Trip to Europe (and back) begins

[JamesG161]

Dave reported, by email, the Whisker pole broke near the mast attachment.
Plus the broken end punctured his Main Sail.

They lowered the Main enough to hide the hole.

All hand on deck to fix the situation. Per Dave, Everyone is fine.

Jim...

 

[kappykaplan]

the Whisker pole broke near the mast attachment.

Oh, no! Tks for letting us know they are safe.

 

[SFS]

Man, there is ALWAYS something to worry about on a passage. I don't think I miss that part of it.

 

[kappykaplan]

Here's this morning's update:

 

[dLj]

Dave reported, by email, the Whisker pole broke near the mast attachment.
Plus the broken end punctured his Main Sail.

They lowered the Main enough to hide the hole.

All hand on deck to fix the situation. Per Dave, Everyone is fine.

Jim...

Yes indeed it was an eventful day yesterday.

We got the whisker pole fixed as best we could. We were able to re-employ the pole before nightfall. We are still running with the pole and it seems stable. Pretty sure we figured out what caused the first issue, re-ran lines so it shouldn't happen again.

Turns out we had enough wind last night that the reefed position our main is in was optimal for the wind conditions. We were actually hitting 9 knots at times last night.

The main remains holed with the hole down inside the boom to keep it stable. Given what we will have to do to get at it to fix it, we may just run under reefed main into the Caribbean and hit land. Once anchored then we can go to work on it. If we get a calm out here, might use that also. But it's not slowing us down too much at the moment.

On a lighter note, here's lunch today

dj

 

[kappykaplan]

Turns out we had enough wind last night that the reefed position our main is in was optimal for the wind conditions. We were actually hitting 9 knots at times last night.

Wow! Stay safe out there!

 

[dLj]

Wow! Stay safe out there!

Trying the best we can!

Anja, the young woman with us with no sailing experience (to speak of) was on watch. She is really awesome! She is super observant, asks all the right questions and then executes according to directions. Not to mention she has an amazing sense of humor and keeps us all laughing! If anyone is ever looking for crew, and she is available, you would be super lucky to have her onboard!

She woke me about an hour into her watch saying the wind had notably increased and wasn't 100% sure what to do. We went out together and set everything up to sail the new wind conditions. If she wishes to learn to be a captain, she will get there in no time. Just phenomenal!

dj

 

[kappykaplan]

She woke me about an hour into her watch saying the wind had notably increased and wasn't 100% sure what to do.

Good on Anja!

 

[jssailem]

Here is what the Noon sighting from Marine Traffic reports using Windy as a chart. The ship and crew are in the Central Atlantic. A little over half way to their destination. The Trades are relatively a constant but there are always micro variations to the wind currents. It is deceivingly easy to get lulled into complacency as the sun rises and sets on a somewhat placid ocean and tropical breezes.
N 13° 29.36', W 036° 57.40'

David was fortunate to find a good crew for this passage.

 

[kappykaplan]

David was fortunate to find a good crew for this passage.

 

[kappykaplan]

Here's this evening's update - where they've been and where they're going:

 

[kappykaplan]

Here is this morning's update:

 

[dLj]

It's 1250 UTC and my coordinates are:
13 33.582 N
038 53.233 W

Running under motor at the moment as there is not enough wind to push the boat. I'm hoping it comes up soon. The quiet of sailing is far preferred over motoring.

dj

 

[kappykaplan]

It's 1250 UTC and my coordinates are:
13 33.582 N
038 53.233 W

Here's what that looks like:

 

[kappykaplan]

The quiet of sailing is far preferred over motoring.

, indeed!

 

[Rick486]

It's 1250 UTC and my coordinates are:
13 33.582 N
038 53.233 W

Running under motor at the moment as there is not enough wind to push the boat. I'm hoping it comes up soon. The quiet of sailing is far preferred over motoring.

dj

Are you seeing any other sailboats headed your way? If I look at the AIS screen, it looks pretty crowded.
Rick

 

[dLj]

Are you seeing any other sailboats headed your way? If I look at the AIS screen, it looks pretty crowded.
Rick

Coming around Cabo Verde we had a ton. In fact, one almost hit us one night. They were clearly asleep. We called them on the VHF asking what their intentions were. It took them a bit to respond. Then they responded saying they were a sailing boat and it was going to be hard to change. We replied we were also a sailing vessel.... There was a pregnant pause... They decided they would turn on their engine and cross ahead of us. By all Col Reg standards we were the stand on vessel. But we were about 30 seconds from avoiding them....We were within about 100 feet of each other.... At that time we were in a pack of about 8 sailboats all within about 10 NM. Must have been part of the ARC...

For the past several days however we have seen almost no other boats of any kind.

dj

 

[kappykaplan]

Here is this evening's update:

 

[kappykaplan]

Here's this morning's update:

 

[dLj]

At 1500 UTC my position:
13 44.459 N
041 02.508 W

Not a lot of wind but enough to push us along in the 4 knot range. I wish the main sail wasn't damaged, I'd really love to see how fast we'd be sailing with a full main! But oh well, we are still moving well enough.

Made Tiramisu this morning - I can't wait to try it!

I should take a picture of how we have our dish washing set up. Originally I put in a sea water feed into my second sink but the faucet has decided to leak, a lot. So it's just shut down.

We now have a large wide bucket and our regular bucket. We take and pour sea water into the large bucket then refill the smaller bucket. All done on our aft platform. I love aft platforms on blue water boats! We take our dirty dishes and put them in the large bucket. Wash with a sponge with dish soap on it, then rinse in the smaller bucket. Works very well. I notice my sharp knives do well to get a quick fresh water rinse after this but my cast iron fry pan does not seem to need it. I love my cast iron pan! It's an early 1900's cast iron fry pan. I've had it many years. I debated bringing it thinking it would pose a real rust problem. but to date, no real problem at all. Including washing it in sea water! I'm really surprised. I guess over a hundred years of seasoning works!

dj