Rodney Bay Boatyard, Saint Lucia

Saturday and Sunday was spent cleaning up the boat and rearranging the guest bunk and Alex’s locker space which we had taken over for food and sails etc during the passage. We also wanted to make the most of being in the hotel, so we have been watching some films on cable TV including the latest Pirates of the Caribbean.


Relaxing by the pool after a hard day at the boatyard

We are due to be lifted back into the water tomorrow and we are looking forward to getting to explore some of the island now all the work is done on the boat.

Rodney Bay Boatyard, Saint Lucia

We decided to have a quiet night on Friday and just had a meal at Scuttlebutts at the marina after a long day’s work on the boat in the sunshine. A couple of the guys who’d been working on our boat had invited us for drinks in Gros Islet later that
Scuttlebutts. However, they passed us in the car as we were walking back to the hotel and persuaded us to join them.
The whole of the centre of Gros Islet is cordoned off for a street party every night. There are lots of stalls offering fresh cooked local food and a stage with music which goes on until 2 am. We are reliably informed by Andrew and Steven that Friday is boys night out in St. Lucia when the ladies stay home and the men go out drinking (it is apparently also wages day which I guess is no coincidence!). It was a really good night and being with Andrew and Steven we met loads of the other boat owners whose boats are currently on the hard. We were the only transatlantic crossers as we are still quite early in the season, most of the guys we met were American and permanent Caribbean cruisers.


Weekly street party in Gros Islet

Andrew drove us and Steven home even though he lives in Gros Islet himself which was really good of him as he wanted to make sure we got back ok as we understand there can be tourist muggings later on when people have had a little too much to drink. He stopped off at a great place in front of where all of the local open fishing boats moor. There was a few trestle tables set up round a couple of large barbeques over which they were grilling loads of fresh fish between layers of chicken wires. The staff were all in very smart Maggi uniforms and it looked absolutely delicious, we wished we hadn’t already eaten.


Andrew, Steven and a couple of the other cruisers we met

Rodney Bay Boatyard, Saint Lucia

Wednesday and Thursday resolved around work on the boat, we ventured to Rodney Bay village a 15 minute walk on Wednesday evening where we had a fantastic meal at the Big Chef’s steakhouse. The owner Rosie was very welcoming and introduced herself to each table. Kevin said it was one of the best he’d ever had and my grilled Mahi Mahi with pineapple salsa was excellent too.
On Thursday night we went to watch the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace on the outskirts of Castries. We took one of the local minibuses which pass by every few minutes and you hail them to stop wherever you like. It cost us 50 pence each way each for a 20minute journey, better than the £5 tourist rate we paid for a taxi for a 5minute drive back the night before.

Rodney Bay Boatyard, Saint Lucia

We were up early on Tuesday morning to meet at 8am boatlift appointment, however, when we arrived at the lifting berth there was a boat already in it and the entrance was partially blocked by a dredger. I called them on the VHF but got no response eventually we were waved over to a berth nearby that turned out to be the fuel berth, as they assumed we were circling waiting for fuel but not approaching due to the dredger. They seemed happy enough for us to wait there whilst I went to the office to find out what was happening. Edwin the manager who I’d booked with was not in yet and the receptionist wasn’t able to help much other than telling us we weren’t allowed to wait on the fuel berth. I said we weren’t about to circle round for an indefinite time and we were staying where we were. Ten minutes later Edwin came to the boat and introduced himself and apologized for the confusion. He explained that someone had dumped their boat in the lifting berth on Friday night and no one knew whose it was or how to contact them! There was another berth in the slings on the travel lift waiting to go in. Eventually, all was resolved by moving the abandoned boat by ropes and before long we were in the slings ourselves, after the dredger moved aside.


Ready for lifting

We had four attendants and the guy with the controls on hand for the lift, which was the most professional we had ever seen. We had been planning to do the antifouling ourselves, but a fee is charge for doing your own work, plus the yard are able to buy the materials at a much better rate. When I was in the office I saw the pricelist for the work and we decided to get them to do the work. I spoke to Edwin and by 1pm he had provided an estimate which we approved and had someone rubbing the hull down. The pressure wash which was included in the fee for the lift and the cost of three days on the hard, pressure washing and two lifts was just £36 more than just the lifts in the UK.

We then had to go back to the marina office to check in and pay for the night, then to customs to clear into St. Lucia. Customs was most amusing, the office had three guys, two of whom were watching a football game on TV. We had to fill out a form, which I did though the rather humourless guy in the corner informed me I hadn’t pressed hard enough for it to reach the third copy under two layers of carbon paper, so I had to go over the form again. He deliberately mumbled as we went through the rest of the form so he was barely audible and I had to ask him to repeat it. After going through this whole rigmarole he said that they lower yellow and green copies were for the other two guys in the office. So we then had to walk over and provide the yellow copy to a guy who checked our passports and the green copy to the guy who took the $30 ECD cruising fee. They then went back to their football game, I really can’t imagine how there is high unemployment on St. Lucia when they can make three jobs out of one so inventively. Although I understand they are now piloting an on-line check in service, so perhaps that will come to an end.


