SY Hullu Poro – Page 79 – Boating & Biking Adventures

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 11

On December 25, 2022

It was in the early hours after sunset when the first real squall approached us from behind. I was on shift, Susan in the bunk resting, our little Christmas tree spending some reflective athomosphere during this Christmas eve. Hm, this squall now disturbing my peaceful night.

After a check on the radar, it was clear, it will hit us and it will hit us soon, only 2nm away, moving faster than the boat as usual, no escape. The light conditions during these nights allow us to see the clouds at the sky and the heavy dark ones surounded by stars have to be taken serioiusly. I threw everything from the cockpit under deck, undressed myself down to the underwear and closed the companionway including the sliding hatch. With a last glimpse of red light from the headlamp I saw Susan’s face enjoying some deep sleep. While the pouring rain took about 10min, just enough for a shower, the right away following gusting winds kept us busy for at least half an hour. It was our first squall of this very common pattern and I skipped the shower this time and focused on the action. The wind peaked at 45kn and the lady jumped into sprinting mode quickly reaching 9+kn speed through water, which is slightly above theoretical hull speed. I did loosen the reins and let her go. I did not reef sail but took over the steering manually from the windvane although it managed quite well. I just felt more comfortable to fly her through the water myself as long as it takes to let this squall completely pass through. Being wet but not cold, I was absolutely astonished by the fact, that the waves did not shake her around anymore. It felt like being on flat waters with the hull planing through and perhaps trying to escape but, no chance. The squalls are moving even faster and after a while the fascination was over leaving a cleaned cockpit and wet skipper in underpants.

It would be overstated to say, that I look forward to get more squalls now, but some fascination is still left from this ride.

Let’s keep watching the radar to be prepared.

Fair winds…

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 10

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 24, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Cooking, Martinique

Less than 600nm to go. Sailing downhill always feels faster to me, not sure why.

We finished our Christmas dinner with Dieter and it was delicous. A traditional receipe: Duck – tenderly throughout – with red cabbage and potatoes. There was no room left for desert!

The sunset after pantry cleaning was less impressive today but reminded us on our duties for the night. Susan is resting now while I update some mails and the blog diary.

Fair winds…

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 9

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 24, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Martinique

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 8

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 22, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Martinique

10pm local time. We are running 7+kn for a while now under Hydrovane. Genoa fully deployed and main sail in 3rd reef. Good wind and pleasant waves now.

Susan is sleeping, I am on watch as usual until midnight. After dinner, we run a stringent routine for the night watches, during the day it is pretty flexible. Last night was different. We were both up quite a few times to keep the lady going in chaotic waves and a struggling Hydrovane to cope with it for the given course and wind direction. This night seems to be back to normal.

After Christmas the wind will increase, so will the sea. We are evaluating what the best strategy will be and different options are under discussion. As it looks at the moment, we will keep going on the rhump line towards our waypoint and deal with it as and when it comes up. It is more mental preparation than anything else as we do not like to deal with surprises, if not necessary. A bit more wind and a bit more wave will not impress the lady much, that’s for sure.

The days are passing by quickly. Our fresh food is coming to an end over the next few days and that might be a logical sign for our arrival coming closer.

Fair winds…

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 7

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 22, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Martinique

It is close to midnight and we are running 6+kn straight line to our waypoint set at the southern tip of Martinique. Sometime earlier today we started the downhill part of this passage, means we have done more than half of the total distance between Cabo Verde and Martinque. It took us seven days and, based on the latest weather forecast and route planning, we are now expecting to arrive 29th December 2022 at Marina Le Marin, where we have a confirmed reservation in the marina starting exactly on that day. Still a long way to enjoy but let’s see.

It was another relaxed bluewater curising day in perfect trade wind conditions with a typical sunset.

Fair winds…

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 6

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 21, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Martinique

The transmission over the HF Radio using Pactor works fine on this journey so far. On the previous leg from Canary Islands to Cabo Verde I struggled a bit first to get connection at all and then to get some reasonable speed for transmitting/receiving the data. Therefore I will keep trying to post some small photos, which will then be readdressed in proper resolution once having a proper WiFi connection.

I have used three connection points so far for the communication. Obviously the Swiss HB9AK is one of them and very often the best. In the initial phase of the journey the French F5ZFX also worked fine and surprisingly fast. Recently we got connection via Barbados 8P6BWS reasonably performing. We did not manage to connect via Kanada on node VE1YZ yet, which shall not be forgotten as it also helped me out on various occasions in the past. From the propagation point of view I am getting a better feeling on time and frequency to be used for good connections. Before sunrise local time on 10 and 14 Mhz worked up to now quite well. We will therefore focus on those parameters trying to include a photo now and then into the transmissions.

We are just getting a mini squall and the lady is asking for some attention…

Fair winds…

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 5

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 20, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Martinique

While writing these lines, the clocks are somewhere between early lunch and early afternoon, depending which time zone you refer to. Some clocks onboard are set to UTC (14:39) for the alarm to remind me on the radio talks with Jan from SY Sutje, Just now we moved from Frenando de Noronha Time (12:39) to French Guiana Time (11:39) being the actual local time we are in. Somewhere in between sits Cabo Verde (13:39) becoming less relevant after almost one week on passage. You wonder what it matters. Not too much, I think, as long as I don’t miss my radio talk and we eat and sleep as desired. Works well. Time seems to have become an endless resource for the moment. Obviously it is not and I am so glad we are out here on the ocean doing what we are doing right now! It took long long time to get here, that’s for sure.

