Om
So,we are zig-zagging the ocean looking for a decent angle for the spinnaker. We keep the windvane system at 155-160 degrees and keep gybing as needed. We are grateful for the sunny weather anyhow, the galley today has produced spinach pie of first quality, tomato salad, fresh goat cheese, cold wine.
I do remember the days in Arrecife with the families of the Atlantic Odyssey with great saudade, in Italian we say nostalgia. I wish they all could come to New Zealand and have another lunch together!
And I want to adopt Jimmy Cornell, a true romantic, one of us. Me and Christian are thinking to take him to the Bay of Islands! Without the Odyssey the second part of our journey would not have been the same. Thanks Jimmy and team.
Much love
Antonio
Sea Dragon
Art and our daily consumption
Discussions on board have also centered on making visual the problems we are facing with plastics. This was further emphasized in the evening presentation by Maria, our other on-board artist. Maria shared with us pictures of her many dramatic sculptures and installations that capture the impact of humans on the environment. She has no shortage of creative raw materials and easily collects several bags of plastic daily from a small patch of beach.
Read more here.
www.panexplore.com/news/ships-blog/
Kristine
Double rainbow all the way.
Was the beautiful weather forecast right? Of course not. Duty called 5am to save the sail when the winds got crazy. The following day the winds have been very unstable and we all lack our beauty sleep, but at least nothing is broken!
Funny thing is my brother jokingly asked me if I was ready to wake up four hours after the watch change to work. Turned out I was.
It’s been a rainy day at sea, and we’ve been surrounded by the most intense rainbows all day. Quite a sight. Still not a day without clouds in the sky out here (is this normal?).
Other than that, nothing happened today. At all.
We’re now sailing with a tougher sail and I hope to get some real sleep tonight. We even sacrificed some leftovers to Neptune and Poseidon, so it’s got to get better. Pancake day is postponed, but we’re still hanging in.
As a protest we didn’t download a new weather forecast, so tomorrow will be “surprise day”!
Excited.
Sephina
It’s just after midnight and the plotter just ticked over 1000M to go to Martinique. Approximately 2000M in the last two weeks so ETA should be around a week or so, give or take. Air temp is around 30 degrees and the water temp is 27.5 but the trade winds are keeping us from getting too hot. All very relaxed on board Sephina. Well there’s not much other way to be travelling 6000km at an average speed of 12km/h
A nice morning’s sail and we ate fresh bread for lunch with dips and cheese and tomato and salmon. Yum. Afternoon squalls had the wind variable and between 6 and 15 k so the sails were up and down a bit and a bit of motoring. We finished Aviads birthday cake 🙂
Jen napping, Olga reading ‘at any cost – life and death at sea’ and Aviad almost finished his 1500-1800 watch.
http://sephinacat.blogspot.com.es/
Seven Seas Adventure
Hmmm…it smells fishy here
We continued with the good weather and peaceful sailing and generally made good progress last days. We hoisted all sails we could for a while, then we switched to sailing just with our headsail as this allows us to sail at a better angle even if this means sacrificing some speed. All in all, we just passed the point where we have less than 1000 nautical miles to go (probably about 7 days to destination).
At night, winds drop, and sailing is slow, with sails flapping with a loud bang when they get filled again by the wind. Almost depressing 🙂
And so were the three fish we missed during the last two days. I told you about the like-scissors-cut, lucky lure, in my last post. I gave it another chance and another fish took a bite but I lost it trying to get it on board. And again…and again…
I changed the lure to one which was labeled as “tuna waster”. Some combination of burgundy feathers and red plastic “tentacles”.
One hour later, I got a strike (as it’s said in fishing terms) and after not too much fight I had on board a nice, 70-80 cm wahoo fish (I believe slightly below 2 kg). I never had one, neither fishing or in a restaurant, so I was looking forward to it. We gutted, gilled and chopped the fish and Alina wanted to cook it in the oven with vegetables and serve it with polenta.
I reluctantly said yes, as she was dreaming of cooking the fish this way for some time already. And maybe because yesterday was the national day of Romania and a polenta would have been appropriate :).
As the fish was small, I cast the line out again with the “tuna waster”. Another half an hour or so, another bite. I went to pick up the rod and I could hardly hold it. A monster! And this started the toughest fight I had with a fish until now. I don’t know how long it lasted, maybe 20-30 minutes, maybe more, but I know that I was exhausted and my arms were hurting like hell. A couple of times I’ve put the rod in the holder and the fish managed to almost snatch it. A few more episodes of reeling-in the fishing line and we see the monster: a quite large dorado (or Mahi-Mahi) but definitely much smaller than I thought judging by the fight. I would have preferred a tuna as this was the 4th dorado we hooked since we left Gibraltar.
After a bit of action and we managed to get it on board. It was about 1 m long and I weighed it, just to be surprised that it was only 11kg. I am wondering, if I fought so much for a 10 kg fish, how do those people manage to catch a 50 or 100 kg tuna or marlin?