Rodney Bay marina

On the way back to the boatyard we spotted a hotel, the Palm Haven opposite, so we decided to see how much it would be. It was pretty reasonable (£40/night) so we decided to treat ourselves whilst the boat was off the water. So we check in and would now have a few days of air conditioning, proper beds and best of all showers on demand! We appeared to be the only guests, so the service was excellent too!

Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia

We had taken the tender ashore on Sunday evening to the CarenAntilles yard close to where we were anchored. We had been intending to lift out there the next day if possible and wanted to check it out. Also, our outboard was playing up a little with a partial blockage to the cooling water outlet / tell tale. The yard looked very busy but also a bit run down. In the morning we started to review our options, having originally planned a week off in the marina for sightseeing and relaxing after a long passage before starting on boat work. However, being at anchor is a bit more restricting as we are still not confident in ours. Without any real expectation we decided to call Rodney Bay marina on Saint Lucia, expecting it to be too busy with the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) of 200 boats arriving soon, however, they had a space in the marina for us that night and we could get lifted out the next day.
We needed to check-in with the authorities in Martinique still though, so we went into Marin after a quick fettle of the outboard to unblock the telltale. We stopped in for a French breakfast of espresso and pain-au-chocolat for me and a baguette for Kevin. We walked into town and found the immigration office easily, where we were directed to a computer terminal to enter the information ourselves. It was a great system and we were in and out of the office within 10 minutes.


Tanker through the squalls

Next job was to check out the chandleries to start accumulating the bits we need to complete our list of boat jobs. We were looking to get a longer continuous line for our Facnor furler, however, none of the dealers had one. We did have great walk around in the sunshine around the small town of Marin though. We went back to the boat via the Champion supermarket to stock up with some French wine and fresh fruit for the boat, plus some champagne to start our celebration proper that night.
We were back at the boat and lifting the anchor by 13:30 for a very pleasant sail of 17 miles over to Saint Lucia. Kevin decided to add some fun to the sail by racing another larger catamaran that had set off at the same time and apparently to the same destination. They had obviously decided to race us too and I am pleased to say that we won! There we a couple of large tankers waiting to get into Castries (the capital) as we arrived which caused some confusion, but we heard them on the radio requesting a pilot so we worked out they were not heading towards us after all. It was a really lovely short sail, a taste of the Caribbean cruising to come we hope and we even enjoyed some lovely fresh French baguettes and a glass or two or chilled wine on our way across.


Arriving into Saint Lucia

Some large squalls also decided to join the fun as we rounded Pigeon Island heading to Rodney bay, so the boat got another good wash. We could see Martinique in the distance had torrential rain all afternoon though, so we’d obviously made the right choice. In addition, just by looking at the chart you could see you were in English territory again, as one of the rocks offshore was called Barrel o’Beef! Saint Lucia like Martinique is lush and green with a great landscape and interesting looking coves. We made our way into the marina just before dark. The bay is very sheltered with a narrow channel between a spit to one side and the other end of the bay creating a harbour. An attendant was on the dock waiting for us and we were given the dock number to aim for over the radio on the way in, making it one of the easiest entries so far. We showered and changed and drank some celebratory champagne before heading ashore down the impressive large pontoons to the Scuttlebutts bar via the cashpoint for our third currency of the Eastern Caribbean Dollar.


Celebrations start again

We had a lovely evening in the bar overlooking the marina through the windowless frontage. We had some nice cocktails and Kevin had his steak. I had some grilled Mahi Mahi as we hadn’t manage to catch one yet which was delicious so I think Kevin will be getting his new rod and reel soon. The only disturbance was the workmen pouring concrete paths well into the night as they are frantically preparing for the arrival of the ARC.

Atlantic Crossing - Notes on Passage

The Atlantic crossing was the major milestone on our trip for both Kevin and I, after which we will have succeeded on our adventure regardless of what comes next. We had purposefully made the crossing considerably easier by breaking the journey in the Cape Verdes which we had wanted to visit and which gives a welcome break about one third of the way for only about a 100 mile detour. We had therefore replenished supplies of water, diesel and food as well as made some very good friends in the Cape Verdes before departing from Mindelo. We were given a send off by two of these Max & Gigi as we left the marina and also by a pod of dolphins as we entered the channel between Mindelo and Sao Antao.


Leaving Mindelo, Sao Vincente, Cape Verdes

We were given a welcome push along the way by the venturi effect operating down the channel between the islands, however by 9pm we were under motor as the wind had died away. At 5am the following morning we were back under sail, but this was sign of things to come in the following days with light and variable winds. The highest wind strength we encountered until the last 24 hours of the trip was 22 knots, with the average being more between 10-15 knots. This wind strength is fairly gentle for a fully laden cruising yacht and therefore we made good use of our Spifurl (a furling headsail between a spinnaker and gennaker) to maintain pace, though this is fastest at 120 degrees off the wind, therefore required gybing downwind and increased the total distance travelled. We were obtaining approximately half the wind speed in knots with the Spifurl though which made the additional distance worthwhile. We were initially ginger of using the Spifurl due to the issues we had previously had in furling it. However, Kevin had added a block and a new continuous furling line (the one supplied was not continuous but lashed and caught in the furler) which meant after a couple of false starts we had cracked the technique of furling. We found that with the lightwinds dead downwind we needed to goose-wing the genoa using a barber-hauler off the mid-ship cleat, however, the tradewinds which are in belts would vary by up to 50 degrees in different gusts causing the genoa to back. The Spifurl was far more resistant to variation in wind direction, which was useful with a short-handed crew.