Looking at time from a different aspect, these ocean passages are ambivalent and splitting views among bluewater sailors. Some just want to minimize the passage duration and arrive, get over it. All sails up! The number of days and average speed are more relevant than wear and tear to crew and boat besides comfort. Others don’t care how long it takes, as long as it is comfortable and enjoyable. They would not start the engine, if the wind calms down, the sea becomes flat and the average speed drops below hull speed. If in comfort, their focus will even more move towards enjoying the sea. I had the opportunity to mingle with both type of sailors feeding my mind and position on this.

Clearly, we want to sail in comfort. Therefore our speed is driven by comfort. It has always been like this, since we sail. We dedicated speed to the jobs and comfort took over the moment stepping onboard. It has paid back very well for us until now.

Once the comfort at sea is gone, time becomes a totally different perspective and ranking.

Fair winds…

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 4

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 19, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Martinique

After five days at sea it was time to take a shower. I allowed myself two liters of tap water for that and waived the idea on a salt water pre-wash followed by a sweet-water rinse afterwards. On previous shorter passages I enjoyed the daily showers in the early evening hours but this one is different with respect to water and electricity, both being interlinked with each other.

We need power to produce electricity and water, which is normally generated by the Fischer-Panda Generator. As mentioned earlier, this animal started to refuse producing AC at 230V higher than 2.5kW. Below that, it works fine. The nominal rating of the generator is 6.5kW. The watermaker is asking for 3.6kW at full production, which is 130l per hour. In other words, we are not able to produce water at nominal flow at the moment. 50l per hour seems to be possible but at lower water quality. After some checks suggested over the phone by YEH in Glückstadt (excellent service support) we concluded to replace the capacitors as next step, which Susan brought into Mindelo in her luggage. BUT, when the local technician came to have a look into the engine room, it appeared to me, that he had difficutlies to determine between the ships engine and the generator. I could have guided him through the process of finding the capacitors but finally decided to live with 2.5kW for the moment not being able to produce water on this passage. Long story ending in a two liter shower after five days at sea and a Fischer-Panda authorized service workshop waiting for us at the othe side of the pond to fix this issue properly.

We have more than sufficient water and electricity but it is a good reminder, that these resources are limited and consumped with prudence, not only on a sailing boat at sea.

From last evening wind and sea state picked up a little bit and we are back to 6+kn on the log at 14-17kn true wind speed, precisely as forecasted. The lady is back at her comfort speed with a happy crew being more and more able to enjoy each mile of this passage.

Fair winds…

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 3

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 18, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Martinique

E to W Atlantic Crossing – Logblog 2

By Bernd via DL9BS/mm

On December 18, 2022

In Cabo Verde, Martinique

It is 4:30am and I have just taken over the watch from Susan, when she mentioned a strange noise. It was different to the creaky sound coming from the interior furnishing of the boat, which synchronises with the rythm of the waves and boats’ heeling and you simply ignore after a while.

While taking a closer look with the headlamp, I found a flying fish on the cockpit floor fighting for his life. These poor looking creatures leave a bit of a mess with descaling after landing and oozing some mucus while also spreading some stinky smell. I don’t like them, hardly accept them outside the cockpit but get annoyed, if they come too close. On the photo, which I will add once we have WiFi again, you can see the flying wings still foldet out, trying to take off again, but no chance.

Once the wings are folded in, you know, this creature will not thrash around anymore once you pick it up and throw it back into their living environment, now becoming their graveyard. The whole process from flip to fold in takes around one minute, I would guess. I have a flexible gripper arm, about 90cm long, which helps me often to fish fallen things out of hidden places in the boat they have fallen in while doing boat work. Very useful tool, also in terms of getting rid of flying fish without touching them at all.

There is also some traffic out here again. This time not fishing boats but one commercial vessel passing by heading east and, believe it or not, SY Geronimo (MMSI 244620501) sailing along in 4nm distance north from us heading west.

Visibility is good, so we can also see their navigational lights clearly. Obviously with 20m length they are faster than us and will get sooner to a cold drink at the beach bar but vice versa have less time to enjoy the ocean. It’s a choice, to some extend. Geronimo, what a coincident.

We have started yesterday to read “The Doyle – Martinique to Grenada” and you won’t believe how excited we got while browsing through this excellent cruising guide. A mixture of travel guide and nautical almanach, perfect for sailors. Tons of useful information, which will help us to plan the upcoming weeks within this area. It will be a different world to us not only from the sailing point of view. We look forward to explore this area by boat and bike absorbing the caribbean lifestyle.

We have moved one timezone west and are now in Fernando de Noronha Standard Time. It is an archipelago off the Brazilian coast at the very eastern tip of South America, actually closer to us than Martinique but we better keep going. 270° west rather 180° south. The hour time difference does not mean much to us. We have not adjusted the clocks. Time is much less relevant out here. UTC timing is more important not to miss my daily chat with Jan on the Marine Radio.

We look now forward towards another pleasant and relaxed day at sea.

Fair winds…