Trans-Atlantic Crossing Jan. 10-Jan. 31, 2018
2/1/2018
Hi guys no SSB propagation sorry we didn't contact yesterday. Dad was ashore for check in. We are at Nelson's Dockyard for lunch and shopping. Celebrating 3047 nm in 21 days. Free WiFi at this cafe. Sum and 3 gig 110 so didn't buy any yet.
Hi guys WE MADE IT! Yesterday was a sunny slower days with decreasing seas. We took showers in preparation for our arrival. The boys tried fishing again but only caught two that got away. Saw a couple of cargo ships one at the start of my watch. Mike talked to him for awhile sharing destinations and where we've been. Our watches were calm sailing 5-6kts full moon and 2m seas. Total 3047nm 21 days and 1 hour to anchorage! We are anchored in Freeman's Bay, English Harbor on south end of Antigua.
1/31/2018 Al went in to clear customs and immigration 4 hours ago and hasn't come back yet. He had to row in from the anchorage because we didn't have any gas for the motor. We didn't want it slopping around on deck for 3 weeks. Al finally came back tired, hot, hungry and THIRSTY. Give Me A Beer! He did get some dingy gas so the next trip should be easier. Plan to just hang low today and go ashore tomorrow unless we get a sudden burst of energy. Mike and I worked hard while Al was gone. We took down the fort and put up sunscreens. Washed the fort windows and stored them. Put away assortment of lines, ropes, and snatch blocks we won't be needing. Fresh water rinse on the stainless (much easier once we have the watermaker running) Found the dingy motor crane, harness and pump so we can use the bigger dingy to go ashore. Put in the portlight screens and started swatting flies. The water is crystal clear beautiful blue can't wait for a swim. Plan to grill pork chops tonight and hit Nelson's Dockyard tomorrow. Looking forward to a quiet normal nights sleep.
1/30/2018
We thought last nights watch was wild. Mike says "We have to experience purgatory before we reach paradise!" The wind was way down from last night with only 20-30kts. The 5m seas kept washing over the rails and knocking us about. One wave actually lifted our heavy and I mean heavy hatch covers up an inch or so and water poured down into our berth and onto the setee in main cabin. Lots of fun coming off my watch and cleaning up salt water mess. We had to sleep on the setee. Mike was high and dry in the V Berth. Reminded me of our fresh water wash down leaving lake Superior 2005 only then the waves came over the bow to knock you off the helm. It's a beautiful sunny morning with only 115nm to go to Antigua. We will cross our last time zone this afternoon. UTC-4. We will probably slow down overnight so that we don't arrive in the dark. ETA 0800 local time 1200 UTC. Love and God Bless Mom and Dad, Michael Total 2928 Day 20 143nm / 139nm toward Antigua 115nm to English Harbor Antigua Time Tues. Jan. 30 1200 UTC Lst 17 19N / 59 46W COG 270 SOG 6.0 wx sunny wind ENE 23 seas 4m
1/29/2018
Good sailing all day yesterday. Double reefed main and reefed jib. Wild watch last night for all! Mine started with Force 7 30kts and then built to Force 8 .Called for Al when sustained 44kts. By the time he got to the cockpit it was gusting 55. We rolled the jib in for the night. It continued to blow 25-35 for all watches and 4-5m seas pounding the boat so not much sleep. Still trucking along Beaufort 7 and big seas this morning. Time for coffee and some breakfast. Love and God Bless Mom, Dad and Mike We made some good miles Total 2785 Day 20 151nm / 142 toward Antigua waypoint 253 nm to go to Antigua. Time Mon. Jan. 29 1200 UTC Lat 17 40N / Long 57 23W COG 278 SOG 7.0 wx squally wind ENE 30 seas 5m
1/28/2018
Happy Sunday everyone! We feel the end of our journey drawing near. We have 395nm to go to our waypoint off English Harbor, Antigua. We are anticipating an early morning arrival on Wednesday. We had a nice sunny sailing day yesterday and good night watch. The near full moon makes for a friendly night among the high seas. We've been sailing on a starboard tack with a reefed main and staysail. Got a sore bottom from sitting and rocking and rolling all day and all night. These higher seas again make it difficult to sleep other than flat on your back and so my bottom doesn't get a rest even at night! I made my Peppercorn beef/pressure cooker last night with tagitelli. I figured the seas will be higher the next few days. We've been eating well. Down to our last two apples so into the canned fruit after today. Still have a weeks worth of frozen meat before hit the canned goods. Bread and pocket bread gone but lots of multigrain tortilla for sandwiches. Cereal, milk and eggs are plentiful. Looking forward to being able to grill and a glass of wine once at anchor. We've saved some pork chops for that event. Then of course our cookie, chocolate cupboard are well stocked. Hope all is well. Love and God Bless Sally, Al and Michael Time Sun. Jan. 28 1200 Lat 17 59N / Long 54 57 W COG 280 M SOG 6.5 wx sunny tradewind clouds Wind ENE 20-25 Seas 3-4m baro 1015 Total 2634nm Day 19 156nm/138nm to wpt Antigua 395 To Antigua