On Passage

Wildlife wise, as one might expect being further from land there was less variety on this trip. There was quite a number of flying fish, though nothing like the quantity north of the Cape Verdes which must be some of the richest fishing grounds around. Kevin caught fish pretty much each day, though always of the same variety which we were not sure of the breed and following two bout of food poisoning for Kevin we were not too keen to experiment. We did get several bites which got away, the biggest of which could be clearly felt turning to run, but unfortunetly our rods, originally bought for mackerel fishing in the Irish Sea were not up to the job and the big one got away, along with a promise to Kevin for a shopping trip in the Carib…

We were followed by skuas for most of the trip and had an overnight visitor of a white stork type bird, which we now understand to be a native of the Caribbean, though he must have got lost as we picked him up about 1300 miles away. He arrived about 2pm on Day 6 and hung around until late in the afternoon on Day 7, when the need to deploy the Spifurl finally disturbed him. We were not too sad to see him go however as he had got quite cheeky and we were having to guard the door to the saloon as he had obviously decided that looked like better accommodation having been watching us through the windows. He like all previous overnight feathered visitors left rather a mess on the foredeck which was not very gratefully for a free ride of nearly 150 miles!


Our hitchhiker

There was little shipping traffic on the journey, though we did see perhaps 10 large cargo vessels, one which passed between 0.75- 1 mile of us. We had called them on the VHF to ask their intentions as our perspective looked like it would be a close call. They seemed to divert after our radio call, however, it never ceases to amaze me in such a large ocean how close two vessels can get.


Close encounter

Crew-wise we manged the journey very well and both enjoyed it better than any passage so far. I think the major contribution towards this was a change in the watch system made around Day 5 of the trip. At this latitude we were getting about 12 hours of darkess and daylight and therefore the night watches are quite long with a crew of two. We had started with a three hour watch system, 6-9pm, 12-3am and 6-9am for me and 9-12am, 3-6am for Kevin. However, this just seemed to result in a very broken night’s sleep for both of us and as the winds were light, we were under autopilot and little sail adjustment needed, we decided to extend the watches. We changed to 6pm-12am for Kevin and 12am – 6am for me. We both felt much better almost immediately after we made this change. I would go to bed at 6am for a couple of hours and was getting a reasonable 8 hours a night. We tried to plan gybes (on Spifurl) around crew changes, taking the southerly course (which caused more slamming) during daylight and northerly gybe at night to help sleep.


Sunrise on my birthday

Provisions-wise, we had a fairly reasonable diet, initially we ate tuna sandwiches for lunch and pasta and rice dishes for dinner. Athough for reasons of electricity economy we switched off the fridge except during charging after the first week when the bread and cheese etc was used. After this time we mainly ate pasta and rice dishes for dinner and instant noodles for lunch. Batchelors Beanfeast (flavoured soya mince – chilli, Bolognese and savoury) continued to be a favourite on board, this being the standard fee for any crew joining from the UK.

We found we were using 7 litre of water a day for drinking and cooking and the 44 litres of non-potable water we brought for washing up etc we still had some left at the end of the trip. We had also filled our solar shower with non-potable water and this (20 litres) provided 2 showers each on route. We did not want to use Cape Verde water in our tanks which we knew to be good drinking water (via our Seagull filter) and so set off with only half a tank (250 litres) which should have been twice as much as we needed at that rate of consumption. We also had 2 * 22 litres and 8 * 5 litres = 84 litres of drinking water stored separately in case of contamination and to allow carriage to liferaft if required. We arrived with over 70 litres in the tanks, about 5 litres of non-potable and 50 litres of separate drinking water.

In terms of equipment, we had the Raymarine C80 chartplotter/radar fail around the halfway mark (no longer booting up). We were quite surprised by this as we’d previously had Raymarine kit on our last boat which had been bullet-proof. We decided that we could manage without both as we had large and small scale paper-charts on board and we keep a very close watch 24 hours a day, we really only use the C80 as a backup as it uses quite a lot of power. The Furuno GPS is our main aid to navigation and we used this for tracks, waypoints, position find, distance to run and to verify course, boat speed over ground and to track system voltage, this uses very little power and is on 24 hours a day. Kevin had also been doing excellent work on the sextant and keeping a very close track of boat position – which it looked like he may have to use in anger at one point when both of our additional handheld GPS’ failed to switch on at the same time, 10 minutes after the C80 had failed! However, this was quickly rectified by recharging their AA batteries.
The aramid lines on the Spirfurl which attach the head and foot of the sail to the furling gear also chafed through, which caused the sail to be drop into the water, however, it was easily retrieved and the lines replaced with some 6mm braid on braid, which although needing closer monitoring managed the job perfectly satisfactorily.


