy and windy, with some rain here and there. Keeping watch was a hard work. At about 2 in the morning we were approaching Jolly Harbor and the rain came down with full force. We didn't find good place for anchoring, so we proceeded into the harbor and tied the boat on the side of fueling station. We stayed up another hour and have a drink, and afterwards we went to bed. In the morning we moved the boat to customs dock and went through all the procedures required for entering Antigua. And then we had breakfast and pina colada, that we've been dreaming of the entire journey.

Via Inmarsat:

Land ho! An hour ago we arrived in Jolly Harbour. We are all well, just a
bit tired. More in next post. Good night.

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GPS fix

Lat: N 16 59' 8''
Long: W 61 37' 31''
Time: 02:09:43 UTC
Date: 22-12-2011
Altitude: 1 m
Velocity: 6 kn

LAND HO

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GPS fix

Lat: N 17 10' 23''
Long: W 59 12' 6''
Time: 03:15:49 UTC
Date: 21-12-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 5.5 kn

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GPS fix

Lat: N 17 31' 25''
Long: W 56 47' 3''
Time: 03:25:10 UTC
Date: 20-12-2011
Altitude: 2 m
Velocity: 7 kn

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GPS fix

Lat: N 17 45' 35''
Long: W 54 23' 0''
Time: 03:31:36 UTC
Date: 19-12-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 6 kn motor

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GPS fix

Lat: N 17 56' 16''
Long: W 52 15' 52''
Time: 04:32:12 UTC
Date: 18-12-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 4.5 kn motor

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We had some very rainy and stormy weather and for 2 days we have wind on
the nose so progress is slow. We are all ok. 590 NM to go

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GPS fix

Lat: N 18 33' 35''
Long: W 50 35' 31''
Time: 03:32:00 UTC
Date: 17-12-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 5 kn

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GPS fix

Lat: N 18 31' 28''
Long: W 49 10' 38''
Time: 03:06:00 UTC
Date: 16-12-2011
Altitude: 7 m
Velocity: 4 kn

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GPS fix

Lat: N 18 29' 50''
Long: W 46 49' 28''
Time: 03:13:46 UTC
Date: 15-12-2011
Altitude: 1 m
Velocity: 6 kn

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Today we crossed 2000th mile, only 940 more to go. We are all fine, a bit
tired of strong wind and heavy sea. No dolphins no whales

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GPS fix

Lat: N 18 42' 3''
Long: W 44 8' 12''
Time: 02:29:52 UTC
Date: 14-12-2011
Altitude: -2 m
Velocity: 6 kn

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GPS fix

Lat: N 18 55' 43''
Long: W 41 29' 40''
Time: 02:36:21 UTC
Date: 13-12-2011
Altitude: -2 m
Velocity: 15 km/h

Accuracy
Horiz: +/- 40 m
Vert: +/- 16 m

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GPS fix

Lat: N 18 53' 15''
Long: W 38 42' 24''
Time: 02:20:55 UTC
Date: 12-12-2011
Altitude: 3 m
Velocity: 6 kn

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We just crossed midway point of our journey. We are celebrating with
champagne. We have strong wind and heavy sea and lots of fish.

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GPS fix

Lat: N 19 3' 8''
Long: W 35 43' 9''
Time: 02:10:02 UTC
Date: 11-12-2011
Altitude: 2 m
Velocity: 7 kn

2 doradas 10 kg

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GPS fix

Lat: N 19 30' 53''
Long: W 32 49' 3''
Time: 02:29:11 UTC
Date: 10-12-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 7 kn

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We are great, having true summer holiday. Could do with bit more fish and
dolphins. After 3 days of calm we finaly have enough wind

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GPS fix

Lat: N 19 36' 58''
Long: W 30 32' 41''
Time: 02:17:42 UTC
Date: 09-12-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 4 kn

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GPS fix

Lat: N 19 51' 58''
Long: W 28 29' 5''
Time: 01:23:11 UTC
Date: 08-12-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 5 kn

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GPS fix

Lat: N 20 24' 58''
Long: W 26 28' 32''
Time: 01:15:02 UTC
Date: 07-12-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 5 kn

another dorado

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Weather got calmer and summerly and our mood improved a lot. We are all
well and sleeping and eating good. We caught a big dorado.

