Sea Dragon
Exploration, Inspiration, Serendipity
We have all been winding through diverse and varied landscapes – physical, social, psychological – yet have converged in this one space aboard Sea Dragon, where our similarities and differences are highlighted in sharp relief. All of our purposes and journeys different, yet the same. Serendipity becomes a common theme.
As the moon rises and we settle in to our night watches, we stare up at the sky and around at the horizon.
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Meet S.V. Sea Dragon
All our meals are made in the galley, and we often gather in the salon to chat. Food scraps are saved in a small pail in the galley and dumped over the side to feed the fishes per regulations. The stovetop is gimbled so that it stays level as the ship rocks from side to side. There is also a small library in the salon with sailing and marine life identification books and also other relative books to our trip like, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and Garbology. We normally eat our meals on deck in and around the cockpit and the helm.
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www.panexplore.com/news/ships-blog/
Om
Antonio:
haha! we have been exercising with the Parasailor a bit too! I have to say that Christian has developed a very smooth in the socket maneuver and we are confident that we can put it away in 30 knots apparent but we would prefer not do it again. The young crew is fantastic, how lucky we are to have he next generation(s) having this experience. Om is doing her best, I can not squeeze more out of her really. Tonight pork sausages with fresh tomatoes and cabbage crisp boiled and pot fried with coconut oil, butter and spices.
I thought I did make a very nice kumara cream today with a lot of vegetables but Christian didn’t take his second half a liter, so I am depressed; possibly not my best soup. Well, I thought was exellent. There was fresh coriander too…
Christian:
Jaysus, you see what I have to deal with? All well on the side of the moderately sane crew too – big blow today – 25-40 but at least it is in the right direction. Much love and wagon wheels!
Seven Seas Adventure
Is this the weather in the tropics?
I mentioned the other day the squalls that come with a lot of wind and rain. Well, they’ve been more than a nuisance yesterday when we’ve been hit by two before breakfast (literally) and another 7 or 8 until the night. If this is the weather in the Caribbean, I might change course to Brazil 🙂
Today, so far, we were not hit by any squall nor did we get any flying fish. We see the squalls to the left and right of us, but miraculously they seem to avoid us. Maybe they don’t like my smell.
The sunny weather makes everything more bearable, even if the seas mounted to 5 meter waves again and the boat rolls a lot.
The wind blows straight towards our destination which is not so good news for us as we are not equipped with the right sails to sail with the wind straight from behind. So, we’re zigzag-ing (jibing, in sailing terms) along the straight line, keeping the wind on one side or the other, this reducing the VMG (velocity made good, i.e. the speed at which we approach our destination). Mathematically, our_VMG = our_speed*cos (30 or 40 degrees), depending on what the boat likes…I personally like 30, but girls (all boats except military ships are girls) could be temperamental at times.
The person who seems to be the less affected by the constant rolling of the boat is Paul. He seems to take the things as they are and I can’t stop being amazed at how skillfully he moves around the boat, climbing as usual on whatever furniture he can and playing with his toys. And yes, he’s still doing the watches with Alina and there’s no way to stop him. Seven Seas, fortunately has a very well protected cockpit that keeps us dry and away from the elements.
Our weather routing software tells us that we still have 11-12 days to the finish line.
www.sevenseasadventure.net/blog/
Kristine
Nighttime poetry #2
The sea is endless. It takes some time to realize that. It goes on forever. The roller-coaster can not be paused.
Some people believe that sailing on open seas must be the most wonderful, tranquil experience. The best place to be for relaxation. I used to be one of them. But after a while you realize the waves will never stop coming and there will never be a complete silence until you reach land. You’re always on guard and you can never be sure that your house still floats when you wake up.
Still, you also get this calm over you. You realize how little time and space matters. You get used to the lifestyle and you’re easily satisfied by mere thinking where you otherwise would’ve been completely and utterly bored. The sailor zen.
Always on guard. In a permanent zen. Nowhere, but everywhere. In Norway, but also the Caribbean – there are no borders. Everything is just floating.
Sorry for no poem.
Just kidding.