Gutting, cleaning, filleting were tedious jobs and at the end my back hurt terribly. My new, clean, clothing – as I had the other day my mid-Atlantic shower – are all stained and smelly. I took an aspirin for my back pain and rested for a while while Alina cooked the “fish on a vegetable bed served with polenta”. Which was delicious, by the way.
Paul doesn’t want to eat any more meat and fish as he realized that one has to kill the fish or animal in order to eat it. So part of the fishing procedure is to distract Paul’s attention from the on-boarding of the fish and what follows.
This would be the fishy stuff of the last days and as we have enough fish for a week or more, we stopped fishing. Keep your fingers crossed for the winds to be good, for us to arrive well and in time in Martinique.
www.sevenseasadventure.net/blog/
Gazel Rebel
¡Cuba no!
Ça y est le choix est fait aujourd’hui à 12 h 10 GMT Gazel Rebel a empanné pour prendre sa route quasi définitive vers la Martinique ! Fi donc de Cuba de ses nuits suaves et rythmées baignées dans le souvenir du Che sous l’égide de Fidel quasi momifié mais coiffé par la soeur du voisin de Damien : José Mateo (autenthique).
C’est donc un dernier bord de 1000 miles qui nous attend avec des vents pas très forts. Pour fêter cette position clé à double-titre nous dégusterons le confit de canard, accompagné de pommes de terre sautées, offert par Alice et Frédérik de Déhooké (qui est bien devant nous mais où exactement plus au sud ? A priori nous serions les plus au nord de la flottille).
De la pluie est prévue pour demain, chouette même sans gouttes les nuages nous abriteront du soleil (oups pardon si vous êtes dans la grisaille).
Papy Jovial
La calmouille
Cette fois ci on est bien dedans avec encore 877 milles à couvrir. Le vent apparent ne dépasse plus dix noeuds et la vitesse du bateau est plus proche de 4 que de 5 noeuds. A moins que Eole ne fasse un petit miracle, nous risquons de n’arriver que le 10, jour de l’arrivée de Laurence et Marianne.
Cela va être juste et nous risquons également de ne pas être prêts à repartir le 12 pour Puerto Rico comme prévu. Les voiles battent bruyamment et le bateau roule car la mer ne s’est pas encore aplatie. C’est dans ces conditions que la patience devient plus que jamais une vertu cardinale. Il commence aussi à faire chaud et on est rapidement en transpiration.
Vivement mardi prochain. Nous avons encore environ 50 heures de moteur dans le réservoir et nous comptons bien en profiter au maximum.
Anne
Sushi auf der ANNE
Heute nur ganz kurz, ich sitze unter Deck und will nur kurz ein paar Zeilen über die kurzweiligen 24h schreiben.
Nach einer spannenden Nacht – wir hatten uns entschieden, unser Parasail mal stehen zu lassen – ging es heute geruhsamer zu.
Kaum war die Dunkelheit mit Mondeslicht angebrochen, da frischte auch schon der Wind auf. Bis 20 kn und wir mitten drin mit unserem neuen Lieblingssegel.
Als der Regen und die Böen einsetzten, war schnell klar, dass bei derartigem Wind ein solches Segel auch Nachteile hat – es ist einfach groß :). Als uns dann um 4 Uhr auch noch eine Regenböe Wind mit 80 Grad vorlicherem Einfall bescherte, war klar, das ist zu viel für die Aventszeit, runter mit dem Segel… . Schöner Spaß, bei Rauschefahrt und Dunkelheit auf dem Vordeck rumzuturnen… . Ende gut alles gut, der Rest der Nacht verlief schaukelig und ruhig.
Heute ging es dann in die Vollen. Erneut haben wir sehr angenehemen Wind – 12-20 kn von achtern und fahren, wie klar unser neues Lieblingssegel – zumindest bist zur Dämmerung, also noch ca. 30 min.
Die Kinder hatten mit Nette das Vergnügen und durften Vanille Kipferl backen, ich habe sie dann gegessen 😉 wir sind ein super Team auf der ANNE ;-)) finde ich.
Dann gabs zum highlight noch zwei Bisse, jeweils Golddorade, eine um die 30cm, die andere eher 90cm – lecker. Schnell die Messer geschärft und dann gabs von Neele und Nette das Beste Sushi was wir je auf der ANNE hatten.
Hapa Na Sasa
Tweets:
Nach einer seglerisch anstreng Nach, Boot sehr unruhig wg zu wenig Wind bei zu viel kab Welle. Jetzt unter Genacker u eben 12:00 einen
…70cm Mahi Mahi, schonender schneller kill, gleich filettiert, am Ruecken haette man durch den Rest Zeitung lesen koennen, Werner, du waerst
…stolz auf mich und zum Mittag gibt es lecker ? 🙂 Fisch, soooo g…
You can see the position of the boats on the tracking map. The weather forecast is here
