| Date: | Dec. 22, 2021, 4:14 a.m. |
| Position: | 13 5.43 N, 59 36.86 W |
Arrived in Barbados anchored in Carlisle Bay after clearing in
| Date: | Dec. 21, 2021, 10:26 p.m. |
| Position: | 13 36.00 N, 57 14.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.8 |
| Heading (True): | 260.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 22.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 1.0 |
This should hopefully be our last full night at sea. At sunset we have 140nm to run to Barbados, so if we keep up a 6 knot average then we should be able to make it by sunset tomorrow. Customs clearance is apparently open until 8pm, so if we can clear customs tomorrow and hit a beach bar I'm pretty sure it would make Riley's year.
Nothing special today. The wind moderated and the sea and swell also subdued, so the sailing today was awesome.
Nicole Filteau: Cheers to a beach bar! Enjoy. Dec. 22, 2021, 12:28 a.m.
Cedric Boss: Enjoy that sweet drink Riley and Viola , Great adventure and success on first big crossing can't wait to hear more about it. PS getting close to that million ;) Dec. 22, 2021, 2:37 a.m.
Odette: Time to buy bitcoin at a bargain price. xrp usd binance Aug. 20, 2022, 1:18 p.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 20, 2021, 8:10 p.m. |
| Position: | 14 26.00 N, 54 45.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.6 |
| Heading (True): | 260.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 22.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | rough |
| Swell (m): | 2.0 |
Apologies for missing a log entry yesterday. The conditions have been so incredibly consistent the days are just merging into each other and you lose track of the time. The rolling is driving all of us a little crazy... the wind has been give or take 10 or 20 degress either side of directly astern for the whole trip - 18 days so far we have been rolling with the sails set wing on wing!! Urgh... With only a few days that the wind dropped below 20 knots - otherwise it has been 20-25 knots gusting/squalling to 30+ for the whole time, which has the extra effect of building up a pretty rough sea most of the time.
Yeah we are all ready to be there by now. Its getting very hot in the days - and the water temperature is 27 degrees. So the best we can normally manage throughout the day is just chilling out and trying to stay cool. The nights are a little cooler - but not much.
Yesterday we hove-to (stopped the boat) for a few hours to fix the dynema deck-fitting for the lower stay. Previously we had fixed it with a single strand of 6mm dynema rope, but we had squalls forecast throughout the night and I wasn't comfortable with just the one strand. So we took the lower stay off again, cut off the old piece of dynema and managed to do it again but this time fitting two strands of 6mm dyneema through the 10mm hole in the deck. Capped with just figure-8 knots under the deck/chainplate this looks extremely strong and robust.
It was worth the effort because overnight we had some very heavy rain with a squall to 35-40 knots for about 10 minutes before.
Nothing remarkable happened today other than just a lot of rolling. The wind picked up to around 30 knots for a while during the day and is now settling down to the standard 20-25 knot range. The sea got quite rough with the NE wind throwing up a decent swell of around 2-3 meters... but interestingly a smaller swell seems to be coming up from the SW at 90-degrees. The combination of these waves made it quite rough and we rolled heavily.
We are about to run out of hte water in the tanks, but we have about 70 liters in extra cans and bottles, and we also have our mechanical water maker which can make about 30 liters an hour now. Its a bit rough to try to pour the water from the reserve jerry cans so we are right now sailing into the sunset running the watermaker for an hour and a half or so to make 50 liters of water which should get us through the next couple of days to Barbados.
Its still looking like we will arrive overnight on Wednesday or very early Thursday morning.
Angelika Tabel: Moin Ihr Lieben, ich lese jeden Tag Eure Nachrichten und tollen aufregenden Geschichten. Ihr seid so tapfer. Ihr habt so viel Mut. Ich bin sehr stolz auf Euch. Ich bewundere Euch alle 3. Aber bitte liebe Jungs seid mir nicht böse, am meisten bewundere ich meine mutige Tochter. Sie war schon als kleines Kind immer sehr mutig und hatte nur vor ganz wenigen Dingen Angst. Aber diese Fahrt übersteigt alles. Ich ziehe wirklich den Hut vor Euch allen dreien. LG Violas Mama Dec. 20, 2021, 10:08 p.m.
Jim and Nicole Filteau: We agree with Angelika, a very brave crew! It has been both exciting and terrifying to follow your journey. We are thankful to have had access to these daily updates. Wishing you calm waters as you near the end of your journey. Dec. 21, 2021, 5:27 a.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 19, 2021, 12:09 a.m. |
| Position: | 15 40.00 N, 50 12.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 6.0 |
| Heading (True): | 260.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 22.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | rough |
| Swell (m): | 2.5 |
Another day just rolling toward our destination. We are now nearly 500nm from Barbados.
