Day 4 – Sunday 29 October
Lady Jane
Maria on living the dream
When I told family and friends that we were going to live on our boat and sail across the Atlantic, they said things like “wow, you’re going to have an amazing time” , “you’ll be living the dream” , I thought, yes but living on a 42ft yacht boat and sailing isn’t all G & T ‘s and sun bathing!
This is what it’s really like: No washing for days. Washing your clothes in a tiny sink. Cooking when the boat is rolling. Feeling sick all day and night. No sleep because you’ve had to do a sail change in the middle of the night. Considering if you can drink the water. Thinking before you switch a light on. No TV. No internet – omg I hear you gasp!
I’ve just finished a 4 hour watch while sailing from Tenerife to Cape Verde and there are only 3 positives from that short period: The dolphins that visit every day and at three in the morning. The stars in the sky that are just brighter than you’ve ever seen . The phosphorescence that lights up the sea and cannot be described in words.
That’s why I AM living the dream.
Krabat
Not too much to report.
Wind has been a consistent force 4 from the NE. Parasailor put up in the morning to take advantage of the lighter winds from behind giving us a decent speed on average of 5 knots.
Have spoken to a few of the other boats over the radio and everyone is doing ok.
We caught a big fish but our line broke so never got to see what it actually was, bit annoying as we lost our favourite lure. We also had dolphins swimming around the boat this morning which is always nice but disappointingly the one and only time so far.
Time just seems to idle away quite nicely spent reading, listening to music, podcasts and sleeping.
From www.sailblogs.com/member/krabat/
Rubicon
Jag är på ett strålande humör! Äntligen har vi fått perfekt segling. Prognosen säger mer vind därför vågade vi inte hissa gennaker, men genuan full ut och lite på storseglet gör att vi håller en fart på cirka 5.5 knop och nästan utan rullning. Solen skiner, och idag blir det köttfärssås och pasta till middag, mumsfillibabba (om vi inte fångar något annat mumsigt innan dess)! En liten Dorado nappade igår, men den var så liten så den åkte i igen.
Translated to English by Google Translate:
I am in a radiant mood! At last we have had perfect sailing. The forecast says more wind, therefore, we dared not hiss gennaker, but the genoa full and a little on the grid makes us speed at about 5.5 knots and almost without rolling. The sun is shining, and today there is meat sauce and pasta for dinner, mumsfillibabba (if we do not catch anything else before that)! A little Dorado napped yesterday, but it was so small that it went again.
Ariel
Wind 15 k E. Current .5 k astern. ETA AM Thursday. Otherwise all well.
Finally
Pas de problème, juste quelques bords à tirer, nous mettrons un peu plus de temps que prévu, déchiré le spi symétrique ce matin sur mauvaise manip, rien de grave; dorade coryphène péchée à 11h30, envoyée directement sur le grill pour le déjeuner, que du bonheur.
No problem, just a few more tacks, we will take a little longer than expected, ripped the symmetrical spinnaker this morning on bad handling, nothing serious; mahi-mahi at 11:30, sent directly to the grill for lunch, happiness.
Day 2 – Monday 30 October
Akouavi
OK day yesterday 184 miles run, 187 to Palmeira.
Still touch and go if we get there tomorrow. I was mixed up with days yesterday and will probably still head for Mindelo leaving Palmeira at dusk on Wednesday latest. That would get me into Mindelo in time for the staff to be available if I put the brakes on.
All very quiet here. A few flying fishes and one bird.
Ariel
Charles
Wind 14 kts T NE. Current 0.5 kts SW. Nice day – we are slow because of down wind pole problem. Needs to be fixed in Mindelo
Sue on women talents
You should consider highlighting the talents of the women in our group.
For instance on the electric engine she is sewing when her children drive her crazy.
Entertaining small children !!!
Sebina makes fabulous homemade bread on board.
Others are sewing or knitting. I think Lys des Mers has two knitters on board and I am doing a project too.
No competition. Just highlights.
Jajapami
JaJapami iridium connection fixed
We are excited to have solved the connection problem with the Iridium Go that we experience for the third day now!!! So glad that it is back working fine.
Have a great day and thank you all for your support,
Jan and the very happy JaJapamis
Tamouré
Slow progress is still progress…
We did not push with the engines yet but are sometimes very slow now. Lost some time at night when Ugo decided we should fish squids… and we hooked 5 of them, then always the same procedure with slowing down the boat… and when we were ready to get them on board we lost them… well not all of them, always had a tentacle on the hook so all together it was enough for a meal!
Will set the spinnaker now.
Kids want to start with christmas bakery… that will have to wait till tomorrow.
