The Atlantic Crossing - Part 2

Day 1 - Saturday 16th January 2016

Well after downloading the latest weather files we raised the anchor and motored over to the fuel berth where we topped off the fuel and water tanks. Said farewell to a few folk we had met whilst in Mindelo then headed out of the harbour under engines until we were in the channel, pointed the boat southwards and let loose the twin headsails. We covered 19 miles in the first two hours whilst we were in the acceleration zone of the islands then the wind speed dropped to around 10kts which was forecasted and we expect it to increase later in the day.
Lynne made everyone ham salad sandwiches together with a pot of tea for lunch. With the radio playing, fishing rods out and the sails up everyone slowly started to settle into life at sea. Carole was practising her knot tying tutored by Phil while i was on watch at the helm.

Leaving the Cape Verde Islands with the twin headsails.

We're currently about 35 miles south west of the island and still in its wind shadow wollowing about in light winds under 10kts. I hope the wind's pick up again later.
I've just come on watch again ready for the middle watch (00:00 to 04:00) and the wind's are down to 5 or 6kts, the moon is about to set and the sea is calm. The forecasted winds didn't materialise as yet and the boat is travelling at about 4kts - come on you wind gods what you playing at. We had a tasty tea of pasta twists with a bolognaise sauce and crusty bread. The heat is the galley is quite overbearing.

Day 2 - Sunday 17th January 2016

We passed three large ships coming up from the African coast during the night and quite a bit of chatter on the VHF radio but apart from that the night watches were pretty uneventful. This morning the wind's picked up a bit and we're heading in a south westerly direction at about 6kts. At noon we had travelled a sedate 100 miles for the 24hrs run.
Around lunch time we caught our first fish of the crossing, a beautiful bull Golden Darado which Phil and Lynne  landed unfortunatley while I was still in bed recovering from the night watch. However I was awakened and given the job of filleting the fish into four humongous fillets which are currently in the fridge awaiting my culinary talents later for tea, can't wait. We would have eaten them straight away but Carole had already made wraps for lunch.

We're going to need more chips Carole

Well having eaten Darado for the first time done in a bit of garlic butter, oil and a pinch of parsley, served with boiled spuds peas and sweetcorn with a slice of lemon that it is one of the nicest eating fish I have had the pleasure to eat so far...Yum Yum Yummy.

DAY 3 - Monday 18th January 2016

I had the Morning watch (04:00 - 08:00) today and apart from a beautiful sunrise it was pretty much uneventful. I didn't see any other boats. Once Carole took over at 08:00 for her 4hr watch I checked the fishing lines only to find two fishes on them, another smaller Golden Darado and what looks like a John Dorey both of which are now sat in the fridge. I've now got 24hrs off watch so it's my turn to do the domestic duties - cooking and brewing up etc.

A Double Catch

Once the fish had been cleaned I set to work servicing the generator and generally tidying the boat up. About 9 o'clock we had a visit from a pod of dolphins who stayed with us for about an hour.

At noon we filled in the log and discovered that we had travelled 120 miles over the last 24hrs averaging 5kts which was a surprise considering the very light winds of under 10 kts which are still with us has I type.
For tea I made that old British favourite, steak and kidney pie (Fray Bentos) chips and beans.

DAY 4 - Tuesday 19th January 2016

I awoke this morning to find us approaching the 13° line of latitude which we were aiming for because we knew that the wind's would be stronger here and also it was the point where we changed direction slightly from a South westerly direction  to due west. We tacked the twin heads sails laying one on top of the other, raised the mainsail and changed course to 270° due west. With 17kts of North Easterly winds we are currently bounding along at 9kts heading straight for Barbados. The last 24hrs distance covered was a much improved 153 miles.Lynne cooked a very tasty sausage casserole for tea.

DAY 5 - Wednesday 20th January 2015

In the morning we found we had been visited by a "Herd" of flying fish of varying sizes which lay scattered all over the deck. Apparently they make good eating for breakfast however our fridge and freezer were overflowing with fish and we needed no more so we gave the little critters a respectable burial at sea but not before taking a snap of them.

Flying Fish of various sizes

We were all now getting to grips with the watch keeping system managing to grab enough sleep so as not to get fatigued. The sailing is going very well with our best 24hrs run of 187 miles and still heading West. 
There's plenty of music being played, book's being read and a knitting for England contest by Carole to keep everyone occupied whilst not on watch. We had bacon toasties for dinner and  pork chops and jackets for tea courtesy of Phil.

DAY 6 - Thursday 21st January 2016

We all had a peaceful night with light winds and reduced swell however we still managed a 24hrs run of 171 miles making it about 1,350 miles to go with 750 covered so far. So we're just about 1/3 the way there with everyone looking forward to getting the miles to go under the 1,000 mark.
More flying fish on deck this morning and Phil lost his lure off his handline to a monster which bit through his wire leader. I'm just glad we didn't hook it and tried to get it onboard, some critters out here are best left in the sea.
Carole's busy preparing a dish with lentils in it for tea. I've never been over struck with lentils but I'll save judgement until the taste test later tonight.

P.S. The taste test failed miserably and I've asked her never to feed me them again - EVER

DAY 7 - Friday 22nd January 2016

Very light winds overnight (<8kts) made progress a bit frustrating and we had to bang an engine on for a couple of hours however she's now plodding along doing 5kts in 8kts of wind using the twin headsails. Our 24hrs run was just shy of 150 miles at 147 miles and this next 24hrs is looking to be a similar run. It's my turn today to have 24hrs off from watches but it is also my turn for domestic duties so I'm now sat here planning on what concoction to make for tea with the ever dwindling supply of fresh produce available.