Viola was the star of the day steering through a 40-45 knot squall without waking Riley or me early in the morning before sunrise. I recall stirring and thinking it seemed very windy before rolling over and going back to sleep... Viola had it under control.
The boat mostly steers itself thanks to a wind-driven autopilot system we have called a Hydrovane. However when conditions change suddenly and/or dramatically (as in a squall) we often need to assist the hydrovane by steering by hand to help it stay on course.
Otherwise nothing happened for the rest of the day. Lots of resting, sleeping and so on.
Just now at sunset our Port side lower stay chainplate deck fitting (eyelet) broke. This is not entirely surprising since we changed these fittings a couple of years ago but I couldn't get the originals... so I compromised on some more modern fancy looking fittings. These however did not have a critical angle bent into them. As a result the deck fitting always had a slight torque or twisting force on them. Over time this work-fatigued the futting and they would fail catastrophically. Anyway that was a relatively fast and easy fix. We ran some dynama through the holes into the deck, around the chain plate and back to the stay. Within a short time the stay was secure and we continued our rolling downwind...
Bertram Tabel: ja,so ist sie mein baby:-) ruige wache gode wind an euch alle ! Dec. 20, 2021, 9:37 p.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 17, 2021, 7:23 p.m. |
| Position: | 16 11.00 N, 47 52.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 6.0 |
| Heading (True): | 260.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 20.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 1.0 |
Just now we passed a very large pod of whales and sailed right through the middle of them. I'm quite sure they were a pod of around 12 or more sperm whales. It was great sailing right over the top of one group of 3 so close we could gave almost touched them.
This morning we also had a flying fish this morning manage to fly into the small window/hatch directly above the stove in our galley. Unfortunately there was not a pot or pan on the stove otherwise he would have landed directly in said pot or pan and presented itself very nicely for breakfast... a little olive oil, turn on the heat... job done. As it was it bounced off the top of the stove and fell down the back of the oven where we had to get it out before it started to smell.
There are a huge number of flying fish. We already had a few smash into our wheelhouse windows during the night. You have to be a bit careful because if you leave a door or windows open for ventilation it's possible to get one fly in and can hit you. I got one in the side of my head once while writing a log post by the open window one day at sunset (years ago while sailing up to europe).
The wind did not end up coming up as much as we expected from the forecast, so we have been lucky enough to be cruising along with a very comfortable and steady 18-22 knots of wind for the past 3 days or so now. It's warm but a nice fresh breeze so it's very comfortable just sitting out on deck watching the waves roll by.
The sea state has also vastly improved with the swell last night and this morning quite small. It's also been a very bright full moon which makes a massive difference being able to see dark clouds, indicating squalls, and even just seeing the waves and sea state at night make everything much more relaxed. So it's been quite comfortable cruising and we have still managed to make a 6 knot average speed over the past 24 hours even with just the double reefed mainsail and poled out inner staysail.
The forecast shows it increasing again tonight, but fingers crossed its a steady wind (not squally) and our lucky run continues and we are able to sail another 24 hours without touching any sails (or doing anything really). The stronger wind should hopefully allow us to comfortably keep up this quicker average pace.
We have certainly found our rhythm now as a team and the days and miles are just rolling by without much effort. We just laze around during today days resting and conserving energy for our night routine where normally Riley stays up later until around midnight reading etc, then I take the midnight to 4am shift and Viola takes 4am to sunrise. Then we all get a total of 8 hours sleep during the evenings (although mine is broken in 2 shifts )... but we generally all feel well rested and fine to just stay up chatting, reading and so on during the days... then we just repeat that, over and over. Once you get into the rhythm like this and you are all well rested, relaxed and comfortable then the hours, miles and days just roll by effortlessly. I was speaking to Riley today and he agreed that now we are "in the groove" the idea of just continuing another 1000nm (7 days) direct to Panama seems like not a big deal... but we probably won't do that.
| Date: | Dec. 16, 2021, 6:57 p.m. |
| Position: | 16 54.00 N, 45 29.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.8 |
| Heading (True): | 260.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 18.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 1.0 |
Nothing special to report for yesterday and today. The wind was stable between 15-20 knots and we were able to roll along quite comfortably (still rolling but slightly less aggressively than when the wind was 30 knots). We all got a good nights sleep and are well rested. At the end of the night just before sunset we had a small squall to 25-knots and associated rain shower. So we reefed the genoa on the pole and have been like that all day today.
