We landed at Barbados Wednesday 22nd. after 16 days over the Atlantic from Cabo Verde.
The crossing went good, even with some abnormal heavy sea for the season. The only damages done was splitting the Genaker ( spinaker sail) into peaces on a night with 25 knots wind. I think it can be repaired.
Thanks to Kjell Arne who has updated the blog while we were crossing.
Also thank to Charles on board, who has been documented almost everything that has happen on board during the crossing. I will copy his dairy to the blog now.
I have a couple pictures from the crossing also.
Myself steering in heavy sea but warm weather.
Christian steering same day.
Here are the documentary from Charles.
Mindelo, Sao Vicente / Cabo Verde to Bridgetown, Barbados
Watches:
12-15 Fränzi & Charles
15-18 Bent & Christian
18-21 Jonas
21-24 Fränzi & Charles and so on
The coordinates are Noon observations
06.12.10 16 53 N 24 59 W Exit
07.12.10 16 10 N 25 44 W Black men’s revenge
Already yesterday the diesel made funny sounds. Today he finished sputtering! Jonas voted for “return back to Mindelo” and Fränzi saw us already drifting into nowhere. We need the “Yanmar” urgently, as he is our only meaning for charging the batteries, and without electricity no fridge (cold beer), no autopilot (very handy) and last but not least no navigation instruments! But Bent said: “Let’s see, we got the technology!” As we all knew, Bent is not stressed that easy. So: Port cabin (ours) that has also fuel tank, water separator and so on cleaned out, tools prepared, and here we (better he) goes. We did want to fill diesel and water, but not that way. The whole fuel system was full of water and dirt!! So clean everything and get the air out. Better but not well. There must be air sucked in the system somewhere. After a long search the waterseperator was found guilty. Get him out cleaned and reinstalled. After several attempts, including private stuff and bed in and out the cabin we decided to have the thing checked on land. The separator was bypassed and the cabin rearranged. The “Yanmar” runs again as smooth as a sewing machine and there is no diesel smell in our bedroom!!!
08.12.10 15 17 N 26 38 W Westward
Juan, who left with us in his small catamaran told us by “Iridium” (White man has powerful magic!) that where he was, further in the north and to the west the winds were favorable. Therefore we turned to the Barbados. The winds are WNW and constant. Almost ideal.
This night Bent had a “near miss”. A fishing vessel towed a net and (unlighted) buoys and steered rather erratic. We missed one of the buoys by a few meters and ended almost as “Caned tuna!” Further more there was not much to observe. Some flying fish, some of them visited us on board, shooting stars, here and there an airplane and lots and lots of horizon. No dolphins or whales. Never the less something must pass underneath us, as the depthmeter shows in a 5000 m deep ocean often 2 m or so. Submarines???
09.12.10 15 07 N 28 46 W Salted Meat
For dinner Chris our shipscook had planed rice with fresh vegetables and
Peaces of ham. The vegetables were super, the rice missed a little salt, but oh shit, the ham was salted to conserve it and uneatable. The rest of the ham we put in water and left it there for 24 h. Now it tastes like normal ham.
Finally we got the longed for wind, 9 m/s to 15 m/s. In addition there is a 7 m swell and 3 m waves out of different directions. Cross seas!! If you get them right you can surf them. If not (what happens to me a lot), the boat heeles over as hell!! When the wave brakes just before she meets the boat, we and the boat get a decent shower. No tragedy, the water is 31 C!
11.12.10
14 57 N 33 58 W Bathroom
As we only have 400 L freshwater in the tank, the bathroom is the stern platform. To fill the bucket at 8 knt and not go over board (the platform is well under the soap) is tricky. Further nothing exciting. Cross seas!! Today we reduced Juans advance to 30 NM. Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner and as dessert Dolphins visited us again.
12.12.10 14.46 N 36 40 W Plotter Breakdown
Yesterday the Plotter went in!! Bent has a program in his computer, but the later is not waterproof! He is on the chart table (where our days rarely lie charts) and not in the cockpit. This morning Bent took the plotter apart, cleaned all the contacts, did some wizard tricks reassembled it and we have a working Plotter again in the cockpit. The thing that Bent can not fix needs to be invented fist!
The line of the 2. reef is frayed. I spliced a replacement in the old one and we threaded it
through sail and boom and back to the cockpit. That was the plan, but it turned out a bit to short. So back to “Start”. With 3 m waves we needed a good hold and safety lines. Never the less an interesting exercise.
To crown the day Juan of the “NICORA II” told us on VHF that he was only 5 NM to the south. We changed course and met him in the “middle of nowhere”. A pretty small boat for Juan (Catalan), Hilde (Norwegian) and Nana (English Fox terrier)
Joan and Hilde at Necora II which I get to know at Lanzarote in October.
Here one week after departure from Cabo Verde we found them again
in the middle of the Atlantic.
13.10.12 14 57 N 33 58 W Make and mend day
In the Morning we did run into a decent squall. Bent and Christian on watch profited for a sweetwater shower. All the others slept through it. A lot on ZEPHYR repaired and cleaned.
5 -10 m/s wind, good speed. Rolled in the front sail to give NICORA II a chance to catch up with us. In the evening they were still 12 nm west and 3 south of us. Hilde, having very little sailing experience, feels safer with a boat nearby. For all of us it is nice to know another boat in the vicinity, in the case we get attacked by a container. With 8 of us (+1 .a dog) NICORA II would be pretty crowded, being overloaded already
14.12.10 14 20 N 40 56 W Good deal!