Finally
No problem, belle nuit douce, peu de houle, entre 5 et 8 noeuds de vent arrière, top. Journée relax, 6 à 10 noeuds arrière, reste 300 nautiques. Parfait, nous prenons notre temps, une belle dorade coryphène avec de belles couleurs jaunes et vertes nous a échappé, elle a ressauté de l’épuisette.
No problem, beautiful night, little swell, between 5 and 8 knots of following wind, top.
Relaxing day, 6 to 10 knots, 300 nautical miles left. perfect, we take our time, a beautiful dolphinfish with great yellow and green colors has escaped us.
Lady Jane
Free Power!
The photograph below shows Maria performing the three-times-a-day solar panel tilting ritual to extract the maximum amount of power from the sun at any given time of day.
Photo: untilthebuttermelts.com
On their own, the panels produce an average of 15 amps of power per hour. This is augmented by the towed water generator (seen in the photo as a rope trailing in the water) producing another five to six amps per hour.
We use around 10 amps per hour when sailing, so the surplus power generated during the day can be drawn from the batteries overnight – then the solar panels replenish the batteries during the day.
All this geeky stuff means that we can sail with the fridge and freezer running, make some water with the watermaker, and run the chart plotter and autopilot, without needing to run the engine to charge the batteries.
There’s three nights to go before we reach Cape Verde. The winds are fair and the sun is shining – which favours the crew as well as the solar panels.
Rubicon
Det blev dorado till middag igår! En ca 3kg Dorado nappade på det rosa draget (mitt)! Wow, vilken härlig känsla. Natten var rullig och hela förmiddagen idag har vi testat olika segelsättningar, så vi är helt slut, tyvärr så höll inte blocket i fören för gennakern när det blåste på lite, så vi fick (lite!?) strul och nu ligger den tillbaka tryggt i påsen å däck. Solen skiner och vi fick se hoppande och lekande delfiner en bit från båten. Vi gör god fart rakt på mål! /Life is good
Translated to English by Google Translate:
It became dorado for dinner yesterday! A ca 3kg Dorado nappa on the pink dragon (mitt)! Wow, what a lovely feeling. The night was rolling and the whole morning today we have tested different sailings, so we are completely out, unfortunately, the block did not hold the door when it blew a little, so we got (a little !?) strul and now it’s back safely in the bag to the deck. The sun is shining and we saw jumping and playing dolphins a bit from the boat. We make good speed straight on goals! / Life is good
Day 3 – Tuesday 31 October
Akouavi
175 miles run 34 to go, all downwind so sailing 150deg angles to get there but only gennaker as spi needs stitching.
It looks like I will miss the SOS children tomorrow. Will defiantly make Thursday morning though so can do the CV brief drinks and dancing.
Many flying fish plus small octopus sunning themselves on deck this morning plus too many dolphins to count.
Lady Jane
Seasickness. Cured.
The 30th October 2017 is a date to celebrate, for the crew of Lady Jane. It’s the day Maria stopped being seasick.
Photo: untilthebuttermelts.com
The cure isn’t anything to do with drugs, hypnosis, sickness bands, or anything that you plonk on your head to simulate a horizon. It simply the byproduct of sailing a rolling ocean for four days. Maria has suffered travel sickness from the age of four, when travelling on the Dancing Bus (a bus that takes the young carnival dancers to competition). “If only I’d have stayed on that bus for four days I would have been OK”, Maria said.
To prove how cured she is, here’s a photograph of her preparing lunch. This would have been impossible only a couple of days ago. So there you are. It might be a bit extreme, but if you want to cure motion sickness, get on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean for four days and go with the roll
Rubicon
Det rullar, från sida till sida. vi seglar just nu “wing-wing” vilket betyder att hela genuan är utspirad på ena sidan och storseglet är fäst med preventer på andra sidan och vinden kommer alltså rakt bakifrån. Vindstyrkan just nu är 10 knop och vi gör ca 5,5 knop. Eftersom det går lite dyning så rullar det på ganska bra. Trots det har jag bakat både bröd och sockerkaka! Just nu ser det ut som att vi kommer vara framme i Mindelo på torsdag. Mycket flygfisk runt båten, igår hade vi delfiner på besök, solen skiner och inget napp idag. Vi hörde däremot att någon av våra kompisbåtar fått barracuda, huu vad läskigt…
Translated to English by Google Translate:
It rolls, from side to side. We are currently flying the wing wing, which means that the whole genoa is squirted on one side and the magnifying glass is fastened with prevents on the other side and the wind is therefore straight from behind. The wind speed at the moment is 10 knots and we make about 5.5 knots. Because it’s a bit dyed, it’s pretty good.
Nevertheless, I have baked both bread and sugar cake! Right now, it appears that we will be in Mindelo on Thursday. A lot of fly fishing around the boat, yesterday we had dolphins on our visit, the sun is shining and no nap today. On the other hand, we heard that some of our mate boats got barracuda, huh what scary …