Passing the famous Diamond Rock into Martinique after a successful Atlantic Crossing

Finally, during the last 24 hours, all of the squalls we had not received as we expected after the halfway point came at once and the wind was up to 25-20 knots, so our plan to slow our arrival to daylight was rushed to get us out of the larger swell which had started. We arrived to Martinique about 3am and had to hang off until about 6am to star our approach. Our Furuno multi-function display was really playing up by this stage (problem logged with dealer and awaiting a new transducer) and required 6 power-offs in 20 mins as the depth reading kept sticking, this plus no chartplotter meant we followed the buoyed channel very closely, but this was relatively well marked and we were moored on the fuel berth by 7am.


Entering Cul-de-Sac de Marin

We were both exhausted after very little sleep the night before and weren’t too pleased to be told to move to a buoy to wait until 8.30 when the office opened. We called on the VHF at 8.30am, we were told to stand-by, we waited an hour whilst catnapping, then tried again when Phillipe came to the boat to explain that their rather cryptic response to our request for a berth that they already had a booking for our boat, then lack of response to our reply to request clarification actually meant that they didn’t have a berth. We went to anchor, which luckily was excellent holding (our anchor is not the best), after a well earned rest, we went ashore for a meal out (not pasta or rice based) and a few beers and cocktails (what the heck we were celebrating!) at the Mango Bay bar at the marina. It was not the reception we hoped to get on arrival and we were both so tired it was a very quiet night, so we decided to delay the celebrations to the next night.


Torrential rain as welcome to Martinique through Sunday afternoon


Practice celebrations in Mango Bay!!, Marin Marina, Martinique

Marin, Martinique

We have arrived safe and well in Martinique at about 3am this morning, after saying that we'd had no squalls until now they all came at once overnight. We therefore had a faster than planned arrival and ended up having to wait until daylight in the bay to come in. There has also been a misunderstanding over the marina berth that we thought we had reserved at the marina, which is apparently full. Therefore, full blog write ups / emails etc to follow later. We are really pleased to be here but completely shattered after a long night, so we will be having a short rest before beginning the celebrations.

Atlantic Crossing – Mindelo to Martinique – Day 16

Less than one hundred miles to go! The afternoon decrease in the wind occurred yesterday too and we had around 6 hours of motoring, but luckily it returned sooner and we were sailing again by 7pm. Our arrival has therefore now definitely dropped into overnight Saturday, so accordingly we have slowed the boat down to allow us to arrive in daylight on Sunday. We are sailing now under reefed main and goose-winged jib and expect this to continue through the night if the wind remains. We are hoping to catch sight of land before darkness as both Martinique and neighbouring Saint Lucia reach reasonable altitudes (1397m and 950m respectively). We are ready for a long hot shower, a nice meal and a glass or two of something to celebrate!

 

Distance (noon to noon): 127nm

Position: 14 24.097N, 59 14.154W

Total Distance run: 2161nm

Distance remaining: 97nm

Atlantic Crossing - Mindelo to Martinique - Day 15

We ended up motoring for about 11 hours yesterday, finally hoisting the
Spifurl at midnight in 10 - 12 knots. We have been able to sail since then
with the wind staying around this level ever since with variable direction
between gusts keeping the on watch person busy. It is still likely to be a
Sunday arrival now, but the swell is still slight and the sun hot and sunny,
so we are not complaining. We took advantage of the steady conditions
yesterday for an interior boat spring clean and life on board remains very
comfortable. We are excited to arrive for the first time in the Caribbean
but we will also be sad to see the end of our first Transatlantic crossing,
which to this point has been excellent.

Distance (noon to noon): 124nm
Position: 14 35.629N, 57 11.202W
Total Distance run: 2033nm
Distance remaining: 216nm

Atlantic Crossing - Mindelo to Martinique - Day 14

We continue west towards Martinique, although except for a brief spell of 15 knot winds overnight, the wind has deserted us. We'd been able to make a creditable 4-5 knots in 8-10 knots of wind under Spifurl but this afternoon we have finally switched on the engines as the wind dropped below 6 knots. We are now motoring under blue skies and strong sunshine (35 degrees in the shade). We can now take a direct course after zig-zagging / gybing in under Spifurl. We were looking at a Saturday arrival yesterday morning, but now with no wind, it is likely to be Sunday. We have however, plentiful diesel supplies to get us all the way in due to the minimal motoring done so far and we are just making our way in gradually. However, with the gentle swell and gorgeous weather we are not in any rush.