We are now rolling into the sunset with the forecast showing wind picking up tonight to a steady 20-25 knots, so we are about to furl up the tissue paper genoa and set the inne staysail out on the pole, we'll go a bit slowly for the first half of the night, but if the wind picks up as forecast we should have the right amount of sail for the latter half of the night... and be comfortably more squall-proof under that sail.
Writing this now we have 845nm to go. If we can maintain 130nm per day then we are 6.5 days from the destination. That puts us arriving on Thursday morning of the 24th. However we should be able to keep a slightly quicker pace than this, so I suspect we will arrive sometime around the middle of the night on the 23rd.
| Date: | Dec. 15, 2021, 5:01 p.m. |
| Position: | 17 50.00 N, 43 12.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.8 |
| Heading (True): | 260.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 18.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 1.5 |
We just passed the point with 1000nm to go. For the first time since departure 12 days we have made a change in our angle of sail to the wind and made a gybe... that means we have moved the mainsail boom and spinnaker pole to the other side of the boat. Otherwise nothing has changed, we are still running butterfly "square" almost directly downwind, but changing the sails to the other side allows us to head 20 degrees more to starboard and lay a course more directly for Barbados. From now on we should be running a straight course for Barbados as we have made enough south-progress and the forecast looks favourable to lay a straight course from here on.
It is quite remarkable that we have sailed the same angle to the wind for 12 days straight. The only changes we have made have been increasing or decreasing the actual sail area to account for stronger or lighter winds... but otherwise we have been sailing the exact same angle to the wind for the whole time. Hopefully we can sail more or less the same angle for this last 7 or 8 days of sailing which should put us directly on Barbados. If we can do the whole thing with only one gybe I will be pretty chuffed with myself.
Apologies for missing a log entry yesterday. Nothing remarkable has happened. Conditions took longer than expected to ease throughout the day yesterday. Most of the day we had 20 knots and we continued with double-reefed main and poled-out inner staysail (which we have not touched for 5 days now I think) into the night. Around midnight the winds eased to 15-18 knots and we doused the staysail and furled out our tissue-paper spare genoa. We ran that through the night with relatively stable winds up until now. Midday we did our gybe. Riley and Viola have been taking advantage of the fine weather and relatively calmer seas to do some washing and open up and air out the whole boat.
Latest forecast shows that these light conditions should continue on into the night tonight and gradually winds will increase again tomorrow into the night. It looks like we have a cold-front type of weather system sweeping down so I suspect we will get some rain and squalls associated with an increase in the wind strength tomorrow night. So we'll be prepared for that (back to double reefed main and poled out staysail) and then riding out stronger winds again for the weekend. Currently it looks like conditions are easing from Monday and early next week for an easy final approach to Barbados.
| Date: | Dec. 13, 2021, 8:37 p.m. |
| Position: | 19 48.00 N, 39 12.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.5 |
| Heading (True): | 240.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 27.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 2.0 |
Conditions overcast and squally overnight, clearing late-morning this morning and we ended with clear skies and a nice fresh 20-25 knot breeze with the sea state dropping with the wind. It is forecast that the wind will continue to drop overnight and into tomorrow - so we could have a slow day tomorrow - but that will be good for us to do some washing and air out the boat finally. We have had to keep most of the hatches and windows shut due the rough sea and strong winds.
We are really in the tropics now at 19 degrees North - looking at our depth sounder right now it is showing a water temperature of 25.8 degrees C. And we still have another 6 degrees further south to go. Its getting hot. When the sun came out this afternoon we all went and sat on the back deck and talked while we watched the waves rolling past us from behind.
The sea state last night was intolerable with waves from multiple directions and frequencies all coming together with still a pretty stiff 25 knot breeze. Neither Riley nor Viola slept much. It wasn't helped by the fact that our night got off to a bad start with a very random "rogue wave" hitting us on the side and sending green water clear over most of the boat. This hasn't happened to this extent before - which gives an indication of how rough the sea is getting at times - the top of our wheelhouse is about 2.5meters clear above the surface of the water so to get a breaking wave clear over that has to be significant. We were all fine but we got a lot of water into the boat through the various hatches and portlights we had left open - including the skylight over the wheelhouse.
Viola fared the worst out of all of us though - she was sleeping on the starboard (leeward/low side) with the hatch over the starboard bunk (on the other side of the boat) being open. Such a quantity of clear green water came through the hatch that a nice slug of it - about a full bucket in quantity - flew right across the interior of the boat - missing all obstacles on the way - and landed perfectly on her face. Classic. She woke up in a shock thinking we had played a prank on her - but then could see that we had issues of our own with significant amounts of water shloshing around the galley and wheelhouse floors from the sheer quantity of water that had shipped in....
