Atlantic Crossing January 1

Atlantic Re-Crossing Part II

by with 3 Comments Atlantic CrossingPassage Making

Wednesday January 14, 2014

Atlantic Crossing January 1

Day 15 – January 1, 2015

  • Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 118 nm – 1,447 total
  • Matt was supposed to wake me for a midnight countdown into the new year. He forgot. At the moment he still doesn’t realize it’s New Years. Waves outside are steep and choppy. I wouldn’t call this miserable, but it’s not ideal.

 

Day 16 – January 2, 2015

  • Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 114 nm – 1,561 total
  • Nothing much different happening. Didn’t bring much soda on this passage with us we didn’t think it would sound good once we were sailing, but now we’re fighting over the last Pepsi.

 

Day 17 – January 3, 2015

  • Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 110 nm – 1,671 total
  • Put on a seasickness patch but I still feel dizzy & sick when I stand up. Tonight we’ll set the clocks back, the first time since we’ve left, since the sun is now rising at 8:30 am.

 

Day 18 – January 4, 2015

  • Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 122 nm – 1,793 total
  • Almost broke my foot when I slid off the settee and it wedged itself under the table as I rotated around it. Luckily it’s fine. We saw a big cargo ship this morning visually that never showed up on AIS.

 

Day 19 – January 5, 2015

  • Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 124 nm – 1,917 total
  • We haven’t seen the sun in days now. Today there was a squall with winds in the 40’s, but it passed fairly quickly.

 

Day 20 – January 6, 2015

  • Winds E 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 126 nm – 2,043 total
  • Showers off and on all day. A few more squalls just like yesterday, but they always leave no wind in their wake for awhile and we bob around with the sail flogging and making a terrible racket.

 

Day 21 – January 7, 2015

  • Winds 30-40 knots; Seas 3-4 meters; 135 nm – 2,178 total
  • Today we had a pressure drop of 4 bars in 2 hours. 3 bars in 3 hours is BAD news. This was REALLY BAD. For a 4 hour period we had winds over 50 knots and seas of over 5 meters (16 ft). Kept rounding up into the wind. Prepared ditch bag and waited to be tossed over. Matt trailed lines and fenders to steady us. One wave we didn’t ride down fast enough and it pooped our cockpit. With quite a force, the wave crashed right into our cockpit. Luckily we were down below with all our boards in, but a fair amount of water still forced itself through the cracks. Winds finally died down into the 30’s.

 

Day 22 – January 8, 2015

  • Wind E 25-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 112 nm – 2,290 total
  • Our days have consisted of nothing but sleeping lately. Between our sleep shifts and naps we’re lucky to spend 2 hours awake together each day.

 

Day 23 – January 9, 2015

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 98 nm – 2,388 total
  • Now is the time that I’m really looking forward to land. I want to sleep through a whole night and I want to be able to take a shower without getting sick. Is that to much to ask for? Less than one week now, hopefully

 

Day 24 – January 10, 2015

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 115 nm – 2,503 total
  • I told myself before that I was done making meals for this passage, now I mean it. I almost cut myself so many times while chopping veggies for pasta salad tonight while a rogue wave would toss us on our side and I’d have to use both hands to hold onto the counter while a knife was dangling out of one.

 

Day 25 – January 11, 2015

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 120 nm – 2,623 total
  • Forecast is looking rough for the next few days. Winds over 25 and seas at 12-25 feet. Aren’t we there yet? Only 400 more miles….

 

Day 26 – January 12, 2015

  • Winds NE 25-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 127 nm – 2,750 total
  • Storm didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. I wish I would have downloaded more movies on our tablet, I’m getting tired of reading and I’m always left with a bit of a headache.

 

Day 27 – January 13, 2015

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 134 nm – 2,884 total
  • We’ve decided on St. Martin for landfall and only have two days left until we get there. Researching everything we can on the place now. So excited!

 

Day 28 – January 14, 2015

  • Wind E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 107 nm – 2,991 total
  • Getting a little worried about having such high seas and then transitioning to the shallow waters of the Caribbean. But…the weather should actually be dying down for our arrival tomorrow. Here’s to hoping!

Atlantic Crossing January 2

Atlantic Crossing January 3

Atlantic Crossing December 3

Atlantic Re-Crossing – Part I

by with One Comment Atlantic CrossingPassage Making

December 31, 2014

Atlantic Crossing December 1

Unlike our first Atlantic Crossing, I am not going to break up the posts into 2-3 day sections and regale you with what happened on a daily basis.  I can’t, or every post would go something like this:  ‘Woke up.  Winds were heavy but steady.  Waves were heavy but steady.  I can’t go outside without getting wet.  Prepared meals, napped, and waited for the next day to come‘.