 

Distance (noon to noon): 130nm

Position: 14 57.250N, 55 17.888W

Total Distance run: 1909nm

Distance remaining: 327nm

 

Atlantic Crossing - Mindelo to Martinique - Day 13

Perhaps it is something about this being the thirteenth day of the trip, but our laptop which we use for blogging has has had a hardware failure this morning, so until we are back up and running again properly there are no graphics today. All else is going well though, little wind again, we currently have 8 -12 knots. However, we had a really good day and night with the Spifurl yesterday and got some good mileage in, so we are getting closer.

 

Distance (noon to noon UT) 162nm

Position (noon UT): 14 37.140N, 53 26.539W 

Total Distance run: 1779nm

Distance remaining: 434nm

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Martinique - Day 12

We have now passed the three-quarter mark on our journey, despite a slow
afternoon's sail yesterday in light winds. The wind has picked up since
daybreak this morning however and we are making very good speeds under
Spifurl. The weather is hot and sunny again with blue skies and small white
fluffy clouds (cumulus for those in the know). We had a little light rain
again overnight, finally cleaning some of the Saharan dust from the sails.
We continue with our routine trying not to think about the end just yet as
there is still away to go.

Distance covered noon to noon: 134nM
Position @ noon: Lat 14 52.925N, Long 51 02.396W
Total distance = 1617nM
Distance to run = 575nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Martinique - Day 11

Happy Birthday to me (Jo)! The chocolate and wine is chilling again for
dinner as today is my 33rd birthday and not one I think I will forget being
celebrated two-thirds of the way across the Atlantic! I watched the most
fantastic sunrise before Kevin relieved me at 6am and I got to have a long
lie in this morning which was heavenly. The wind has not decided to join the
celebrations though and progress is steady today, still the sun is out and
we had some splashes of rain to clean the boat first thing which is well
appreciated (though none of the infamous Atlantic squalls yet). We have just
seen an enormous container carrier without containers, the first shipping
traffic in days. We will also probably make the three-quarters mark
tomorrow, still no prediction of arrival yet though with the haphazard wind
strengths. However, Kevin did manage to get a Sun-Run-Sun position (using
sextant) within half a mile of our GPS position yesterday which is
excellent.

Distance covered noon to noon: 136nM
Position @ noon: Lat 14 42.872N, Long 48 55.975W
Total distance = 1483nM
Distance to run = 698nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Martinique - Day 10

The passage continues well today, after a very slow and frustrating day
yesterday of 8-10 knots of wind as a front passed through. The wind did
however finally pick up in the early evening and has steadied. We ran under
Spifurl throughout the afternoon, changing to a reefed main and jib during
the night. We had continued the zig zag course with the Spifurl, but now we
finally have the forecast wind strength we are on a direct route.

We should reach the two-thirds point later today and the weather is hot and
sunny. Kevin has been out with his sextant again and continues to plot our
route the traditional way alongside our GPS course with impressive accuracy.
We have also received some more encouraging emails from friends and family
which is always appreciated. We spent some time yesterday reading the Lonely
Planet guide for Martinique to plan some sightseeing when we arrive which is
now looking a little closer everyday.

Distance covered noon to noon: 142nM
Position @ noon: Lat 14 05.884N, Long 46 46.597W
Total distance = 1347nM
Distance to run = 806nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Martinique - Day 9

The more observant amongst you will have noticed that our destination in the
title above has now changed. The weather forecast yesterday showed a doldrum
heading up to the latitude of Grenada into our path which would require us
to stay north longer. We had been planning after reaching Grenada to get the
boat lifted out for antifouling then cruise north to Martinique then return
to Grenada for our wedding in February. We decided that we might save
ourselves a lot of time by going directly to Martinique now which is much
better equipped with boat yards and chandleries and is where Fountaine Pajot
(the boat manufacturer) does warranty work should anything come to light
during the lift. This will also save us a fairly difficult routing into
Grenada against the wind and give us more time for cruising the Windward
islands later. Ironically our friends on Serena (the Lagoon catamaran we met
in Mindelo who were also heading to Grenada) called us on our satellite
phone and they have also decided to divert to Martinique so we are hoping to
see them when we get there.

Progress has slowed slightly as we are now taking a more direct course
downwind. We should pass another time zone this afternoon taking boat time
to GMT-3.

Distance covered noon to noon: 134nM
Position @ noon: Lat 15 05.360N, Long 44 52.428W
Total distance = 1205nM
Distance to run = 927nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Grenada - Day 8

We decided as we are now approaching half way to put the throttle down a bit
and have been under Spirfurl through the night (we have full moon and can
see squalls coming). Consequentially, we have now got a new day's record run
of 178 miles for Invincible! We are now powering our way towards the half
way mark and the glass of wine and chocolate we have been saving to
celebrate later today is chilling. The downside of the Spirfurl is the wind
angle required by it makes a less direct route, so the total has been
readjusted because of this and as we are now counting down on the GPS which
also added a little for our previous northing.

Conditions continue to be good, bright blue skies with a more consistent
wind strength but with a fairly large swell.