Of course we wouldn't pull a prank like that out here... a better time might be when we get to the other end and having our first good sleep in a quiet harbour...
The forecast for the rest of the trip is coming into view now. It seems like we might have some break from the rough conditions for tomorrow and Wednesday (and possibly Thursday) before the wind picks up again on Friday and will have a boisterous weekend again through to Tuesday. By which time we should be very close to Barbados - arriving Wednesday or Thursday next week. So we will enjoy this little "break" ahead of relatively calmer seas and winds before hunkering down for what will hopefully be the last big push over the weekend.
| Date: | Dec. 12, 2021, 9:14 p.m. |
| Position: | 20 43.00 N, 37 5.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.5 |
| Heading (True): | 240.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 27.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | rough |
| Swell (m): | 2.0 |
Tonight we pass the half way point by distance with 1325nm to go to Barbados. It was also Riley's birthday celebrating his 32nd in the middle of the North Atlantic was a bit special. Viola packed some chocolate brownies which served as a birthday cake with unlit candles. I got Riley my go-to present when we are at sea: a day of luxury cruising in the ocean on a private yacht... it sounds more fancy than it is.
Last night was relatively pleasant with moderate winds and a tolerable sea state. However conditions picked back up again throughout the day today and we returned to the regular state of rolling downwind in 25-30 knots with a pretty rough sea. It's fine and good to make progress but we are all over the rolling and just would iike a day ir calmer conditions to clean up, and refresh ourselves. It looks like that may come on Tuesday and Wednesday at this stage... fingers crossed.
Jim Filteau: Thank you for the daily updates. They are always a good read. Hoping for calmer winds and seas for you guys. Dec. 13, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
Leo Herold: Happy Birthday Riley! Hope ya all get some calmer days to enjoy the cruising ! Maybe a shower ? Some fishing and dolphin watch ! All the best ! Dec. 13, 2021, 5:32 p.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 12, 2021, 4:42 a.m. |
| Position: | 21 45.00 N, 35 39.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 6.0 |
| Heading (True): | 240.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 20.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 1.5 |
Conditions remained favourable today, although we had overcast conditions in the morning which brought more rain with associated squalls. The patches of rain and squalls have been a real feature of this passage so far. I have never experienced such regularity and patchiness of rain and squalls as on thus passage. It's difficult to fully relax because you know that within just an hour or two another squall is probably on its way.
So we went pretty frustratingly slowly thus morning. Running small sails: poled out staysail butterfly with double reefed main. Which was fine in the gusts, but between we were making slow progress with a lot of rolling and wallowing in the waves. The rolling continues, last night git terrible for a while when just the right combination of waves and wave frequency hit us to get us started.
We finally consumed all of the pre-made dishes that Rikey and Viola made before departure. So I cooked up a large batch of Osso Bucco in the pressure cooker with a paprika, red wine and tomato base. That seemed to go down well with everyone on board.
| Date: | Dec. 11, 2021, 1:33 a.m. |
| Position: | 23 9.00 N, 33 16.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 6.0 |
| Heading (True): | 240.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 22.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 1.5 |
Conditions eased today with the wind dropping to around - and at times less - than 20 knots. The sea state also improved quite dramatically with the large swell that has been following us for days easing somewhat and the sea becoming noticeably less rough.
We are still rolling downwind though with the wind blowing directly towards where we want to go. This is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the sense that we have following winds and seas which is what we all hope and aim for - especially sailing in the trade winds. However its a curse in the sense that if the wind is directly from behind us then we have to have our sails set directly out - 90-degrees to the wind - which gives us no lateral stability to prevent us from rolling. And so we roll. Also the sails set "square" to the wind like that are not working most efficiently, they are effectly just flat-plates at at that point and you get no aerodynamic efficiency from them. An alternative strategy is that we could not steer directly towards our destination - but rather sail off at some angle and get the sails working more efficiently on a broad-reach. For some boats this is actually the fastest way to get downwind - and has the added benefit of being more comfortable and less rolly. But unfortunately due to our very heavy displacement this is not a good option for us - we dont get the dramatic increase in sail efficiency and associated boat speed to make it worthwhile adopting that strategy. So to get there in a reasonable time its rolling downwind with our sails square unfortunately.