Papy Jovial
RORO
The rolling is becoming more severe with a swell between 3 and 4 meters high and the wind straight from the back ENE at 30 knots sustained. During the morning shift the steering lines of Firmin broke – actually, the rigger in Granville had installed a sleeve on the line which started slipping under tension and then slipped out of the hole where it is attached to the water paddle.
A few hours later, it was the turn of the other line. Jean-Paul redid the knots hanging upside down from above Firmin and now that the sleeves are out of play, we feel more secure.
We have now covered more miles (1529) than what we have left (1615) and we think that unless the wind drops which is not in the forecast, we have 10 days of sailing. Arrival now estimated as being December 7th at 4 p.m. Jean-Paul, myself and Tifille will be delighted when we tie up at number 5 dock. We all need to rest and catch up on sleep and rum.
Anne
A blue whale plays around ANNE ! About 10-15m in length, it seems to be a young specimen of this highly depleted species, and is very playful. Again and again he encircled us, squinting suspiciously at us from his large eye and then suddenly disappearing only to reappear after a few minutes. In total, he was with us for no less than half an hour, each time he reappeared he was greeted by cheers from the crew.
Blauwal gesichtet, …
Während ich auf dem Vordeck in das Leinenspiel vertieft bin, tut sich ein weiterer Höhepunkt des Tages auf. Ein Blauwal umspielt unsere ANNE! Mit seinen ca. 10-15m Länge scheint er noch ein junges Exemplar dieser stark dezimierten Spezies zu sein und zudem noch sehr verspielt. Immer wieder umkreist er uns, schielt uns aus seinem großen Auge von der Seite argwöhnisch an und ist dann plötzlich wieder verschwunden um nach ein paar Minuten wieder aufzutauchen. In Summe geht das gut und gerne eine halbe Stunde so, immer wieder wird sein Auftauchen mit Jubelschreien der Crew beantwortet.
Mehr lessen.
Gazel Rebel
La ligne de changement de date
Ou presque…
Nous sommes 3 à bords et avons 4 heures différentes depuis aujourd’hui.
Notre livre de bord est à l’heure de Greenwich (et ça va rester comme ça ).
La tablette qui nous sert à naviguer est à l’heure de Paris (GMT+1) car Apple référence les fuseaux horaires par des villes et il n’y a pas de ville suffisamment marquante vu de Californie dans notre fuseau actuel (GMT-1). C’est aussi l’heure de nos familles.
Nos heures de quart – et de repas – sont basées sur l’heure locale (GMT-1) la qualité de notre sommeil et de notre digestion en dépend.
L’heure de la Martinique :
– pour la bière de Pierre (je sais normalement c’est un ti’punch),
– pour la langouste d’Antoine,
– pour la Doudou de Damien qui va pâti tou la bas (Ma Doudou poukwa t’es pati)
Le vent baisse tout doucement après deux jours plutôt musclés.
Demain : toilette et lessive si l’accalmie le permet et pour le plus grand bien de nos fosses nasales !
Dehooké
Nouvelles relayées par Pierre, leur support à terre:
Le seul [adage] qu’ils connaissent, et qui prévaut toujours en voile c’est “Tout ce qui pourrait arriver… va arriver”. Et donc c’est arrivé cette fois c’est leur hygrogénérateur qui est en carafe. On regarde sur le net, on appelle le constructeur Watt&Sea, et on cherche des solutions.
Pas d’inquiétude toutefois car ce ….. de générateur est justement un simple générateur. Donc pour faire du courant. Et du courant toujours pour ce même exigeant équipier qu’est leur pilote automatique. Bon ils ont encore deux autres moyens de produire du courant : le moteur inboard, et leurs panneaux solaire. Donc tout va bien, oufff. Mais on cherche quand même la solution à leur problème.
Hapa Na Sasa
Tweets:
– Erste Vorbereitungen zur Halbzeitparty angelaufen. Vorfreude auf das „Mittatlantikpaket“ von Peti u Tania ist riesig.
Gestern bis 25kn Wind und grau. Ist der Passat im Google so beschrieben?! Heute wieder deutlich angenehmer, Stimmung ansonsten aber top.
You can see the position of the boats on the tracking map. The weather forecast is here