Distance covered noon to noon: 178nM
Position @ noon: Lat 14 59.410N, Long 42 36.916W
Total distance = 1066nM
Distance to run = 1116nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Grenada - Day 7

We are still making steady progress, a little motoring overnight as our
first squall arrived which as we were running alongside for several miles
did not provide us which much needed rain to clean the boat but did disrupt
tradewinds. When it passed we were able to sail again, we were just far away
enough not to get the accelerated winds.

Our visitor of yesterday has now become our squatter! The little white crane
which arrived yesterday afternoon is still with us and spends his day
looking in through the saloon windows longingly. He'd obviously decided we'd
got the best spot as we were having breakfast and decided to try and come in
himself. Kevin swiftly moved him off and after we'd given him a flying fish
for his breakfast too!

Distance covered noon to noon: 123nM
Position @ noon: Lat 14 30.213N, Long 39 46.174W
Total distance = 888nM
Distance to run = 1212nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Grenada - Day 6

We passed the third way mark yesterday and have had a reasonable sail since,
still with the usual variability in wind speed and direction though. Just
after I sent the blog yesterday we looked up to see a very large oil tanker
approaching us quite close astern (clearly because I had just mentioned how
little traffic there was in the blog). Their bearing was sufficiently close
to that we called them on the VHF to check they had seen us, after four
calls we were eventually passed through to the bridge, by which time it
appeared that their course had changed away from us and we agreed with the
officer all was well. They had passed however within 0.75 to 1 mile of us
which is regarded as a near miss for a vessel that size so we were not sure
if we had woken them up with our radio call.

Kevin has continued with his sextant work when clouds allow and has been
able to get some close sights and maintain our position through sun sights.
We are both still doing well settled into the routine and clocking up the
miles. As I write this I am being watched by a small white stork type bird
with nobbly black legs and big feet and a yellow bill. He hitched a ride
this morning and appears to be intending to spend the night. Let's hope he
was intending to go west!

Distance covered noon to noon: 132nM
Position @ noon: Lat 14 48.595, Long 37 40.904W
Total distance = 765nM
Distance to run = 1335nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Grenada - Day 5

We are now running up to the one third mark, which we should reach this
evening, though our main target right now is half way. Conditions are much
the same as yesterday, fairly variable winds, in direction and speed though
it looks like the Atlantic current is strengthening slightly which will also
push us in the right direction. Overall the conditions are very mild making
for a pleasant albeit slow passage.

A few seabirds appear to be following us, skuas I think and we also had a
visit from quite a stunning white bird yesterday with a pointed tail and
yellow markings which flew very fast, circled us a couple of times and left
again. No other sightings, Kevin saw two enormous tankers during one watch
on the fourth night but no other shipping spotted before or since.

We have been pleased to receive a couple of emails plus an Iridium text from
my parents and pick the occasional BBC World Service News report, so we don't
feel we have completely lost touch with the world.

Distance covered noon to noon: 135nM
Position @ noon: Lat 15 12.675, Long 33 30.211W
Total distance = 633nM
Distance to run = 1467nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Grenada - Day 4

We are drawing very close to the quarter way mark and should pass that
today. The wind did continue to drop throughout yesterday afternoon and we
eventually had to motor for an hour in the early evening. However, the wind
then picked up, although it was of a fairly variable direction requiring
constant attention to stay with the jib goosewinged. The wind is now running
at between 14-18 knots and the direction of both wind and swell appear to
have settled which is what we were anticipating from the forecast. We had
been keeping a little north of the usual route to begin with to try and keep
as much wind as possible, however the forecast and wind is now determining
that we can start to track more southerly.

Distance covered noon to noon: 126nM
Position @ noon: Lat 15 45.029, Long 33 17.027W
Total distance = 498nM
Distance to run = 1602nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Grenada - Day 3

All still progressing well with a better run yesterday due to the use of the
spifurl. The winds are still aggravatingly variable, having dropped the
spifurl for gusting winds last night only to have it drop off to nothing
moments later. It appeared we had at last got the tradewinds this morning
with lanes of clouds and increased swell plus a steady 12-17knot breeze,
however this afternoon it is dropping off again. However, we are both doing
well and even listened to some of the Rememberance day service on BBC World
Service this morning. Finally we passed into our next time zone in the last
24 hours, the ships clock going back one hour which feels like good progress
but a long way to run yet and we take each day at a time.
Also apologies for the slight delay in sending blog updates, technical issue
now resolved

Distance covered noon to noon: 135nM
Position @ noon: Lat 16 24.555N, Long 31 12.212W
Total distance = 370nM
Distance to run = 1730nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Grenada - Day 2

The winds continue to be lighter than forecast although there is also very
little swell and plenty of sunshine so it's not all bad. We had a rather
slow night with winds between 8 and 12 knots, however we put the Spifurl up
this morning and are now making a much better pace. We are both well and
settled nicely into the passage and eating and sleeping well. Kevin is
plotting our position with the sextant daily and I am doing a bit of
reading.