And boy are wel rolling. We have had roughly the same rig since we started. That is our mainsail boom is still set to starboard side with the preventer on it to prevent an accidental gybe - we have only altered that between 2 and 3 reefs once during the trip. Its back out to 2 reefs now. The genoa meanwhile is poled out to the port side - and we have alternated between reefing in the large genoa and poling out just the inner-staysail. But in all cases the sails have been set relatively the same to the wind. For 8 days now. And it looks like we'll continue like this for probably another week - and maybe all the way to Barbados. Which would be incredible - that would mean we would have sailed the entire way for 3 weeks without the wind angle relative to the boat heading chaning at all...
Riley Filteau: You jinxed us! 'that would mean we would have sailed the entire way for 3 weeks with the wind angle' changing - I clearly see now that it is your fault we had no changes! Jan. 21, 2022, 2:31 a.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 9, 2021, 3:23 p.m. |
| Position: | 24 33.00 N, 30 4.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.5 |
| Heading (True): | 240.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 27.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 90.0 |
| Sea state: | rough |
| Swell (m): | 2.5 |
The poled out staysail, tripple reefed main and milk crate drogue worked well last night. We could have easily got by without the milk crate, as most of the night we were going a bit slower than we would have liked, but it did pay dividends at around 2am when our first bigger squall came along. Nothing too extreme, just a little 30-35 knots for a few minutes, but being able to just keep trucking along steadily with no stress or having to touch anything or go on-deck during the night is worth the trade-off in speed.
Around mid-morning we pulled in the milk-crate but continued with the same (rather small) sail plan. We had a few squalls come through but nothing extreme. The main advantage is that during the day we can see them coming! Its getting better at night now as the moon is waxing, tonight we will have about 35% moon until 0100UTC (about half the night)... we are all looking forward to next week when we get a full moon for the whole night. We may be a little more bold at that time as we should have enough light to see clouds and squalls approaching.
We are all resting pretty well now and getting lots of sleep during our off-watch, so the concept of night and day is breaking down. This relentless 25-30knot ENE wind that has been blowing should hopefully settle down a bit tonight and tomorrow and we may actually speed up a bit because we can be a bit more bold with the sails and make use of our tissue-paper genoa.
We saw our first flying fish today as we enter tropical waters. The weather is certainly warm. Even with this strong wind blowing its minimal clothing where possible and we are trying to get as much air into the boat to cool it down as possible (without risking the water coming in). The water temperature measured on the depth sounder is 24.2 degrees C. Its actually warm to the touch.
Still very few other boats we have come across visually or on the AIS. A superyacht called "Aisha" (or similar) passed us last night and called us up to have a friendly chat on the radio. That was nice. A passing ship also contacted us earlier in the day and mentioned there was a notice out for an unidentified distress beacon in the region (probably a flare). Our boat name Tuuletar was listed as a possible candidate because we were known to be in the area (so someone is keeping tabs on us - thank you!) so I contacted them to let them know it was not us and we were fine. Latest advisory from MRCC Delgada (Azores) was that it may be a 50 foot Benetteau sailing boat with 5 people on board called "Sea Bear". The last reported position of the distress call was about 20nm from our track a few hours earlier in the night - but we didn't see any flares or anything that would indicate a distress of any kind. Hopefullly all works out well with the search and identification of the di stress call.
Riley Filteau: Was the first flying fish our friend that had some nice flight time lined up, but came to a sudden halt at the wheelhouse side window? Jan. 21, 2022, 2:28 a.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 8, 2021, 6:12 p.m. |
| Position: | 25 26.00 N, 28 17.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.5 |
| Heading (True): | 235.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 25.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | rough |
| Swell (m): | 3.0 |
We have joked that the good thing about our spare Genoa we have up is that us it breaks we can easily fix it with some UHU glue and toilet paper. It's very thin fabric compared to our old sail so I'm very nervous of putting too much pressure on it. We need it fir when the wind is less than 20 knots, otherwise it will be a very slow boat to Barbados.
So last night we didn't want to risk a squall blowing it out, so we rolled it in and instead went with the rather unconventional approach of poling out the staysail. This works surprisingly well as the staysail size is about equal to a double reefed Genoa. Our collapsible spinnaker pole means we can get the length just right.
Tonight the forecast wind is going up briefly to even more than the squally night when we started, so we are playing it safe. We reefed the main down to triple reefed (almost nothing) and just gave that butterfly with the poled out staysail. We have deployed again the trusty Sunrise Valley Farm milk crate to stabilise the aft. We are riding nice and comfortably now even given fairly rough seas and a stiff breeze - albeit a but slow at 5 knots when we could be making 7 to 8 knot averages in this weather.
But again our ability to rest easy and not be stressed and on-edge through the night is invaluable, and this setup is robust enough that we should be able to handle whatever comes up in the night without touching anything. So it's worth it.