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GPS fix

Lat: N 21 50' 56''
Long: W 24 47' 1''
Time: 01:36:07 UTC
Date: 06-12-2011
Altitude: 12 m
Velocity: 0 km/h

Accuracy
Horiz: +/- 24 m
Vert: +/- 48 m

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GPS fix

Lat: N 23 28' 30''
Long: W 22 49' 20''
Time: 01:16:37 UTC
Date: 05-12-2011
Altitude: 5 m
Velocity: 0 km/h

Accuracy
Horiz: +/- 8 m
Vert: +/- 32 m

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GPS fix

Lat: N 24 48' 27''
Long: W 20 44' 0''
Time: 02:04:33 UTC
Date: 04-12-2011
Altitude: 5 m
Velocity: 0 km/h

Accuracy
Horiz: +/- 8 m
Vert: +/- 48 m

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We are sailing by Endeavour shoal. These 3 days have been hard with to much
wind and heavy sea. We are all ok but a bittired.

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GPS fix

Lat: N 26 0' 56''
Long: W 18 21' 7''
Time: 00:05:07 UTC
Date: 03-12-2011
Altitude: 9 m
Velocity: 0 km/h

Accuracy
Horiz: +/- 8 m
Vert: +/- 48 m

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GPS fix

Lat: N 27 10' 57''
Long: W 15 49' 2''
Time: 00:08:36 UTC
Date: 02-12-2011
Altitude: 7 m
Velocity: 0 km/h

Accuracy
Horiz: +/- 8 m
Vert: +/- 32 m

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GPS fix

Lat: N 27 48' 49''
Long: W 14 17' 2''
Time: 08:05:37 UTC
Date: 01-12-2011
Altitude: -1 m
Velocity: 0 km/h

Accuracy
Horiz: +/- 40 m
Vert: +/- 80 m

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Leaving Lanzarote

Our crew arrived on saturday and on sunday we did a tour through the island.  We were all enchanted by the unspoiled nature of Lanzarote.

 

 

 

Wine is grown in small burrows in the volcanic ground, each surrounded by a wall - it looks like each wine is living in its own balcony.

 

We all agreed this would be a perfect cottage for a holiday.

 

Mirjana, Igor and admiral at the Mirador del Rio - the NW point of Lanzarote.

 

Yesterday and today we were busy with finishing the boat projects and buying provisions. It was much harder than anticipated - the projects were more numerous  than we thought and buying food was just half of the work - the other half was finding a place for it on the boat and stowing it away.

One of the boat projects was climbing the mast and exchanging the block for the gennaker halyard. Igor was the one to climb the mast this time.

 

This is just the fragment of food we bought for our journey - all the cans and jars, and flour, pasta and rice. We already stowed away meat, salamis and cheese and drinks. And tomorrow we are buying fresh fruit, vegetables and bread.

We are planning to sail off tomorrow early in the afternoon. We are all anxious to go, we are all happy that preparations are finished, it' been a hard hard work.

We will be posting our positions and a few words almost every day from our satellite phone. If you wish to see where we are, take a look at the link:

http://www.jadralno-drustvo-potepuh.si/atlantic.htm

The guys from sailing club Potepuh will be charting our position on the map on their site.

So bye for now! And Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Back home!

Yesterday we returned to Heron to Lanzarote after spending one week in Slovenija - so we're "back home" from travelling "back home" :-)

It was cold and foggy in Slovenija, the usual november weather. But all the love and kindness from our families and friends kept us warm.

I was happy to see my cats, Bela and Tinka ...

... and Schnuki.

They are all doing fine.

In couple of days our crew is arriving in Lanzarote. We already started making space for them and the provisions. When they arrive there's some serious shopping to be done.

Discovering Lanzarote

Last week we've done some work on the boat, but in between we did some tours around the island. It is beautiful and most of it looks like it was only yesterday that the volcanoes stopped spitting lava.

One of the first stops we made was marina Rubicon. It is very pretty, but more touristy than Puerto Calero.  We also saw the anchorage in the bay next to marina and it was a bit rolly. But then the weather wasn't very typical for the season .....

 

On SW side of the island there are some salt plants. Right next to it the Atlantic waves show their power ...

 

People of Lanzarote are doing a really good job in presenting their island to the visitors. Most of points of interest are well presented and organized and very clean. And some are even free - like this place on SW of the island, where the most recent lava flow met the sea. Hot lava and sea water had created a wild landscape full of holes and cliffs. Small dots around the cliffs are people...

 

The balcony for visitors was obviously made by people...

Atlantic waves are still "working" on remodeling the cliffs.

 

This is a red volcano hill....

 

... and this the spotted one ....

 

.... and this the one with jagged edge. Pretty, isn't it?

 

All the different colors and shapes at one glance....

 

On sunday we visited Teguise, the old capital of the island. Every sunday there's a fair and everybody goes there, so we also went. It was busy, nice and colorful.

 

On our way back we stopped in Arrecife for a coffee. This is the most famous church in town.

 

We made next tour on friday and it was to the north part of the island. First stop was Jameos de agua, which means something like "water caves". The caves were made by air pockets in a lava flow from the nearby crater.

 

This is a blind crab that lives in the caves.