1/26/2018
Great sailing night. Bright moon and stars and 15-20 kts wind. We felt much success when our mail finally sent yesterday and received. Perhaps we are back in a good propagation area. We would enjoy some news from home. Wonder if Christopher got our voice mail sent on SSB on Wed.? We've received the same email from Judy S three times :-) Excitement as Al got off the radio with email success Mike's fishing reel took off ZING! It was a hard haul in. We had to drop sail to control and slow the boat. The other rod was tangled so we lost that lure but finally Mike had his along side. We gaffed it up on deck. Not sure what it was. Al thought baricuda Mike a mackerel. Long pointed nose, slender body and sharp teeth. We tossed it back as an unknown and besides that it STUNK! Perhaps we'll have better luck fishing soon. Time 1200 Friday Jan. 26 Lat 18 32N /Long 50 15W COG 281 M SOG 6.0kts wx sunny some squalls Wind E20 seas 1.5-2m Total 2337 Day 17 140nm 666nm to Antigua waypoint
1/25/2018
Hi guys, Cloudy squally day yesterday. So lots of sail configurations. Squall came through about 1430 and we turned off and rode with it. Spotted another sailboat and made contact after the squall moved through. Sun Tikki from Denmark heading to Antigua. They are following a rowing regatta we think watching out. So they just sail around where the wind takes them. The regatta is about 250nm ahead of us so something to watch out for in a couple of days. We and Fred from Florida made a SSB radio contact a two way patch to Christopher. But he wasn't able to pick up the call so we left a message that all was well aboard and figure another week or less to go. It all depends on the winds. If it's not a squall we only have 8-12kts of wind. Big wind shift before dinner last night so we made the decision to drop sail and motor on low RPM's overnight. Good decision and a great night for our cockpit enclosure. I had 25 kts of wind and lots of rain at the start of my watch and 35-40kt for over an hour, The jib unfurled a bit but was able to easily reef it in. Finally things settled halfway through my watch. Glad not to be dealing with sails and rain for those 2 hours. Al started the engine just before Mike's watch. Dolpins joined us for breakfast and stayed to play in our bow wave for an half hour. It's a beautiful sunny morning with puffy trade wind clouds. Total 2197nm Day 16 122nm another 799nm to Antigua waypoint. Time 1200 Thurs Jan. 26 Lat 18 45N / Long 47 55W COG 265T 285 M SOG 5.0 wx sunny winds E 10-14 Seas 1.5 baro 1015
1/24/2018
Hi guys, The propagation for sending on the SSB/Pactor hasn't been good. Some days we can send, others receive and sometimes neither. We haven't had a weather report in a few days but we've had a couple of quieter days/nights with light winds and seas. We are catching up after those days of strong winds and big seas! No luck fishing yet but hoping for dinner soon. We had some early morning squalls and beautiful rainbow this morning. Mike finished up his "Z Pak" antibiotic this morning and sounds/feels much better. What ever crud it was Al started in Santa Cruz, I followed and Mike was knocked flat for a few days. Sore throat, fever, aches and horrid cough/ flem. It hit him alot harder than us. I started him on antibiotics on Wednesday. He still has a nasty cough but then my cough has lingered on too. Other excitement last Thursday we had a wind shift while Mike and Al were trying to pull down the Mizzen sail and I was down below. No one at the helm and our spinnaker pole extension broke in two. Thursday night we traveled further south than planned. So Al rigged up the main boom as a pole for the genoa Friday morning. Then Friday afternoon he sawed off the raw edges and straighted the top. He ran some bolts and we are back in business. We just won't run the pole out as far any more. We lost some directional miles when we couldn't sail down wind but are doing better now heading west. Light winds equals fewer miles per day. Squalls again this afternoon which gave us some wind but NO FISH. WOW EXCITEMENT PLUS a whale just broached off the portside. So Cool. Total 1665 nm made Day 12 122nm Still have 1283nm to our Antigua waypoint.