Penelope Quin: Great to have your trip to follow again. Take care out there. Dec. 8, 2021, 7:46 p.m.
MRCC DELGADA: Good Night Sir Maritime Rescue Coordination Center of Pontal Delgada received an distress alert regarding a possible vessel in position 26°15.74'N 027°08.75'W at time 080209UTC. Sir you were navigating in the same area, did you see any flares or vessel in distress, as well we ask if everything is ok with your vessel as well. Best Regards MRCC DELGADA Dec. 8, 2021, 9:57 p.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 7, 2021, 4:18 p.m. |
| Position: | 27 10.00 N, 26 12.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.5 |
| Heading (True): | 235.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 18.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 2.0 |
We had a slow and easy night, but I should have pulled in the milk crate before sunset because we drifted along slowly and ended up bobbing around more than we would have liked. A little bit of boat speed would have had us riding a bit better.
As it turns out we did not escape the squalls unscathed. This morning we had very little wind and I rolled out the whole genoa only to find that several of the seams were breaking apart at the stitches. The damage is fixable and we could hand-stitch the seams back together if we need to. But as this is our primary driving sail I dont want to risk damaging it further. Fortunately we have a spare genoa that we have stored for this kind of occasion... However it has been stored under our aft bunk for 15 years and compared to the heavy fabric of the original genoa this replacement feels like tissue-paper. Needless to say I doubt it is nearly as strong as the previous one... so we will be sailing conservatively to avoid blowing this one out. If this one gets damaged then we'll have a slow day or two sailing under main and staysail only while we are sewing the seams of the original genoa by hand.
Fortunately the wind was light enough(~12 knots) that Riley and I were able to drop the genoa while running downwind under the main and within a few minutes had the new sail up and running. Folding and stowing away the large and very heavy fabric of the original genoa took some time.
Other than that it was an uneventful day. The weather was quite fine and we drifted downwind at 5-6 knots under full poled-out genoa and double-reefed mainsail (still on the port tack we started on). We all rested up and got some sleep and ran the generator to fill the batteries up to 100%. The wind is forecast to come up tonight, and since our last experience with the squalls we are all a bit nervous this time around. So we'll probably have another slow night sailing on reduced sail just to prevent any surprise squalls in the night.
| Date: | Dec. 6, 2021, 6:52 p.m. |
| Position: | 28 22.00 N, 24 41.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.5 |
| Heading (True): | 235.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 30.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 80.0 |
| Sea state: | moderate |
| Swell (m): | 2.0 |
Well the milk crate survived the night. We all put bets on to see how long it would last. Riley won the last bet on the kayak drogue with a bet of 18 hours survival against Viola and I 24 and 36 hours respectively ... and it lasted only 2. This time I think if it survives another night the milk crate has exceeded all our expectations.
We weren't sure if it was still there last night when a few squalls came up and we were still surfing down some 3m waves at 12 knots with a a 30-35 knot tailwind, double reefed main and triple reefed headsail. I felt sure we had lost the crate and it was just the resistance of now more significant the tackle and bridle that was assisting us. But anyway, although we were a bit in edge we managed to make up through the night without touching the wheel. And in the light of the morning we could see the crate still hanging in there. What a champion.
Conditions eased throughout the day and the regular squalls eventually dropped to just minor inconveniences. Around midday they were all but gone and we had rather nice sunny weather come out for the first time with a nice 20 knot wind from behind. The sea remained high for a time but even that eased into the afternoon.
We left the milk crate out and were all just happy to amble along at 5 knots for the day. Taking the opportunity to rest, read some books and catch up on sleep. Viola cooked up some pasta and chilli con carne she had prepared before departure and Riley and I setup the little honda generator to charge up the batteries. It's sunset now and the generator is happy whirring away putting 60amps into our LiFePO4 batteries. It's so nice with the lithium batteries just being able to give them a partial charge and also not gave to worry about charging for ages to give the batteries a full charge. If we want 120amp-hours of power then we can just run the generator for 2 hours and turn it off without having to think more about it.
As I write this now the sun is setting through the clouds directly in front of us. We have 20 gusting 25 knots of wind but conditions are much clearer and finer than the past days have been. We have a single reefed Genoa poled out butterfly with the double reefed main (the main we haven't touched since we departed). We could pull the milk crate in and cover some extra distance overnight, but given the run we had the past few days we will leave it out for tonight and may even reef the Genoa just so we can all sleep well and get some good rest. Conditions look set to remain benign like yhic for the next 24 hours before it picks back up again Tuesday night or Wedneday morning. So it's worth us all being well rested. Current forecast shows conditions may ease again for a longer period on Friday and over the weekend. If the milk crate holds until then we'll keep it out until Friday.
