Atlantic ocean crossing: day 8-14 (#17)

We had already been one week out at sea, a rough one but with some great moments. In the next week we would leave the Canary Islands behind us and head more south, in the direction of Cape Verde until we reached the trade winds. We were up for some heavy weather though…

Day 8 - It felt like we had reached another time zone because it seemed like the sun rose later every day. We sent a mail out to Niels, our onshore crew leader, to check when we had to change our clocks.

Otherwise we would soon see the sun rising in the afternoon, lol.

The kids woke up early and joined me on my watch in the saloon. They had breakfast and we spotted some dolphins swimming in front of the boat.

After everyone had woken up we put on some music and decided to have a crazy music hour. We danced the ‘polonaise’ in the carré and cockpit, we had a lot of fun. A good way to keep us from going crazy out there at sea, or it might have been to late already, lol.

We spent most of the rest of the day on the flybridge, watching dolphins. It was a sunny day, there wasn’t a lot of wind until in the late afternoon and the waves had been mild. Once the wind picked up in the evening we started having troubles with our autopilot. The autopilot kept refusing to keep course so by the evening we had to drop the sail and turn on the engine to be able to steer on autopilot.

Day 9 - Early in the morning our crew suddenly woke us up. By the time we realised what was going on we were only a few moments away from a collision with a cargo ship that was not visible on AIS. I took the helm to steer away from the cargo ship and passed it astern. We tried calling them over the radio but couldn’t get in contact. It was a weird situation… we were definitely wide-awake after this incident.

It was a beautiful, sunny day with light winds so we took out the spinnaker.

In the afternoon another pigeon landed on our boat. The band around it’s paw mentioned ‘Gran Canaria’, we don’t know where it was supposed to fly too but it seemed like it was lost at sea. We gave it some water and seeds and let it rest.

Just before sunset we spotted a lot of dolphins swimming toward us, but really a lot, they kept on coming. We all went to the front deck to see them, there were at least 30 dolphins surrounding us. They stayed swimming along with us for more than 20 minutes. Another one of those magical, unforgettable moments of our ocean crossing.

Day 10 - The night had been relatively calm, the wind had picked up in the evening and stayed steady during the night. The waves increased in the morning.

The pigeon was still here. We hoped it would have rested enough during to night to leave in the morning (like the previous one did) but this one looked like it had no plans to go yet. And it wasn’t a big problem that it was there, but the poop everywhere...

We tried to catch the pigeon so that at least the poop would be concentrated in one place. We had to give up after a few attempts; it kept flying away… and coming back. When it started looking around for more food in the afternoon we managed to lure it close enough and trap it in the laundry basket. There it would be able to get some more rest and we hoped that after some more food and water the pigeon would be strong enough to fly away the next morning.

All day the waves had been high and choppy, we couldn’t do anything but lay down. Everyone felt a little sick at some point.

Sven however managed to make pizza in the evening but nobody was feeling hungry. We all ate a little bit and left the rest for the next day. Sven had deserved some rest and it was time for the crew to start their first watch of the night.

The wind had picked up in the evening and the waves were still the same height. We would have to keep a close eye on the wind so we could put an extra reef in the mainsail if necessary. We did make good progress during that night thanks to the high winds. During our watch Evi and I spotted another boat in the distance without AIS, later it also showed up on the radar. We watched it for a while but all was safe, it was probably a fishing boat.

Day 11 - In the morning the sea state was still the same, only the wind took off a little bit. Sven released the pigeon from the laundry basket and threw it in the direction of the land but it still kept coming back to us. So he tried scaring it off, which didn’t work either. The pigeon was staying. We tried another time in the afternoon when another boat passed by, hoping it would fly over there but still no luck. So back in the laundry basket it went.

It was a rough day with high waves and a choppy sea. One of those days when you feel sick every now and then and you ask yourself: “why are we doing this?” It was already the second rough day in a row and the forecast didn’t promise any improvement for the next few days. Luckily the kids were not bothered by the rough conditions, they could sit in the saloon and play with the Lego without feeling sick.

We had sailed south the entire day and jibed to the west for the night. It was pitch black during the first part of the night which was a bit scary sometimes. The waves were banging hard against the boat and without being able to see the high waves coming, sometimes we got the feeling like we were going to flip over. I definitely prefer the moon lit nights.

The wind was blowing hard and we were going at a good speed of 6 to 7 knots.

Just like the night before we spotted a boat without AIS, about two miles away from us, probably another fishing boat.