 

In one of the caves there is a concert hall, the chandelier is a work of a local artist.

 

 

Caves are pretty and very well presented, with pathways, benches and a lot of vegetation everywhere.

 

 

We drove to the north of the island and this is a typical untouched landscape, as volcanoes had made it. In years afterwards only some moss and dry bushes find their footing on the ground.

 

This is the crater that is "responsible" for Jameos de agua.

 

Isla Graziosa lays to the N of the Lanzarote. Unfortunately the day was cloudy and the visibility was not very good. To the left of the small town with the port is the anchorage, where we wanted to anchor on our first night in the Canaries, but then changed the plans due to the wind that was blowing from the south.

Passage from Faro to Lanzarote

We left Faro on saturday morning, after downloading the newest weather forecast and having a big breakfast. The forecast wasn't much different from last two - not much wind, mostly from NE, and another Atlantic depression coming low to the south on wednesday with wind turning to SW. We were hoping to be on Isla Graziosa by then.

It was low tide in the lagoon as we were leaving and lot of locals were gathering mussels.

We said goodbye to Culatra ...

... and sailed through the narrow channel into the Atlantic.

With the forecast promising little wind we decided to change small flock for a 140% genoa - with extra 2 pairs of strong hands it was done in no time.

Down came the flock ....

 ... and up went genoa. Shortly afterwards flock went up again - into second genoa track and we were sailing wing on wing. We also used our both new genoa poles to keep the sails from flapping - the more we were away from Portugal coast the bigger the Atlantic waves were.

We changed sail configuration many times in those five days - we were sailing wing on wing with genoa and main, we flew gennaker, all in hope to squeeze most out of the gentle wind we had. But on monday night wind died almost completely, so we started the engine and either motor-sailed or motored with very few breaks.

We got used to life on board and doing watches really quick. We each had two three-hours watches, so it was enough time in between to get some rest, to cook and eat. We decided on having fixed shifts, so everyone had the same hours every day and could get into "the rhythm". It proved to be good decision, everybody was happy with. I probably had the easiest watches, from 9-12 am and pm. In return i tried to take on most of kitchen chores. The day typically started with morning coffee, after some time we had a big breakfast and in late afternoon lunch and dinner combined. In between we ate some fruit, snacks and for those who got hungry at night, there were some cookies and crackers ready in the kitchen. Luckily the sea was calm - the big Atlantic waves were very round and far apart and we almost didn't fee them - and our appetite was good.

We were trawling two fishing lines behind the boat and on sunday we caught four skipjack tunas.

We ate two fish on sunday and two were left for monday. So we stopped fishing that evening to have some meat on tuesday.

On monday evening a big family of dolphins visited us and was playing around our boat for half an hour. Obviously they had as much fun as we did watching them, because they were back the next morning. Without a doubt dolphins are one of the biggest joys of sailing.

Boys discussing the night shifts ... or saving the world ... 

We were traveling at good speed and on wednesday morning we saw the Canary islands. The wind did turn to SW already in the morning, so we changed the plans and instead going on anchor on Isla Graziosa we decided to sail to the Puerto Calero on Lanzarote. We had some good W wind blowing over the island and were sailing along the rocky east coast of the island to Arrecife. There wind shifted to SW, so we motored to marina.

We were almost sad it's over. OK, it was an easy passage - the weather was calm, nothing broke, crew was great, the food was fresh and plenty. We all agreed we could go on for another week or so, if things stayed as they were.

First night in Puerto Calero we spent on fuel dock, since there were no free berths in marina. All the marinas are very busy and full in this time of year, especially on Gran Canaria, some are not taking any new boats until the ARC boats leave. 

In the morning we got more permanent and quiet berth in marina. 

Land ho!

This morning we finally saw the Canaries and we reached them at about 1pm. Now we are sailing (yes, we have some good wind finally) along east side of Lanzarote to reach Puerto Calero marina before dark. Obviously we managed to escape the North Atlantic depression that was coming down from NW, the weather was fine all the time. We are also all fine, maybe a bit sorry that the trip is over. It was the easiest passage until now - at least for me. More about it in next post.

Via Inmarsat:

Today was a beautiful sunny day, started with dolphins in the morning,
later we saw a turtle. Very litle wind. 85 more miles to go.

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Via Inmarsat:

We are 315 miles from Faro. We caught 4 tunas yesterday. A lot of dolphins
were playing around the boat today. We are all fine.

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Via Inmarsat:

GPS fix

Lat: N 33 36' 39''
Long: W 10 39' 20''
Time: 07:59:12 UTC
Date: 31-10-2011
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: 0 km/h

Accuracy
Horiz: +/- 8 m
Vert: +/- 16 m

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Via Inmarsat:

We are 133 miles from Faro direction Canaries. Night was bumpy but fast,
now wind almost died. 410 more miles to go.