Time 1200 Wed. Jan. 24 Lat 18 57N / 46 02W COG 285 M SOG 6.0 wx cloudy/squalls Wind E 20 Seas 1.5 Total 2075nm Day 15 148nm Wpt Antigua 906nm Nothing major to report. Michael is all better just a lingering light cough. We moved pole so making better heading again. It's a bit squally this morning with lots of wind shifts. Keeps us on our toes. Quiet couple of days reading and enjoying the sun. Passed another time zone last night so now UTC-3. Trying for a phone patch 2 way with Christopher tonight (afternoon)to check in with family.
1/23/2018
Time 1200 Tues. Jan.. 23 Lat 19 05N / Long 43 41W COG 266T 282M SOG 6.0 wx partly cloudy Wind E 15 Seas 1.5 Total 1927 Day 14 130nm 1041 Antigua wpt.
1/22/2018
Time 1200 Jan. 22 Lat 19 32N / Long 41 37W Cog 275 M SOG 5.5 wx partly cloudy Wind E 13 seas 1.5 Total 1797nm Day 13 132nm Hae 1159nm to Antigua wpt.
1/21/2018
Time 1200 Jan. 21 Lat 19 41N / Long 39 25W COG 270 M SOG 5.0 WX partly sunny Wind E 13 seas 1.5m
1/20/2018
Hi guys, We had a little quieter night. We furled all but short amount of genoa overnight. Little squalls came through with light rain for about 5min. then gone throughout the night. Today partly sunny and a bit warmer. Dad and I took nice hot showers. Put clean sheets on our berth after the soaking we got a few days ago. I wanted to wait until we had clean bodies too :-) Only saw one dolphin after dark last night but perhaps there were more. It was sprinkling so I didn't investigate. No fishing yet as we didn't want to deal with the mess in these high seas. We made 145nm the last 24hrs with grand Total of 1137nm. 1892 to BVI. Toilet was plugged for a few days so used holding tank. Dad worked it loose with vinegar and determination. We've changed 2 time zones so far with 2 more to go. Lat 20 51/Long 30 50
1/19/2018
Global Maritime Net said they'd call Christoper to have you check Winlink kc0rmx for our position report each day. 1200 Jan. 19 Lat 20 02 N / Long 35 19 Total 1419nm Day 10 141nm Flying the Mizzen staysail today See how that goes... Very rocky night and couldn't sail directly downwind without spinnaker pole. Hopefully we'll make better westerlies today. We have changed our destination to Antigua for landfall and then sail up to BVI (about 100+nm)
1/16/2018
Hi guys, We are heading westerly with trade winds. The pole is set on a starboard tack with double reefed main. We have ENE winds 20kts so keeping a steady 6.5-7.5 kts. We ran light yesterday and night with just the double reefed main because of high winds and seas. We only made 137nm Total of 992nm. Gee only another 2030nm to go to BVI. It's been a busy rough first week but settling in nicely for our westerly run. Of course Mom got pooped on again last night on watch. We all had our turn of a dousing during the day yesterday. The forecast is for the seas to start dropping down to and below 3m and lighter winds. First real cloudy day with some patches of blue. It's getting warmer out as we head west. My fanny strap isn't as useful on this tack as I now roll toward the galley and away. I gave myself a wallop making dinner so have adjusted my galley positions to accomodate. We had yummy beef stew in the pressure cooker last night. This morning we had a chinese firedrill as we moved the pole from the port to starboard in 25kts of wind and 3+ meters of seas. All the lines kept tangling in the wind a simple job made difficult. The boat is balancing out and fewer waves want to splash aboard. Lat 20. 49N Long 28 21N
1/15/2018
Hi guys, We are heading westerly now with trade winds. It was a windy day yesterday and building from 3-4m seas. Not near as high as our 2006 Atlantic crossing but more uncomfortable as they are directly behind us. We sailed with reefed main and staysail then switched to a double reefed main and no head sail for the night. We just keep flying along at 6.5-7.5 kts but atleast now we are westerly instead of SW. We had left over pork roast/sauerkraut/potatoes for dinner. Mom seems to get all the excitement on her watch. Took a wave into the cockpit about 2300 and right through the open aft portlight dousing Dad and our bed. I had a 8" of water at my feet and wet wet! Stripped the bed and Dad and I had to change into dry clothes then back to watch duty and sleep for Dad. Winds still 20-25 this morning with 4m seas. We're expecting things to settle down this next 24hr.