Distance covered noon to noon: 130nM
Position @ noon: Lat 16 28.904N, Long 28 58.292W
Total distance = 235nM

Atlantic Passage: Mindelo to Grenada - Day 1

We departed Mindelo about 16:15 with a send off from Max and Gigi shortly
followed by a pod of dolphins guiding our way down the channel between Sao
Vicente and Santo Antao. We had a good push along our way from the venture
affect between the islands and making good progress. However by about 9pm
the wind had almost completely disappeared and we ended up motoring on our
first night at low revs to conserve fuel but therefore loosing pace. However
by 5am we were under sail again and have been making good progress ever
since. Kevin has even had three catches today but we are not quite sure of
the species so none have yet made it to the pot.

Distance covered 16:15 to noon: 105nM
Position @ noon: Lat 16 36.551N, Long 26 44.789W
Total distance = 105nM
Distance to run = 1995nM

Marina Mindelo, Sao Vincente, Cape Verdes

As I write this we are all checked out and all preparations made to leave, we are just waiting for high water to clear the rather shallow entrance to this pontoon. I went alone to customs, as I’d been tipped off by Marta that her all girl crew had a much better time all over the world compared to the Blue Water rally male skippers. Kevin had attended with Tim the day before to understand the procedure and they’d been made to sit and wait for people apparently sat doing nothing and were generally given a fairly hard time. We were expecting worse because it seems we should have gone to the airport in Sal to clear immigrations, but like all the other boats in Palmeira had not known at the time. However, when I arrived all alone, the three male policemen that greeted me were all smiles and we talked in French, they explained we’d have to clear in then out that day, moved a chair over for me and dusted it off. All the paperwork was done in about 15 minutes and I was given all the stamped forms and receipt for the 500 Escudos fee (which Tim had had to ask to get). The policeman I first met sat and chatted to me whilst it was all arranged and wished me Bon Voyage when I left. Immigration was similar and I had the whole thing wrapped up in less then an hour, even though Tim & Kevin had taken 2 hours the day before. Kevin couldn’t believe it when I got back (we’d both been worried by dire warnings of hundreds of pounds in fines for the incorrect procedure at Sal) and said I suppose you are going to tell me now they made you a cup of tea! They didn’t go quite that far but we have agreed that clearance will be my job from now on.

Anyway, we’re now going for lunch then off we go! It’s not quite sunk in yet that we are about to start on our lifetime dream of crossing the Atlantic, but we’ll keep the blog up on passage as usual (barring computer/power problems) and let everyone know how it is going.

Marina Mindelo, Sao Vincente, Cape Verdes

Wednesday was a busy day as we started to complete the jobs on our departure checklist such as extra lashings for the tender, stowing the outboard, charging all the electric, batteries etc. We also had some shopping to do and called in at the fishmarket on the way to have a look. It was very lively, although I think the complete lack of ice and mass of flies would probably put off many buyers from the UK but they did have some very impressively sized fish.



Next was time for lunch with Tim, Max, Sarah, Gigi (Gerard a French sailor who arrived by boat and has decided to stay) and Adide in a fantastic locals café bar called Suzanna’s which you would never think to enter from the outside but served a fantastic lunch for 500 Escudos (£3.50) including wine.
Finally we returned to the boat to do a few more jobs whilst Tim finished his preparations and at 4pm we were joined by Max and Adide to wave him off and give a hand with his lines. Tim made a tricky departure in a breezy wind blowing him on to the pontoon look easy and departed.





Kevin then had another quick swim to clean the log before we were due over to Festina Lente for drinks and inevitably to give a hand to fix their computer! We had a tour of Nick’s lovely boat and had a couple of drinks to chat about their travels and our plans – although Kevin having bought Nick’s book and started reading it was able to steal his thunder of some of his stories much to the amusement of his crew! Kevin then managed to get things working on their SSB weather fax (or as much as we could tell with limited signal in this mountainous area), which was quite impressive having never used SSB before. They were very pleased with the result anyway and Marta cooked us all a lovely dinner with lots of fresh salad and vegetables, not an easy feat in the Cape Verdes. Next we had to play a game with dice to see who did the washing up, which unfortunately I lost, but Dave very valiantly stepped in!

Finally we returned to the boat about 10pm to let the Festina Lente crew get some rest before their early ferry to see Santo Antau the next morning and obviously to let us get some rest before our big passage the next day.

Marina Mindelo, Sao Vincente, Cape Verdes

Tuesday morning, Serena departed at about 08:00 having not quite finished their preparations the day before. Unfortunately we were a little sluggish from the night before and didn’t manage to see them off, but will hopefully make up for that in Grenada. We had a quiet day, managing to catch Alex for a Skype chat in the afternoon. We were also boarded by the Festina Lente crew, an English Discovery 55 which had just arrived and came to say Hi and find out about the local facilities. However, they had passed by this way three years earlier as part of the Blue Water rally when they had to call in for shelter after a hurricane warning on route from the Canaries across the Atlantic. Nick (owner) and crew Dave (one of the other Blue Water Rally skippers) and Marta (a Polish girl they met in Australia on the rally sailing a 28ft yacht around the world with one other female crew).


View of the marina

We had dinner in Casa Café then later joined the usual crowd in Club Nautico for leaving drinks for Tim.