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Leaving Faro

 So, our crew has arrived on board, weather forecast has been studied hard for last week and decision has been made - we are leaving tomorrow morning. The supplies have been stocked up, morale is high and we are all anxious to experience true ocean sailing. Forecast doesn't promise much wind, but plenty of swell, but otherwise the weather should be fine. We are hoping to reach Canaries on wednesday and we will post our coordinates each day of passage.
So bye for now, and wish us good wind and calm seas!

Another storm in Faro

Oh boy, what a night.... and it wasn't the first stormy one.

We survived storm on sunday night quite well, we were up a lot, checking on boat and anchor and things, but by morning the wind slowed down and all went back to normal. We heard though that there was some damage in the airport, some people even got injured. And Tomaz have seen many small boat half sunken from the rain in town marina.

Yesterday's storm was worse. Wind started already in the morning, but wasn't to strong. From the forecast we knew that it will get worse during the day and that the worst was to come in the night. In early afternoon we moved from Culatra to anchorage at commercial pier and by the time we arrived wind was blowing violently, for the first time in my life i've seen numbers above 40 knots on wind instrument. It was also first time for me to anchor in such a weather - and we had to do it twice, we moved from first spot to behind a small island in hope to get a little protection from waves. Wind was very strong the whole afternoon, there were longer  periods  when it didn't fall below 30 knots. And it was strange to see the tidal current holding the boat so it was sideways to the wind, so the boat was healed as if we were sailing. I had to cook with my stove unhinged and the pots were swinging around as on high seas. One would think that strong wind like that would manage to turn the boat into the wind. Wind managed to produce some unpleasant short waves, in the evening it also started to rain heavily with thunder and lightnings, so all that kept us up in the night. There were periods of calmer weather in the nigh, just long enough to fall asleep, to be woken up half an hour later by the howling of the wind again. This morning the wind is still strong, but it's "only" 20 knots, and at least there is some sun coming from behind the clouds, so it all looks a bit friendlier.

I didn't ordered weather like this and i want my money back! (local joke)

From monday afternoon, when we moved to Culatra, till yesterday the week was good, we spent a lot of time with Richard from Johnatan Livingston and we very much enjoyed his company. 

Here are some pictures from sunnier and warmer days - the first storm on sunday cooled down the air and the sea, so bathing season here is over.

Our two boats in front of Culatra.

 

Captain and admiral swimming back to Heron - going against the tidal current was quite a challenge....

Happy cat in Culatra village

Another week in Faro

Last weekend was really nice, with Tomaz's birthday on saturday and very nice and lazy sunday. We swam, read books and had a wonderful evening with pretty sunset and freshly baked muffins.

 

During the week we stayed anchored near Culatra island and were trying to finish boat projects that were on to-do list.

On monday and tuesday we finished work on solent stay (reinforcement plate etc) and I pulled Tomaz up the mast to put stay in place. We pulled up the storm jib to see if existing genoa tracks are also right for it. Luckily they were, so we changed our planned installation of additional tracks for storm jib and the flock. Instead we were going to install genoa blocks to pull the flock down half meter in front of the existing tracks. 

This we did on wednesday and thursday, as well as  changing the lines for the flock - the old ones were stiff with salt and heavy usage.

On friday we first moved to the anchorage the closest to Faro and then installed the attachment rings for spinnaker poles on the mast and did a number of smaller stuff. Friday was not good day for our equipment, because first Tomaz's laptop died and in the evening our outboard died as well, just when we wanted to go in town for some shopping and a dinner. So i had to row. But the evening was still very nice - we had our 3rd cataplana here. They were all great, but i think the first one was the best.

 

On saturday morning we tried to fix the laptop, without any success. Also just cleaning the fuel filter on our outboard didn't help - so i had to row to Faro again. We were meeting our friend Richard that Tomaz got to know on Anything sailing forum. We had a lovely day together and we never ran out of topics to discuss about.

On sunday we managed to get the laptop working again and after doing a full maintenance on outboard that one also started working again. We were very happy about both. While we were finishing some small stuff around the boat in the afternoon the wind got stronger and stronger and black clouds started appearing. It all gave the anchorage and Faro very dramatic look.

 

 

The stormy weather was forecast, and some locals even pulled their boats on the shore.

 

We got a lot of wind and rain in the night and didn't get much sleep, since the boat was circling around the anchor, shaking and moaning, so we needed to check it regularly. We stopped checking the wind speed at some 30 knots, we estimate the gusts were 40 - 45 knots. This time forecast was very accurate. Hope it stays that way, since it is promising some nice weather from saturday on when we want to start our passage to Canary islands.