Atlantic ocean crossing: day 1-7 (#16)

We had been checking the weather on a daily basis for a few weeks and had to wait a bit longer than expected before we could leave due to a storm in the neighbourhood. Sunday the 21st of February would be the day!

The crew, Evi and Francisco, arrived on February 17, after a few days of delay due to some Covid issues. Anyway they made it in time to get settled on the boat and help with the final preparations, like the provisioning.

Provisioning ...

A few weeks before we planned to leave we ordered the book ‘The Cruising Chef Cookbook’ thanks to a tip from a video of Ryan and Sophie. This book had a lot of helpful information on planning and provisioning, along with many recipes of course. We used it as a guide to make our shopping list.

On Thursday we rented a van and went to a large supermarket to buy all of our groceries. We first filled two shopping carts with drinks and after putting all of it in the car we went back in for food, lots of pasta, rice, canned goods and snacks.

This took us a few hours and it was quite a tiring job. Around noon we picnicked by the car and after lunch we went back to the supermarket a final time to buy fruits, vegetables and frozen products. We could hardly fit everything in the car.

Happy to have finished all the shopping we headed back to the boat for the even harder part: carrying everything to and onto the boat and try to store it all away. It took us a few more hours and we were all exhausted by the end of the day.

The final preparations ...

During the last two days before our departure we did a final check-up of Nohma.

We inspected all the rigging, sails and the autopilot, we did an engine and oil check, inspected the bilges. We also tested the emergency water pump again, installed a fuel pump and bought a small generator for backup power if needed.

I had to repair the lazy-bag because some of the stitches got loose, not an easy job because the fabric is quite thick to sew and it also took me a while to get a hang of the easy stitcher that I used for the first time.

On Saturday Evi and I took another quick trip to a supermarket for some final things we hadn’t found in the other supermarket before. And afterwards we made sure that everything was ready to leave early the next morning. We stored everything away that we wouldn’t need or could break during the crossing. For dinner we ordered 4 huge pizzas so we would have some left the next day and then we went to bed early and anxious to leave in the morning.

Departure day ...

We woke up early and a bit nervous to start our adventure. After a quick and light breakfast we checked out at the Marina office and filled up the tanks. We anchored the boat in the river to store away the fenders and mooring lines and to secure the dinghy. All set and ready to start our big trip we sailed out of the river. The waves were high and quite rough and the sky was dark grey in the distance. After a few minutes when we wanted to hoist the mainsail we realised we forgot to open the lazy bag. Because it is a hazard to open it at sea, especially in these weather conditions we decided to turn back to the river and safely open the lazy bag there. After double checking we didn’t forget anything else we headed out again. We left Portimão at 11:24 a.m. on Sunday, February 21. The plan was to sail to the Caribbean without any stops so we wouldn’t set foot on land for the next 30 days.

We hoisted the mainsail, furled out the jib and set course. It was quiet for a while but when we approached the grey mass of clouds it started to rain and the wind gusted up to 32 knots. Luckily behind this cloud front the sky slowly opened up and we had some sun and some smoother sailing.

Around 16:00 we spotted the first dolphins, a lot of them... and we also saw a turtle. By the time the sun set around 18:00 p.m. we had lost sight of the land behind us.

During the night we did a rotating 3 hour watch system. Because our crew was inexperienced we made sure there were always two people awake during the night.

We had some periods of very little wind, which made it hard for the autopilot to keep course, so Sven ran the engine for a while during his second shift.

It was nice to have moonlight so we wouldn’t have to stare in the darkness the entire night. There were a lot of dark clouds in the distance but luckily with very little rain. It was a bumpy first 24 hours but except from Francisco who felt seasick a few times we all felt pretty good. All though, it was a good thing that we had the leftover pizzas from the night before because nobody really felt like cooking during our first day out at sea.

The following days ...

Day 2 - I woke up at 7:00 am for my 5-hour morning shift just as the sun began to rise.