We turned the ships watch back one more hour as we are pretty much in the middle of our Atlantic crossing.” Bucket over board” maneuver. In the process of getting water for the dishes, we lost a bucket, but saved him by lashing.” Bucket over board” maneuver“. NICORA did finally catch up with us and we traded salted pork and some sausages for Dorado they catched. What a deal! It was the best onboard menu so far.
15.12.10 14 05 N 42 59 W Our Dorado
His morning we had a Big fish on the hook. Unfortunately the line was to weak and he
escaped with the bait. The weak line was changed for a serious one, and : next try. While
Christian was preparing yesterdays Dorado, we got another one on the hook. Ca. 70 cm und
3 kg. The Dorado was sent into a better world by a portion „Kosnerkova“ (60% Vodka), in his
gills!
My first Dorado ever. Fantastic good.
16.12.10 13 53 N 45 23 W Cruising
Diner: Dorado on peppersauce. NICORA did fort the first time not roll in the foresail for the night. So we could follow here with half Genoa and had not to wait for here till noon with rolled in foresail. Furthermore live goes on his regular path.
17.12.10 13.39 N 47 41 W Goodbye Genaker
This morning we had a fish on the hook, but again to big. He destroyed the swivel and went of. Bent put on a 45 kg line and a serious bait. Now we are fishing for Tuna or Marlin!!!
The NICORA got all here sails out ant took of to the horizon. A while later we set the Genaker and took on the chase. Very slowly we got nearer. In the afternoon we profited from the moderate Atlantic swell ( ca. 3 m) and filled more water from the 5 l bottles into the handier 1.5 l ones.
At night the Genaker responded violently to any lack of concentration. A little to high in the wind and he started flapping as hell. If we were hit by a bigger than average wave, and not on our toes, the boat turned upwind in spite of full contrary rudder. We figured a touch to much to the lee would be the safe side. At the beginning of my watch I interpreted the “touch” a bit to generous (I was also putting the safety line at another strongpoint) and put a serious twist in it. Everybody on deck and we got the Genaker flying again. Later on, due to a serious swell and the boat luving up, the Genaker tore himself to peaces. Luckily I was not on the wheel.
18.12.10 13 29 N 50 26 W Food & Drink
This Morning another fish escaped. The stronger line was attached to the weaker one. The clutch did not withstand the pull of the fish and the weaker one broke. Our equipment and we are not „Atlantic fishing“compatible! But we do not give up.
For Breakfast there is something eggy like omelets, scrambled and so on. Lunch is „tapas like“and diner is spaghetti, mashed potatoes, ravioli, rice the desalted ham or sausages. There are still some fresh vegetables left!
But today a serious matter occurred! The beer level is low. So the captain rationed the beer to 3 cans a day a person. And three more days to go!! That is grimm. There is still plenty wine left. The red is not a “Chateau Margaux” but drinkable if you are real desperate. CarlosIII, Johny Walker and Gordons Dry is enough.
19.12.10 13 17 N 52 53 W Surgery
Another big fish on the hook again. But once more the brake of the wheel was to weak. So Bent decided to take the line around a winch. A big wave threw him over to the Port steering wheel. He did hit his hip, but worse he was bleeding strong from a scalp wound. It looked serious So we went for Per Olav’s Emergency kit. Before leaving Frederikstad Per Olav did teach him how to sew. Bent gave me a brief outline how to stitch and how to tie the knots. The knot I knew (Riggers call it a “Surgeons knot“of course) but not how to do it quickly with a hemostat and pincers. Now I knew. We started cleaning, disinfecting and shaving. When all the blood was gone the wound turned out to be not so big and we decided that sewing by a “Baby Surgeon” would not improve the situation. So we decided to put only on some antiseptic paste a band aid and a Bandana. I war relived that I can restrict myself to sewing parachutes!!!
PS 5 m behind the boat the Dorado tore the bait of the line. That after a 30 min fight with the beast. Fuc… fish.
Not as bad as it looks. And no sawing nessesary.
20.12.10 13 10 N 55 29 W Calming monotone
Today we set the watches back one hour: Barbados time. The Last Dorado escaped with our last octopus bait. Chris made of his “Helly Hansen” a new one. Until the evening no fish trapped in the fake. Juan on the contrary had a Barracuda. Hilde cleaned it and we traded a big peace against a pack of ray bred. To get the boats together we made a 360 and caught our own fishing line. Finally we had the boats niche parallel with 2 m distance, as last time. The trade by throwing the goods was uneventful!
Cutting Finished Bait
21.12.40 13 05 N 57 36 W Finally Sailing
Tonight was Full moon and a total eclipse! In the morning the longed for squall came and all stood in the cockpit and enjoyed the Sweetwater shower. The swell is much less and finally we do not have to wait for NICORA with 2 reefs and no foresail. In the afternoon the wind calmed down more and more and we did spinnaker for a while. But now it is motoring until the winds should pick up in the morning again. Tonight, during our 3-6 shift we expect to see the first Lights of the Barbados.
22.12.40 13 05 N 59 58 W Landfall
Landed at the cruising terminal Barbados to check in with imigration, custom and harbour offices.
Celebrating the successful crossing of the Atlantic.
This Morning at 06:00 Christian saw land. I expected some kind of mountain or at lest hill, but Barbados is flat as a pancake. We switched on the FM and were soaked in mit „Rudolph the red nose Reindeer“in all styles and Variations. Chrismasterror has us back!! The whole Night and most of the day: engine. We arrived at Bridgetown at 15:30 (local). After a long search in the harbor we localized the emigration, and bent cleared us in. The harbor is full of cruise ships. In the Dark we urgently had to assembled the rubber dingy, as the city waited to be explored. Before we went to town Bent opened a bottle of “Moet & Chandon to celebrate the Atlantic crossing.