Eventually I decided on egg fried rice with Chinese kebabs on skewers

The Hocus Pocus Naked Chef

We clocked up the first 1,000 miles having sailed for 6 days and 20 hours averaging 5.95kts not bad considering the two and a half days of lightish winds.

DAY 8 - Saturday 23rd January 2016

More flying fish on deck this morning. The wind's overnight went back to the North East and dropped again making progress a bit slower than expected however they are forecast to come more Easterly later in the day. Later today we will pass the halfway mark of 1,050 miles, so after that we'll be on the home run. At the moment Carole is on watch listening to Phil's iPod blasting out of the cockpit speakers which are connected to the boats HiFi. Phil is chilling outside while Lynne is slaving away down in the galley preparing tea.

Today I declared it shower day because we had so far been very careful with water usage and besides we were all stinking. Now we're all clean and fresh and the air in the boat is more pleasant. Tomorrow we are going to have a washing day to get all our smalls laundered.

Overnight was a full moon and very bright

DAY 9 -  Sunday 24th January 2016

During the night the wind's were fluctuating all over the place, both Phil and myself were kept busy keeping the boat on course without doing a sail change but come dawn the wind's settled and we haven't need to touch the sails or the autopilot for the last 10 hrs and now we're steaming along doing 8 to 9 knots and bang on course using the twin sails.
I've just attempted to download the latest weather files via my satellite phone but it kept on dropping the connection so I'll try again later.
Phil's currently down in the galley sweating his you know what's off preparing tea. I don't know what he's making but there are some good smells wafting through the boat and it's making my mouth water.

Cornbeef lobby with a suet crust and pickles.. Mmm my kinda meal.

ßAY 10 - Monday 25th January 2015

Just after dawn I spotted a whale following us astern about 50yds away, just a glimpse of it surfing down a wave and then it disappeared. I wasn't able to tell what kind of whale it was however Phil and i spotted it again about an hour later astern of us, again we were unable to find out what kind of whale it was but it was a biggun. I guess it was just checking us out to find out if we were edible or not. I'm it decided that we weren't.
Carole's got the washing machine on the go so we're all getting our smalls laundered which is a good thing because I was running low and didn't want to wear them twice back to front and twice more inside out.
Poached eggs on toast for dinner but I don't know what Carole's got planned for tea.
The last 24hrs we covered another 181 miles leaving us with 730 miles left to go.
The last of the bread out of the freezer was eaten this morning so I'm having a go making some of our own if I can follow this recipe - how much is a "Scant" amount of yeast - I've no idea so I've used 1.5 teaspoons of dried yeast. I just hope it's enough, the loaf is proving has I type.

The loaf turned out to be most satisfactory

DAY 11 - Tuesday 26th January 2016

My 24hrs off today so I'm on domestic duties. The wind and the swell are beginning to pick up as expected so we should get good mileage out of the old girl today. Mushroom soup and fresh bread for lunch went down well with the crew, I'm cooking meat balls and spaghetti in a home made sauce for tea.
During the night we encountered our first line squalls of the trip with winds gusting up to 26kts for a short time and occasionally it rained as well. The plus side of the windy conditions meant that we were really eating up those miles.

The image shows our current speed as well as the speed for the last 3hrs.

We covered 201.4 miles during this 24hrs.

DAY 12 - Wednesday 27th January 2016

We made good progress during the night with the finishing line some 350 miles away and our current ETA will be sometime Friday around lunch time, but I can't take my eye of the ball just yet especially with all the line squalls about.

Can You Spot Wally the whale

Status:
Single looking for lady whales with big fins and plenty of blubber.

Likes:
Eating fish, Surfing and blowing whale snot over humans.

He's been with us for a couple of days now although we didn't see a lot of him yesterday but he reappeared first thing this morning. He seems very camera shy so getting a good picture of him was very difficult. I suspect that he might think the boat could be his perfect mate I just hope he doesn't go for a "Fin" trembler.
The latest 24hrs run showed us covering 174 miles.

DAY 13 - Thursday 28th January 2016

The wind's dropped off a bit overnight accompanied by a couple of squalls which made us go that bit much slower however we're still on track to make landfall sometime Friday in the PM. Everyone is looking forward to stepping onto dry land again, myself included.
The temperatures are rising as we make progress to the west, it's around 30°C in the shade and the sea temperature this afternoon was a surprising 29.6°C.  The sun is very strong with just a little exposure turning your white bits pink, however all of us have now got a glowing tan but I'm especially well aware of the dangers having previously had a skin cancer removed from my cheek a few years back.
Phil cooked us Cape Verde Pork Chops for tea which were very nice and BLT's for lunch.

DAY 14 - Friday 29th January 2016

Dawn broke again this morning to what should be our last day on the crossing. Around breakfast time we were joined by a pod of dolphins as if to say welcome to the Caribbean and soon after that we spotted the first sight of land for nearly two weeks since we set off.

We were still some 25 miles off and had another 3 to 4 hours sailing still to do until we could finally relax but as we got closer we contacted the marina via the radio only to find out that there was no room at the inn for us so we would have to anchor outside which wasn't such a big deal but it would have been nice to get alongside for a while.

The anchorage where we are now is not bad, it's calm and we have our own swimming pool where the water is a lovely 29°C.

We cleared into Barbados Port St Charles on the north west coast, checking in with customs, immigration and health getting our passports stamped all in under an hour then we anchored the boat so that we could finally relax with an ice cold beer, the first one for two weeks and it tasted like nectar. 

The final milage was 2,113 and it took us exactly 13 days and 7 hours averaging out at 6.62 knots. The image below shows our route from the Cape Verde Islands.