Atlantic crossing

scroll down to the START of the crossing

Friday 13.12.2019

ARRIVAL!!!

Thursday 12.12.2019

Motoring to Saint Lucia, to avoid more damage to the headsail. Maybe we try the gennaker later today, before the last night on board. Its time....the fridge is nearly empty and we would need to start to eat cane food...and of course fresh fish. Pasta and rice we have lots of them.

For the last dinner on board, we open the nice bottle of white wine from Olmos Sister. (See picture)

Otherwise, motoring with some times, if the TWD is not 90 or 95..., we use the headsail.

Nice last dinner on board..;-)

Wednesday 11.12.2019

Sailing with support of engine, due to try to go as direct as possible to Saint Lucia. Wind and waves 90 deg. downwind and without gennaker or genova, we would have to gjibe twice a day and would make 35% longer distance and since Sandras doctor told her, that the baby is moving down...... Ricardo MUST arrive in Saint Lucia ASAP to get the next flight to Home (Faro). 330 nm to go.

ETA: Friday morning

NOOO!, parts on main sail broken, we are motoring to the end.....:-(, except, the wind drops tomorrow, then gennaker...:-)

We refuel 2x22 l diesel, gage is now between 80 and 100%, plus we have another 60l diesel in spare tanks. So we wont have any problem with fuel until Saint Lucia, 276 nm to go.(36h)

Tuesday 10.12.2019

Sailing as usual...;-), partly cloudy, wind, waves o.k., except wind angle should be 20Deg either more north or south to be able to go straight forward to Saint Lucia... , but ...that`s sailing....

450 nm to go, at midnight <400 nm, ETA between evening/night of Thursday and Friday morning!...hopefully...

My last dinner cooking on board, my last lunch cooking will be tomorrow.

400 nm to go!

Monday 9.12.2019

Sailing as usual...;-), partly cloudy, wind, waves ok, except wind should be 20Deg either more north or south to be able to go straight forward to Saint Lucia... , but ...that`s sailing….

Sunday 8.12.2019

Sailing as usual...;-), nice weather, wind (16...19knts), calm sea. All day sunny and moving direct to Saint Lucia. Could be a bit faster, but ok.;-)

900 nm to go....4...5 days....ETA night of Thursday to Friday

Early morning, Ricardo cached an other Tuna. :-)

Saturday 7.12.2019

Strong wind and rain showers all afternoon, early night storm with up to. 30...35 knts wind guts, heavy sea, forecasts was wind 22knts with short periods of 25..26 knts.....

Main reef 2, storm gjib.....

Resting in cloths and life west....

Night watch, flying fish hit me on my head.;-)

Olmo made his hand made cigarettes in less then one minute…..

I needed at the beginning almost 30 minutes…., but finally I made "perfect" cigaretts….as technician….with a tool….:-)

Friday 6.12.2019

Strong wind, downwind 90 deg..., big waves, rain, storm jib, main reef 2 etc..., not the best 24 h so far...

Even wit this condition, we got a next big fish (malin?).....almost...., by pulling the fish on the boat, he could escape...

Thursday 5.12.2019

Sailing as usual, condition remain as the past few days and most likely up to Saint Lucia. Downwind 90 deg, 17....23 knts, big waves...= like been in a washing machine...

Setup storm sail as a goose setup with the main, just to try if we can speed up a bit….;-)

Wednesday 4.12.2019

As usual..., I am getting inpatient...., still takes 9..10 days to Saint Lucia...

Anyway, today for lunch we will have the „halfwaybeer“

Bum, zac, päng......Gennacker Fixation on the Boat broke!!!

We have to fix it once we have no or very low wind.

During the afternoon, the wind dropped to 10...12 knots for a few hours...:-( and direction was and is more or less 90 deg....in stead of 70,,80..., we couldn’t go straight ahead.

In the afternoon, large family of dolphins visit us....(30,,,50 pcs)

Tuesday 3.12.2019

Downwind , big waves, Like been in a washing machine.

Flying fishes on board.

Slowly, slowly we reach de 50% waypoint of the hole trip. The beer is in the cooler, but wont drink it at midnight...;-)

So far it was the first day where the motivation was not on its highest level...;-)

BUT..., finally at 21:30, the Wind direction changed again, this time in our favor, so we gjibed again and now straight course to Saint Lucia..., and at midnight, my watch will start, we reach the half way distance mark! Tomorrow for lunch, we will have a beer..!! and hopefully the wind will stay with this direction and the 18...22 knts!