1/14/2018
Hi guys, We had good sailing the last 24 hours and we made 145 nm. Total 561nm. During the day we had Sunny nice NE 15-20kt with 2.2m seas that grew by evening and during the night to NE 20-25kt with 2.5m seas. Still a bit noisy and rocky for sleep. Lat 22 14/Long 21 45 at noon UTC. I rigged up a fanny strap in the galley last night so it was easier working with 2 hands. Chili over baked potatoes. Mom had a bit of excitement on her watch as the Moniter steering came off the wheel and I kind of "hove to"S while Grandpa came to the rescue. We used the autopilot the rest of the night and re-rigged the Monitor lines in daylight. We also switched the sails to a starboard tack so we are now able to make more of a SW direction 255 instead of SSW 215. Always lots of fun setting the pole and dropping the mizzen with 25kts downwind. Actually more fun than usual but all turned out well and seems to be a good balance. We're expecting a bit more wind and increasing seas this evening.
1/12/2018
Hi guys, We had good sailing the last 24 hours and we made 152 nm. Total 416nm. During the day we had nice NE 15-20kt with 2.5m seas that grew by evening and during the night to NE 20-30kt with 3m seas. So we've had a couple of rough nights sleeping. When the big seas would pass under the boat our 7.5kts zipped up to 8.4 kts of speed. Rather awesome at night as the white surf of the breaking waves appear huge in the dark. Millions of stars reflecting in the sea and phosphoresence (sp) lighting the seas. We're sailing with staysail, full main and mizzen on a port tack. That makes working in the galley a bit of a challenge as the waves hit and roll me away from the stove. One mishap...I lost the serving tub of potatoes as they flew across the cabin. Fortunately Mike and Al already had theirs. Gentle reminder to the cook of what not to do when serving up. Pork roast and sauerkraut tonight. We've been eating well despite the rough seas. We actually had a bit of excitement after dinner as a fishing boat was wandering about and seemed to keep turning into our path. Finally we veered off and sailed past about 1.5nm off our starboard.
Today mostly clear sky NE winds 15 and calmer seas 2.3meter. The outlook overnight looks good with NE 15-20 and 2.2m seas. Perhaps we'll have better sleeping conditions. Our current Lat/Long is 24 15N/20 41W
1/11/2018
Hi guys We had a quiet day motoring with main sail into light SE winds no seas yesterday and through the night. We had dolphins early evening and then again early this morning. Mom turned off the engine at 0500 this morning and pulled out the jib. By 0700 I pulled the mizzen up too. Guys got up about 0800 and our day began. Not much to report. Winds died again by noon. We've tried several sail configurations and are now heading south to pick up some winds. We only made 135nm our first 24 hours. Hope things will improve. We are expecting some wind tomorrow. Our Latitude 27.28N Long 18 18N. Trying to get into a routine and watch schedule that works for everyone.
1/10/2018
Hi guys we departed Marina Santa Cruz today Tuesday January 9 at 1000 UTC. Alan Gobbins is a sailing friend from UK and he will aid us with some weather as we cross. Our departure LAT 28 28N Long 16 15W We are heading 209 for now and plan 274 to Virgin Gorda, BVI. We have sunny 70 F light SW winds this morning and slight seas but a forecast for NE so we hope as we move down the island it will improve. We don't expect to clear the Canary Islands until tomorrow about this time.