Day 12 - After watching the sunrise during my morning shift, I went down to help the kids with breakfast. The sailing conditions still hadn’t changed, the wind and waves had not decreased, it was still rough. The only advantage of this situation was that we were making good progress, we sailed at an average speed of 6,5 knots.

In his daily email, Ben (our friend from San Francisco who helped us with the weather routing) advised us to start heading west to avoid as much of the high winds and waves that would come from a storm above the Canary Islands on Sunday as possible. We were almost at 23 degrees north at that point.

It was another boring day without much to do due to us getting sick on these waves unless we laid down.

The kids played with the Lego all day, building a lot of beautiful constructions. I listened to an audiobook and tried to get some rest. At noon we watched a movie together.

Just after sunset, like on the previous days the wind picked up and the waves became slightly higher. Right before it got completely dark a gust of up to 30 knots apparent wind surprised us. The autopilot turned off and the boat started turning in the wind. Sven raced up to the flybridge, where Evi had just started her watch, to steady the boat. I went up to help and we put a second reef in the mainsail for the night. It’s not the easiest thing to do on our boat but we were actually getting good at it, we were becoming a good team. We were good to go for the night but we would have to pay close attention to the wind gusts and be ready to take the helm and steer the boat if the autopilot failed again. During the first part of the night no gusts as high as the first one occurred any more.

But the wind shifted direction a lot during that night and because our autopilot was on wind mode that caused us to change course sometimes. During those moments the waves hit our boat from the side. Some waves were pretty high and made us rock hard. During my sleep I woke up from one of these waves, almost rolling out of my bed, still half asleep it felt to me like we were going to flip over. Not a great feeling to wake up to, I can tell you that.

Just after I started my watch at 2:00 am another heavy gust hit us and caused the autopilot to fail, again. Sven and I jumped up at the helm to steer the boat back to its course before it completely turned in the wind, lost all speed and banged onto the waves.

It was another dark night; the moon rose late and even when it did it was mostly hidden behind the clouds. We hadn’t seen a single boat in the neighbourhood all day or night.

We made good progress during the night, with speeds between 5 and 8 knots, in an apparent wind of 17 to 22 knots, and gusts up to 30 knots.

It seemed like I was getting used to sleeping in shifts. Where as before I would feel completely miserable after just a few hours of sleep (didn’t matter if it was night or day), now my body seemed to have adapted to 1,5 hour nap periods. Even when I could stay in bed longer, I would wake up after 1,5 hours. I wonder how long after arriving in Martinique I would have to adjust to a normal sleeping rhythm again.

Day 13 - The waves seemed to be even bigger than the previous days. We surfed the high waves all day, and occasionally had to endure a big slam due to the shifting wind causing the waves to hit us from the side.

We spotted a cargo ship on the chart but it was too far to be able to see it.

At night the gusts were heavy and frequent, and the waves were still high. It was pitch black again so the only thing we could see were the white tops of the breaking waves in the glow of the navigation lights. The gusts up to 32 knots, together with the high waves made it a hard night. We had to stay cautious and ready to take the helm whenever the autopilot turned off. We had already sent several mails about our autopilot problem but still hadn’t been able to resolve the issue.

Around 5:00 am we had gusts of 36 knots so Sven had to hand steer a few times. Around 6:00 a.m. we spotted some rain on the radar but it dissolved before we reached it.

Day 14 - The high winds of the night before lasted all day and the waves were not necessarily higher but they were sharper and rougher. They banged against our hulls all day, throwing us around on the boat. Whenever a few big waves followed each other closely it felt like riding a rodeo bull.

This was the hardest day so far. We were not able to cook anything, we could only rest and watch a few movies with the kids.

In the afternoon we started preparing for the heavy night that was predicted. Gusts to well over 30 knots. On Ben’s advice we started by putting in the 3rd reef. But just before sunset we decided to completely lower the mainsail and we furled the gib to approximately 30%. We also prepared some lines at the back of the boat to use as a drag if necessary. It seemed like the intensity of the waves had decreased a bit, they were still the same height but somewhat smoother.

Finally we attached some extra lifelines from the cockpit up to the flybridge to attach ourselves when going to and from the flybridge at night.

We were ready for what appeared to be a very long and hard night.

This was the end of our second week out at sea. And it wasn’t a very pleasant one with it’s high winds and high and rough waves. Unfortunately it wasn’t over yet…

Join us again next week for a few more hard days and a nearly man-over-board situation before the sea started to calm down and we got some time to breathe again.

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