I can do that for you every day if you’d like, but the truth is I’d still like you to come back to our blog every few days and I know that’s not the best way to hook or even keep you.  So instead I will be breaking our crossing into two posts where I’ll get a little technical and give conditions plus milage, and then a little snippet of something that happened that day, just to keep your interest if even just a little bit.

 

Day 1 – December 18, 2014

  • Winds ESE 10-15 knots; Seas 1-2 meters
  • Before leaving, Matt cut his thumb with a drill. No stitches this time; We finally found the sun outside of Las Palmas; Accidentally woke up Matt with the air horn while tacking; Cuddled in the cockpit listening to UB40 while watching the sunset and watched Gran Canaria light up.

 

Day 2 – December 19, 2014

  • Winds NE 15-20 knots; Seas 1-2 meters; 120 nm
  • Still quite cold out, our gauge is showing the water is only 57. That can’t be right. Stayed below deck for most of the day.

 

Day 3 – December 20, 2014

  • Winds ENE 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 125 nm – 245 total
  • Saw a flash in the sky, maybe a supernova? Had to hand feed Georgie her dry food. She wanted the cheese I was eating and kept nudging me, timing her nudges with the rocking of the boat.

 

Day 4 – December 21, 2014

  • Winds ENE 15-20 knots; Seas 1-2 meters; 124 nm – 369 total
  • Found a buddy boat. Well, on AIS at least. The first boat we’ve seen outside of Gran Canaria. They’re 36 ft and sailing in the same direction, only 4 nm from us.

 

Day 5 – December 22, 2014

  • Winds NE 12-17 knots; Seas 1-2 meters; 115 nm – 484 total
  • Read books and made pasta salad. Without being able to fill our propane in Gran Canaria we have about 1 week’s worth of propane left and have to portion it out.

 

Day 6 – December 23, 2014

  • Winds E 5-10 knots; Seas 0.5-1 meters; 92 nm – 576 total
  • Had a hard time getting a satellite phone signal. With the light winds, tried to lay out on deck and catch a tan. Speeds dropped down to 2 knots.

 

Day 7 – December 24, 2014

  • Winds E 2-6 knots; Seas 0-1 meters; 41 nm – 617 total
  • Drifted in the morning with no autopilot; Made guacamole and enjoyed in the cockpit with a beer; Trimmed my split ends. Not good according to sailing superstitions. I should have known better. Got a text from my dad that storms were on their way.

 

Day 8 – December 25, 2014

  • Winds E 5-10 building to 10-15; Seas 1-2 meters; 60 nm – 676 total
  • Merry Christmas! Warm and productive day. Enjoyed 2 cups of coffee, did a little laundry, and had my first shower since leaving. (Ick, I know). Made a nice chicken and potato dinner. Watched the forecast, we have a depression and front on the way.

 

Day 9 – December 26, 2014

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 1-2 meters; 89 nm – 765 total
  • Day started with lots of wind and growing waves, but it died down by the afternoon. Debated stopping at the Cape Verdes but the weather looks ok for us to continue.

 

Day 10 – December 27, 2014

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 1-2 meters; 93 nm – 858 total
  • Went into the night with the spinnaker pole up. At 3 am the winds jumped from 15 knots to 30 and stayed strong until the early afternoon when they died down to 10-15 knots.

 

Day 11 – December 28, 2014

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 121 nm – 979 total
  • Changed our course from S to WSW. Matt caught a tuna but lost it before getting it on board. Got seasick and spent the rest of the day in a foul mood, made Matt cook dinner.

 

Day 12 – December 29, 2014

  • Winds E 15-20 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 114 nm – 1,093 total
  • Sick again. Matt left the dishes overnight for me to clean. Thanks Matt. Caught 2.5 ft mahi. Cleaned and filleted it even though I felt like I was going to throw up in the sink.

 

Day 13 – December 30, 2014

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 115 nm – 1,208 total
  • Still overcast, still feeling blah. Finally washed my hair for the first time in 5 days. Made a nice chicken, potato, carrot stew for dinner.

 

Day 14 – December 31, 2014

  • Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 121 nm – 1,329 total
  • More of the same. Clouds, strong winds, feeling gross. Read the book Slaughterhouse V. It was…interesting.

Atlantic Crossing December 3

Atlantic Crossing Decdember 2