Our First Atlantic Crossing – DestinationAntigua

 

I am informed by Sarah that it will not only be the first but also the last!  However we duly started in the late evening of the 9th in a good forecast of NE winds and smooth seas. We had a good start for the first two days averaging 6.5kts.  Our weather forecasting is obtained by sending an automated email created on the computer, which is returned quickly with the required data from the US weather centre.  We ask for wind, surface pressure and wave heights for an area approximately 200nms N and S of us and 600nms W of our position.  This is done at least once per day given a successful connection to the Iridium network.  As a result, we were aware that there was a forecast hole in the winds and duly experienced flat calms for a period on the third day.  It has been frustrating but good for the soul.

 

Tom was ill but the rest of the crew quickly settled into the routine of keeping the boat moving and at the same time doing all the domestic chores.  We have been baking fresh bread every morning for our wake up bacon rolls and have adopted our menu which we wrote down on the back of a ‘fag packet’.  It was a distillation of all that we have read about blue water cruising, to give us an idea of how we should provision for the crossing.  We decided that the mornings should start with a bacon roll; a light lunch should follow after the noon-day salute was observed (a can or two of beer) and an evening meal served at 2000 before the night watch started at 2100.  The pressure is on as I write this because Friday is fish night and although we have had a strike at sunset on the last two evenings, I have failed to land a fish as yet so we might have to rely on the freezer.

 

We have run the generator for two hours in the morning and one at night for battery charging, water making, running the main fridge and freezers and heating the domestic water.  So far that seems adequate as the food in the freezers is rock hard as is most of the stuff in the domestic fridge!

 

We have a reasonable data link through the Iridium sat-phone although it usually takes several attempts for the computers to handshake.  Given the cost of the calls, I shall be investing in the network as soon as we reach Antigua!

 

It is late afternoon at the moment and David and Sarah are asleep, Tom is reading and I am writing – there is never enough time to get things done, especially when it takes us 45 minutes to fly the chute!  I must get back to the grind.

890 miles up after 6 days and I write this whilst taking the first watch at 2100.  We are now well into the tropics and the Trade Winds have set in at 15-20 kts as advertised for this time of year.  We landed three fish today and lost the lure to a forth.  We had one for lunch – there is no better tasting fish than one you caught yourself.  Maybe our investment in a rod and reel was not pie in the sky! Our book on marine life has left us with some uncertainty of what we have caught, but the general view is that they were female or young Dorado.

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Canaries

At last, after 15 days we left Las Palmas.  It was a great interlude with a visit from Tom who came bearing spare parts for the generator and water maker.  The Yankee UV strip was repaired and the generator start problems eventually run down to a faulty earth connection on the start circuit.  The water maker primary pump was replaced and the system re-configured to two tubes pending more spares.

It has been fun here, not least because we were parked alongside a retired SIA captain who left Singapore with his partner 5 years ago.  He was full of good advice, not to mention being very amusing and we have monitored his progress as he made his way back home to Trinidad.  Maybe we will visit him in due course.

We had a lovely day with Tom driving around Gran Canaria although the west coast road was a nightmare of short hairpin bends with articulated HGVs coming the other way.  We stopped off on the way home and bought 4 new batteries at 200euros each – nothing is cheap in yachting or aviation!

We watched ‘Beebopalula’ depart as the final straggler to the 2006 ARC.  They had a hammock of fruit that was turning into fruit salad as they continued to delay their departure.  However subsequently, we saw that they were able to rescue the crew of another Bavaria that lost its rudder on the way.  Needless to say that this news caused the Moonbeam crew to demonstrate the fitment of the emergency tiller!

Armed with yet another set of Xmas lights and a climbing Father Christmas, we launched off for Lanzarote to await the arrival of the kids for Christmas.  Our original plan was to have been in the Caribbean by then, but Gemma and Simon managed to get a few days off over Christmas and Annabel was able to fly out too.  In addition, Simon’s parents decided to take a villa in Playa Blanca and spent a week here with Alex, their youngest daughter.   Meanwhile, Tom had completed a number of job interviews and returned with yet more spares.  All-in-all this meant that we were able to spend a family Christmas together for the first time in a number of years-Brilliant!

We oscillated between Marina Rubicon and Puerto Calero for nearly a month with only one night at anchor, but we had great fun and laughed a lot.  We cooked the Christmas turkey in our oven because Simon’s parents’ villa did not have one and the following day tried our hand at a suckling pig.

We explored the island and really felt that it did not in any way deserve the slang ‘Lanzagrotty’ that it is so well known by.  Most of the development seems to be controlled with no high rises and everything kept in a smart condition.  The weather was generally fine with the temperature during the day rising to 21C+ and when the sun was out, which it was most of the time, it was really very pleasant.  David’s daughter, Jules, arrived on 28th December and stayed until 3rd January, so we loitered in Lanzarote a little longer.  We did some research and acquired a fishing rod and lures.  We have deluded ourselves that this would be a good investment when we caught fresh Tuna to augment our diet across the Atlantic.  However, hope springs eternal!

Having returned to Las Palmas we are ready to go.  We started the detailed planning of the provisioning that although had been occupying our thoughts almost continually, now needed to be turned into concrete purchases.  We ran a virtual menu for seven days and multiplied the result by three and then added a contingency.  I have every confidence that we will not starve!

The meat is to be vacuum packed and frozen and the vegetables packed in veggy -bags.   Our vacuum packer will be well used this trip.

As far as the boat is concerned, the ‘grab bag’ needs attention and the dinghy needs to be put to bed on its davits, but otherwise she is basically ship-shape.  Gemma and Simon gave me an air-to-air radio for Christmas so I will be able to call up passing Speedbirds on the way.  The weather forecast is monitored daily, sometimes hourly, but it looks as though the Trade Winds have settled in and so my plan is to set course for Antigua direct.  A small (but no doubt expensive) repair to the spinnaker and the purchase of courtesy flags for the Caribbean is all that remains to be done for the vessel.  We have allowed four days for this.  I have given notice that we will be leaving no later than Tuesday 9th January, (weather permitting) regardless!

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