We were trying a watch system of 3 hours at night and 5 hours during the day, which rotated so everyone had the chance to enjoy either the sunset or the sunrise. The 5 hours during the day were to make sure we could have one longer period of sleep every day.

It was a beautiful sunrise coming from behind the clouds. The kids woke up around 7:40 a.m. and joined Sven and me on the flybridge. At 8:00 a.m. Sven could go to sleep and Evi joined me for the morning watch.

It was quite a boring day. It stayed bumpy and the wind kept pushing us east. So there wasn’t a lot of action, all we did was change watches and wait for the wind to shift. The day was mostly sunny. In the afternoon we were finally able to change course and sail south-west. No beautiful sunset in the evening due to the clouds that came in late afternoon. During the night we continued our course south-west.

I was super tired when I had to wake up for my watch the next night. My alarm had been going off for ten minutes before I woke up. I knew before we started this adventure that the watches would be the hardest part of the trip for me. But thanks to the long conversations with Evi during the night I had less trouble staying awake and the nights were actually more fun than expected.

Day 3 - In the morning we were treated to another beautiful sunrise.

It was a clear blue sky and nice to sit in the sunshine. The sea was unfortunately still very choppy, but we were making better progress than the last few days as the wind had picked up. When I woke up in the morning Sven had found a little squid on the deck, it probably landed there after being chased by fish. We had seen some fish jumping in front of the boat the day before. We put the squid in the fridge so we could use it for fishing later.

Sven made some pasta. It was the first time that I felt like eating a warm meal, my stomach hadn’t been up to it so far.

In the afternoon I was listening to the podcast of ‘over de oceaan’. They were just talking about sea birds and that it’s possible that they land on your boat every now and then. And just at that moment we spotted a bird flying by, kind of wobbly, and as it approached us we noticed it was a pigeon. The pigeon flew around our boat a few times and then landed on top of our solar panels. It just sat there, looking very tired. After a few moments of resting it came closer, this was obviously a tame pigeon, it wasn't afraid of us. We gave it some water, bread and seeds and after a good meal it found a place to rest on the boat.

The sky stayed clear during the entire day and night. The sunset was beautiful and the sky coloured beautifully red, orange and pink for a long time after the sun had set. At night we had a lot of light from the moon. It’s fun sailing at night like that. And once the moon had set around 5 in the morning we could see so much stars, amazing!!

Day 4 - When I woke up just before noon the guys had already tried to fly the spinnaker and were fishing. The sky was clear and blue and the water was a lot calmer than the previous days. We enjoyed the sun on the rooftop during this beautiful day.

Our pigeon had stayed the entire night to rest but after some food and water in the morning it felt strong enough to take off. And not without leaving us some souvenirs, I had to clean up a lot of pigeon poop. Other than that it was a quiet day, we prepared some food and enjoyed the calmness of the sea. Liam and I spotted some dolphins in the distance around 4:oo p.m.

The following evening remained calm, there was no wind so we turned on the engine, which made that we could catch up on sleep a little bit by sleeping in short periods during the watches.

At 2:00 am a lot of thick, dark clouds had come in and the main halyard started making a screeching noise. We put a reef in the mainsail to prepare for the squall that was coming our way. For about half an hour we had gusts up to 20 knots and our speed was around 7 to 8 knots. Afterwards the wind shifted direction and decreased so we had to motor again to stay on the right course. But not for long...

Day 5 - In the morning the wind picked up again. We were surfing the waves at top speeds of over 10 knots with a wind speed of approximately 15 to 17 knots. The sky was grey and the waves choppy but we were happy to be going fast. We decided to head a bit more east and go behind the Canary Islands, this would protect us from any depression or big waves on the west side of the islands.

Sven tried some fishing in the afternoon, without any luck.

In the late afternoon we had another visitor, a little swallow that was looking for a place to rest. We tried to give it some food and water, but it kept flying around the boat and trying to get inside to find a resting spot. He finally settled inside, in the galley.