Monday 2.12.2019

Great wind, speed, weather.

Catchet one bigger Tuna, but it was to big,(to much tuna for to many days..;-) ), so we let him go..,

Sunday 1.12.2019

We made another approx 10 Position good...;-)

Otherwise, the first time

during this trip, I „calculated“ several times, how many days are we still ahead..., if everything would be perfect..11 days..., but more realistic, (still optimistic)...., arrival December 13th in Saint Lucia

Saturday 30.11.2019

North easterly wind, 9....13 knts, sunny with overcast. Slow but moving the right direction. At approx 14h, change to the final, direct course to saint lucia (10..12 degr. to the north).

Afternoon, nice wind strength and direction. Doing 6...7...8 knts.

Tacking over the next boat ;-) ( Moana Mui)

Workout, shower on deck.

Friday 29.11.2019

More and more direction Saint Lucia, north of cap verde. The „No Go zone“ (nearly no wind) is much more south as usual), that’s why we choose this way, which is longer as the northerly route, but hopefully faster with the main east wind which should pick up Friday afternoon....finally...

We checked the positions off all boats and yesterday, we were on position 122, now at 114....;-) but this is the position ranking of ALL boats, without handicap and motoring penalties, also included the racing division and multihull and others (big boats)

With other words....we are doing well. In 2 days, when all boats go directly on course to Saint Lucia...., we will see. ( we choose the longer route, and hoping to make up by the better winds...

Low wind again during the night...,

Flying fishes, lots of them..

Thursday 28.11.2019

Low wind, beautiful weather and Temperatur. Ricardo and Olmo jumped into the sea, mainsail up, 2 knts SOG....;-),

Finally at 20degN, we turned to the direction Saint Lucia....:-)

Otherwise, us usual on the gourmet yacht ANJA..., very good, healthy lunch and dinner...;-)

Wednesday, 27.11.2019

Lunch: tuna salad, tuna meet with Soja sauce..., still lot of tuna in the fridge.:-)

Wind low, good, low, good.., overtaking 2 other boats...

Dinner: Ricardo finally cooks the salted, dryad fish which is in water since ever...;-)

Tuesday, 26.11.2019

Low wind, 1 h motoring to charge the Battery , then wind is picking up perfectly, gennaker and main (12...15 knts), THEN we catch a nice tuna! ( min. 4 meals for dinner) Just in time to prepare for dinner...

Nice dinner, perfect wind, low swell/waves, sunset like in Hollywood...;-).

Night sailing nice, good wind, over tacking at least 5 boats...;-), morning, very low wind.

Monday, 25.11.2019

Less wind, less swell, less cold..;-)

Ricardos first shower on the deck, I prepared the shower also..., the seawater in the shower tank just needs to warm up a bit...;-)

Sunny, low wind....:-( (5...7 knts)

Start, good downwind, doing great, autopilot with some trouble with going down the wind and waves, dropped the gennaker maybe to late and not very good, trouble to furl in gennacker, around headsail etc.., but finally ok.

16:00 Wind peeks up to 30 knts, 31 deg.

Night: Reef 1 then 2

Morning: full sail, 18 knts wind, 6.8 knts speed. , Cloudy, Temperatur: moderate, still not really warm.

Sunday, 24.11.2019, 12:30 S T A R T

Finally, after waiting the last few days......, the crossing starts.

- first starts the racing category

- second the "others" cathegory (mostly hudge sailing boats)

- and last..... WE are starting!

3. Leg: Regata from Las Palmas to Saint Lucia

2. Leg: from Vilamoura (Faro, Portugal) to Las Palmas

wind forecast on Saturday, 23.11.2019, 18.00h:

who ever wants to follow us…. download the APP (see pics.), or on a PC: https://www.worldcruising.com/arc/eventfleetviewer.aspx

on apps like VesselFinder, MarineTrafic or sim., we wont be visible since we will be out of the shore range.....

there are 3 categores:

- racing

- others (large boats)

- cruising. We are on the cruising category.

Start: Sunday, 24.11.2019, 12:30h local time, 13.30h Swiss Time

just as a side note.... the fastes boat may not be the winner, because there is a calculation factor (handicap) for every boat. The final results will be announces at the winners ceremony in Saint Lucia, december 21.th.