Casa Cafe

Marina Mindelo, Sao Vincente, Cape Verdes

Monday was another quiet day onboard, but Kevin was feeling much better. Tim popped by in the afternoon to check on the invalid and we invited him to dinner. He mentioned that a group from the UK Armed forces were joining the On Deck crews that evening. The BLESMA (British Limbless Ex-Servicemens Association) have chartered one of the On Deck Farr 65ft racing yachts to cross the Atlantic with an all disabled crew of 15. As Charlie one of the group leaders was explaining to me in the bar that night, the name is now rather out of date with the society being formed in the 1920’s, the society now includes servicemen and women, many of whom are still serving and encompasses a number of different injuries. More information about their trip can be found in the following report:
http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=144106

After a bit of shopping in the afternoon and a bit more hull scrubbing (it’s amazing how quickly the weed grows in marinas, we will definitely be renewing the antifouling in the Caribbean). I came out covered in little shrimp lava which was most unpleasant, still it was a good job done and Kevin enjoyed hosing me down on the pontoon before I was allowed back onboard as they seemed less attracted to him!

Tim came over about 6pm and we had a pleasant dinner in the cockpit, although the weather was little cooler this evening and we were in long sleeves for the first time in a long time. Talk was now geared towards weather and departure checks, with Tim leaving on Wednesday and us on Thursday.

Later we headed over to Club Nautico where Tim and Kevin decided to sample the local Grogue (firewater) and Poncho (stronger firewater) favoured by the locals – Kevin now clearly feeling much better! There was live music again and we had a great evening talking to Max, a French merchant captain who spends his off duty time in Mindelo and his girlfriend Dolce plus Adide who works as a boat boy. Sarah the On Deck support leader also joined us later. Then the BLESMA guys arrived about 11.30pm having departed the UK that morning at 05:30. However, they were all very pleased to be there and determined to celebrate the achievement… which apparently took until 05:30am on Tuesday morning to accomplish fully! We wimped out at 01:30am having to be let out from the lock – in.

Marina Mindelo, Sao Vincente, Cape Verdes

On Sunday Kevin was beginning to feel a lot better and we were able to accept an invitation from the French Lagoon 440 catamaran moored directly behind us for drinks. So after a quiet day on board we went along about 6pm. After a quick tour of our boat for Herve which unfortunately resulted in our boat keys going overboard whilst opening the bow lockers! It was at that point we realised that the foam float attached did not have the buoyancy to support the extra keys….! Luckily Kevin very swiftly retrieved them with mask, fins and snorkel and after a quick shower we went over to Serena.

Owner Marc, skipper Herve and crew Charles gave a great welcome and a tour of their lovely boat which has comfortable accommodation and all the mod cons. We’d been very keen to chat to them as they were leaving the next day to Grenada (our next destination) so we went armed with our weather forecast and compared and contrasted weather, then sailing tactics, blogs, navigation software etc etc. It was the first chance we’d had to have such discussions with another catamaran crew and I think we all learned a lot as the Serena crew were all previously monohull sailors. It was really pleasant evening and we made plans to meet up in Grenada if the timing was right.

We’d made a very respectable average speed compared to them on our route from the Canaries using a barber hauler to sail directly downwind rather than tacking downwind as it is referred to in catamarans which prefer to be 100-120 degrees off the wind which the Serena crew had done. However, with the swell with us and the sails like this we’d had a very stable boat and excellent surfing so we’d had a fast passage. The French crew were going to try our technique on the next leg and there was a bit of ribbing of Herve by his crew / boat owner that he better make sure that we didn’t beat them across!

We left them at 9pm to allow them to get a good night’s sleep before their passage and went to Club Nautico. Although within 30 minutes we were joined again by the Serena crew in search of food. So the discussion continued and they have given us some great tips for places to visit in the Caribbean and Venezuela, where they have cruised extensively in the past.

Marina Mindelo, Sao Vincente, Cape Verdes

….Well the Halloween party didn’t turn out quite as we expected. Kevin and Tim had headed out early to meet the On Deck crew whilst I finished some emailing promising to return to collect me with pizza. Unfortunately when they returned with the food, Kevin was not feeling well as his previous food poisoning had resurfaced, we think as a result of his lunch that day. Tim had also eaten the same but was ok, suggesting that Kevin had not fully recovered from the first bout so we put him on antibiotics and he went to bed for an hour to see if he felt better.

I went out with Tim for an hour back to the Club Nautico where live music had been laid on for the On Deck crew. It consisted of two guys with acoustic guitars singing some Creole Mornos (ballads) which are a speciality of Cape Verde with famous International artists such as Cesaria Evora. Later in the evening a local girl who was obviously a friend / accompaniment to the band start to dance along with some very impressive hip shimmying much to the delight of the On Deck male crew members!

I went back to check on Kevin, but unfortunately he was not feeling any better so I decided to call it a night too. Saturday was necessarily a very quiet day whilst Kevin slept and tried to recuperate just watching a DVD that evening.