Cat: Long live the mighty milk crate! Dec. 6, 2021, 7:26 p.m.
Riley: I strongly advise all future ocean crossers to secure at least 1x Sunnyside valley Farms milk crate for their crossing! Jan. 21, 2022, 2:17 a.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 5, 2021, 8:17 p.m. |
| Position: | 29 28.00 N, 22 32.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 6.5 |
| Heading (True): | 235.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 30.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 70.0 |
| Sea state: | high |
| Swell (m): | 3.0 |
There is currently no moon and we have 14 hours of darkness. When everything goes smoothly then this isn't a problem. We choose and set sail before sunset for the worst-case winds we expect overnight (even if this means sailing a little slower)... we ensure the boat us stable and sailing by itself under the hydrovane self-steering gear... then we each have our comfy place around the boat, sleep when we can, and do our watches overnight without really having to do or touch anything.
But sometimes things don't go according to plan. Last night was one of those nights, and by the end if the night I was begging for daylight. As mentioned yesterday the winds were building into the night. This by itself is not a big deal as we were already heavily reduced in sail with double reefed main wing on wing with a 2-3 reefed Genoa. I was expecting 25 to 30 knots overnight. It was cloudy and after sunset got extremely dark, but in the very last faint remnants of light I could see a line of dark cloud and commented to Riley that may bring a gust or squall. An hour later we experienced quite a heavy squall with wind peaking at 35 knots for about 10 minutes. Not only was the wind quite strong but the squalls came from a very different angle, up to 60 degrees off which wreaked havoc on our self steering system that requires time to adjust as the wind shifts.
Thinking it was a one-off squall we hand steered through until the wind settled back down to the stiff but manageable mean wind speed of 25 knots. However that was just the first of a relentless series of squalls, spaced about 1 hour apart, that lasted over 24 hours and are still continuing. The worst occurring around 6am and peaking at 45 knots wind speed for about 10 minutes. I have never seen consistent squalls like this before and wonder if it is some local phenomena to this region - perhaps the relatively warm waters of the med and Portugal carry enough moisture to bring regular pulses of rainclouds?!
Under this amount of wind the boat gets hard to handle, the pressure on the hull as well as the wave action can overwhelm the self-steering system and cause the boat to slew and roll heavily down waves. Having some drag aft keeps the boat aligned with the wind and waves and helps keep it under control. I was regretting losing our experimental drogue just before sunset, we still had the warp of anchor rode and tackle of shadkles and heavy swivels dragging in the water that did something ... but was not sufficient to stabilise the boat.
I hand steered the boat most if the night through squall after squall. Each time thinking that one would be the last. By the morning I was exhausted and the relentless wind was still blowing 30 knots steady now with squalls to 40+. The sea was building and becoming very rough also. We needed a different strategy, continuing on like this was unsustainable...
So this afternoon we fashioned drogue v2 from a milk crate we had on board. 4 lines, one to each handle and we ran those through the same swivels and shackles we had remaining on the rode from the first drogue. Riley and I secured and tied everything together than carefully threw it overboard ensuring the lines were clear of anything that may snag and get immediately ripped off the boat. To our surprise the crate snatched the lines tight and immediately slowed us about 1 knot, but more importantly: pulled with enough tension on the stern to keep the boat stable and prevent slewing down the waves and/or rounding up when a squall comes.
Immediately we all relaxed. The boat was stable again and steering itself through even very heavy squalls and waves. It's still not a smooth ride, but much better than before, and the ability to relax on watch and not have to steer through squalls in the pitch black is priceless... I only hope the milk crate lasts through the night now.
Nicole Filteau: Be safe. I hope better weather finds you soon! Dec. 6, 2021, 2:25 a.m.
Riley: “Immediately we all relaxed” - well, you and I immediately relaxed….. Viola had no clue anything had changed! Jan. 21, 2022, 2:01 a.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Dec. 4, 2021, 1:33 p.m. |
| Position: | 31 15.00 N, 19 22.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 5.5 |
| Heading (True): | 250.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 27.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 70.0 |
| Sea state: | rough |
| Swell (m): | 2.0 |
We got underway at 1130 UTC yesterday into about 20 knots of ENE wind. And managed 140nm in the first 24 hours.
Everything was quite fine for the first few hours after departure as we made our way along the south coast of Madeira. The great circle route is only 15 degrees south of West and our intention was to get clear of the island and follow that route as the weather this first week is best along that line. A super yacht departed a few hours after us and had the same strategy and overtook us on that line. Unfortunately however the wheels came off just a few hour later as we passed the SW end of the island we got a terrible diffraction effect from the waves wrapping around the island creating extremely confused seas. This effect continued for a long distance from the island and therefore throughout most of the night.