Around sunset the wind starting taking off so we turned on the engine to motor-sail. Because there wasn’t enough wind the mainsail kept flapping and the noise drove us crazy so we eventually decided to drop the mainsail and motor through the night. A good decision because even though the wind picked up a little during the night, it kept shifting direction too much.

It was a tiring night. Sven had been up too much so the rest of us decided to sleep on the flybridge taking turns on watch while Sven could catch up on some sleep down below. I was looking forward to going to sleep in my bed in the morning. But on the other hand I was very happy that I was on the flybridge around sunrise. It was magical... while the first signs of the sunrise became visible the moon was setting on the other side... a large, bright, full moon approaching the water. At one moment it looked like a large ball was floating on the ocean. Truly incredible to see. And just after the sunrise we were greeted by dolphins... what a beautiful morning after such a long night, these are the moments that make it all worthwhile.

Day 6 - When I went down below to get some breakfast the swallow was still sleeping in the galley. And a few hours later it was still there in the same spot, so we checked on it and found out it had died. We think that it got separated from his flock, got lost and became exhausted.

In the morning Liam spotted a lot of sea turtles swimming by our boat.

The waves were high and rough that day, it was again impossible to prepare any food. Just as I was in the galley a huge wave made the boat rock and I flew from one end of the galley all the way to the other side slamming into a kitchen cabinet. The result was another big bruise to add to the collection.

It was the roughest day so far. But on the map, the Canary Islands were finally in sight. In the evening we sailed over the underwater volcano just north of the Canary Islands. There were a lot of very high waves in this area, the highest ones were around 6 to 7 meters.

It was another very rough night. We received an alert from the coast guard that a refugee boat was spotted and we had to look out for it. So when we saw a floating light pass by our boat a few hours later we were immediately alert. We called the coast guard to let them know. We stayed on a close lookout for the rest of the night. Alongside the concern for encountering a refugee boat we had trouble with the shifting wind, it made the boom want to shift from one side to the other the entire time. And since we were sailing toward a cargo ship lane it was a matter of jibing the boat at the right moment but also not too soon, we didn’t want to end up in between the cargo ships.

Day 7 - After that tiring night with little sleep we were relieved to see a bright sunrise and a clear sky. The waves settled down a bit once we were sailing behind Lanzarote. We were able to prepare lunch and eat around the table all together for the first time in 7 days. Afterwards we did the dishes and cleaned the galley and flybridge. Meanwhile we received another call on the VHF for all ships to watch out for a refugee boat. While the guys were on the deck with their binoculars they also threw out the fishing line.

We used the water maker to fill up the water tanks, works amazing!! I got to take a long hot shower and wash my hair.

We enjoyed the sunshine in the afternoon and I prepared dinner. Just as I started on the dinner the waves became higher and rougher so it was quite a challenge.

In the evening we started a new watch schedule since our crew was now somewhat more experienced. We decided on a 2-hour watch system where there would only be one person awake at a time but a second person would have to be stand-by. It meant that everyone would get more sleep, great!!

Before sunset Evi and Francisco practised on taking the helm and it was already after sunset that we decided to reef the mainsail for safety at night. It’s normally something we do before it gets dark in case anything should go wrong but on this day the sun was already gone by the time we got to it. And of course that’s when things go wrong: the jib furling line got stuck. So Sven had to go out on the front deck to inspect the problem, it turned out the line was twisted around something at the forestay. We were lucky that Sven and Francisco managed to fix it and we didn’t have a lot of damage, only the little glider on the flybridge broke. This was another reminder that it’s better to start preparing for the night well before sunset.

Strangely enough it seemed like the nights were getting colder, it became harder to do the watches from the flybridge. But that might also have been because we were all starting to get very tired. We hoped the new watch system would be the solution.

This was the first week of our big sailing trip, overall a week with rough sea conditions. But luckily there were also some calmer moments every now and then so we could catch a breath. We were looking forward to leaving the Canary Islands behind us and sailing more south to warmer weather and in the direction of the trade winds that were going to take us west. That’s were the real crossing of the Atlantic Ocean would begin…

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