We were sailing with a poled out Genoa but it was just too rolly and we were taking in water through the wheelhouse doors. We gybed the Genoa and headed on a more comfortable deep reach. To hell with the great circle line, we needed to get comfortable so we could all get a good watch and rest on the first night. The strategy worked and we ended up all relaxing as we were on a more comfortable point of sail and the effect of the waves around the island diminished through the night.
We had some good sailing this morning but the wind (and associated sea state) has been steadily increasing throughout the day as per forecast. The wind is meant to peak tonight and then steadily drop again through to Monday/Tuesday. We now have around 25 knots gusting to 30 at times and the sea is quite rough. Under these conditions the boat then to get picked up at the stern by the waves and we can slew quite heavily down the waves. The boat also becomes more unstable as the aft windage pushes the boat from the stern. We bought a little kayak drogue to experiment with relieving ourselves of this effect - which we suffered from all the way across the Indian Ocean. Riley and I set it up all very carefully, because even though it is only small it has a tremendous amount of force on it when dragging behind the boat. We double and triple checked the lines then carefully released it over the side and it shot back as we threw the remaining loose cable overboard clear of everything... the result... it worked! The boat is 1.5 to 2 knots slower but the drogue pulls the stern back and the boat keeps a better heading downwind and rides over the waves much better. Update: should have reinforced the drogue webbing because now not 2 hours later it has broken free and gone. We are now just dragging the rode and tackle which still seems to have a surprisingly good effect.
Overall we are doing well. It would have been nice to start in calmer conditions, but it's not dangerous and i think this us about par for the course. Riley and Viola are going well and getting their sea legs. We are all looking forward to getting through the next 36 hours and get some easing of these boisterous conditions.
| Date: | Dec. 2, 2021, 4:09 p.m. |
| Position: | 32 38.00 N, 16 54.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 0.0 |
| Heading (True): | 0.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 12.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 45.0 |
| Sea state: | slight |
| Swell (m): | 0.5 |
Apologies previously for the multiple emails that were sent out. I have updated the site so that it should now only send a single email for each log post.
| Date: | Dec. 2, 2021, 7:55 a.m. |
| Position: | 32 38.00 N, 16 54.00 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 0.0 |
| Heading (True): | 0.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 12.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 45.0 |
| Sea state: | slight |
| Swell (m): | 0.5 |
We are preparing today boat to depart tomorrow to sail across the Atlantic to Barbados. The distance along the rhumb line is 2650nm... although we may arc southwards to get into warmer climes and further from possible low pressure bombs that may sweep down from the north. So our final distance may be more closer to 3000nm.
The weather pattern for the past few weeks have been classic trade wind with boisterous East to NE winds of 20 to 25 knots across most of the Atlantic from the equator to ~35 degrees North. With some regions of stronger wind at times. If this persists we may be able to run closer to a direct line in fine but windy weather.
I have fixed up the website (again) so that it should recieve tracking information and posts from the Iridium Go. Our live track should be available at: https://www.svlogbook.com/Tuuletar/track/
Bill Saunders: Bon voyage! Hope to follow you. Dec. 2, 2021, 8:07 a.m.
Nic & Jim Filteau: Be safe, smooth sailing and take care. We will be watching! Dec. 3, 2021, 12:22 a.m.
Add a comment| Date: | Sept. 7, 2021, 5:26 p.m. |
| Position: | 38 29.53 N, 8 54.70 W |
| Speed over Ground: | 0.0 |
| Heading (True): | 0.0 |
| Wind Speed (kts): | 9.0 |
| Wind Direction (True): | 270.0 |
| Sea state: | slight |
| Swell (m): | 0.1 |
We are departing soon (within the next 2 hours) to sail for Porto Santo in the Madeira island group. I have fixed up the website so that it should recieve tracking information and posts from the new Iridium Go that we have installed on the boat. Our live track should be available at: https://www.svlogbook.com/Tuuletar/track/
I will follow with more details once we are at sea. For now we are busy with stocking the boat and getting underway. Our ETA in either Porto Santo or Madeira will be late-Saturday or Sunday sometime.
Penelope Quin: Great to have you back on the grid. We have missed you!! We are back in level 4 lockdown because of the /delta 4 variant, so no boating for us. We have radar on LadyP, a new carpet, a satellite dish and new GPS so we are all ready for retirement on the water. Sept. 11, 2021, 9:29 p.m.
Add a comment