Dominica - Champagne reef

Today we took the dinghy a few miles up the coast to champagne reef for a snorkel. This reef is pretty cool as the hot gasses are released below the seabed and bubble up around you, kind of like swimming in a big warm champagne glass..

Cover girl

Sephina in her first photo shoot, now being used by Cornell sailing for Atlantic odyssey brochures. 

Dominica - Victoria falls

Heidi, Fritze and Mina arrived on Alytes and we booked an tour with SeaCat to Victoria falls. It was a great day out and SeaCat is a great tour guide. We piled into his minivan and headed up into the mountains, stopping frequently along the way to enjoy the views and natural beauty of Dominica.

SeaCat pulled to the side of the road often and climbed trees, rocks or on the van to pick fruits from the jungle for us to taste. I'm not sure what they all were but from the taste of them I don't think I'd survive long if left to my own means. The others all seemed to enjoy the various fruits.

We stopped at a local moonshine store and had a morning rum distilled from the local bay leaves. SeaCat yells from the car window at the various stops...mooonshineeee, mooonshineeee....breaddddd....and also at the locals he knows along the way.

We eventually arrived at the river to begin our trek up to the falls. 

At this stage we were all hungry and SeaCat told us we can order lunch at the ' Rastaraunt ' and it would be ready for us on our return. Jen  and I were craving pasta or chicken burgers and chips, but all they had on offer was lentil soup. We reluctantly ordered a bowl each and began our walk up the winding river trail to the falls. The walk required quite a bit of rock climbing and 5 river crossings but was easy enough, except that some of the rock climbs were a bit high for Balrog and we had to help him up here and there.

We eventually reached the falls and they were well worth the hike. The power of the falls falling into the pool was similar to the helicopter rescue demonstration in Lanzarote, with water and wind blinding as you got closer. We swam in the pool before following the slippery slide track back down for lunch.

At this stage even lentil soup was sounding good!

And it was!! Full of lentils and delicious local veggies we all quickly consumed our bowls and headed back for seconds. 

After lunch we continued our journey, stopped at the beach where SeaCat picked up a coconut, smashed it open on a rock, geared off the husk and cut the top off with a rock before sharing the contents with us. Sweet milk and coconut.  

We then headed on our way, stopping at a small bay leaf distillery and a few other places along the way, which included the emerald pools. A small emerald color pool and waterfall which wasn't much in comparison to Victoria falls and quite busy with German tourists from the cruise ship in port called FhartWind...?!!?

We arrived home to Sephina at around 1800. A really nice day!

Dominica

We left cleared out of Martinique at Saint Pierre. A trip to the local tourist office to do the clearance paperwork in the morning and we were on our way by 1000. It was about a 35M sail to Dominica with a forecast of 20K from the east and 2m swells. We had a good fast passage between the islands, although it was 20-30K and the sea state a bit uncomfortable, but Sephina cruised along at 8K most of the way under double reefed main and jib. We caught a mahi mahi for dinner and arrived at Roussau  at 1600.

Dominica is GREEN! Lots of shades of green and mountainous. We are looking forward to some island explorations and diving. 

We were met at the anchorage by SeaCat, a local tour guide who also rents mooring buoys for $10/night. Although we like to anchor, mooring buoys are more suitable here due to the steep shoreline and also our travel plans. It's a bit more comforting when being away from Sephina for a full day to know she is securely tied and no other boats are likely to swing into her.

We ate our mahi mahi and had an early night after the tiring days sail. 

Saint Pierre

Its nice to be enjoying Martinique at anchor off Saint Pierre. This used to be the capital of the French West Indies till the volcano wiped out the town 100 years ago. Today we tried our new scuba gear and dived on a nice reef nearby.

Jen holding a funny sea spider

Later we enjoyed Christmas dinner with our friends Fritze, Heidi and Mina aboard Alytes. It was delicious lamb on the BBQ. It was a nice night and Alytes was decorated in the Christmas spirit which made it actually feel like Christmas ,

Dec 9 arriving in Martinique

We arrived in Martinique just behind Nyctea who we had crossed the start line right next to and been close to for most of the passage. We dropped anchor next to freedom 11 who had also arrived just before us and decided to anchor out before heading into the marina. After a great sleep at anchor with calm water and no watches to worry about, Jen was first up at 0700 for a swim with Balrog. I joined her and we swam in the warm 29 degree water before weighing anchor to take the short trip up the passage to the marina. We were welcomed by our friends that had arrived in the days before us with lots of hugs and kisses and congratulations. Pascal from the Atlantic odyssey came on board and we had a coffee and caught up on some of the happenings with the rest of the fleet. It turned out the skipper of one of the cats had to be evacuated to a passing ship between the canaries and Cape Verde when he cut his leg down to the bone as a cable wrapped around it in the engine compartment. The boat diverted to Cape Verde and the skipper is recovering. Also Gordon and Sherri on board serenity had torn their headsail in the blow off the canaries and their autopilot wasn't functioning so they had a long haul ahead with just the two of them on board having to take turns hand steering the whole way. They took one hour shifts at the wheel, then hove to for 6 hrs sleep each night to eventually  arrive in Martinique after almost 1 month at sea. A couple of other boats also diverted to Cape Verde for repairs but were underway after a few days there.

For us it was a successful crossing, our first big one. We learnt a lot and enjoyed it all. Being a part of the Atlantic odyssey made it even better as we shared the experience with a lot of new friends, as well as the Cornell sailing team. The program of events before and after arrival was amazing with welcoming parties, cocktail parties and live bands for the full week after we arrived.

Dec 7-8

Fortunately the previous days storms and squalls were the last of the bad weather. We made some decent miles over the final days and as we approached Martinique on the 8th decided to slow down to arrive at the island first thing in the morning. Unfortunately the sailing was too good and we were all too excited to slow so we pressed on under parasailor through the evening averaging around 6K. The lights of Martinique were appearing at around 2200 and we decided to continue and anchor outside he harbour so we didn't have to deal with the channel navigation and mooring in the dark. We negotiated our way along about 1M from the shore, dodging the numerous fish pots and shoal areas. It was strange and a little worrying to be back in less than 10m of water after spending 3 weeks in thousands of meters depths, but we slowly moved toward the anchorage, escorted by a lot of trumpet fish jumping across the bows. We dropped anchor at around 0300 on Dec 9 off Saint Anne beach and turned off the nav equipment for the first time in 3 weeks. No champagne on board so it was a small whiskey celebration as we relaxed and congratulated each other on a very successful passage. I had estimated around 22 days for the crossing and we arrived at around 22 1/2. The passage could have been faster had we pushed Sephina and ourselves a little bit harder, but all in all I was happy to have had a relaxed and safe crossing with no injuries or damage to Sephina.

Dec 6

Oh what a night.

Red and green should never be seen, so my mother used to tell me it's a fashion faux pas, and more recently I learned it means a ship is headed straight for you (red and green nav lights at the same time)

It also applies to radar images as shown below showing the super squall we encountered during the day today.it was  one of the biggest yet and was approximately 12M x 8M in size. No avoiding it so we sailed through and weathered the 35K winds and teaming rain for an hour or so.

Jen and the kids sitting out the rain..

From there things didn't get much better, dodging squalls the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. Changing sails and course to try make the best of it, till around midnight something strange happened. Normally the squalls track from 30 degrees to the right of the ground wind. We started having some track in different directions and soon realised we had squalls from the south heading towards us as well as squalls from the north.

You can see the waypoints we use to mark and track the positions of the squalls to calculate their direction and speed to see if they are on a collision course with us.

The ones in the north looked more ominous as they were constantly lit up with lightning. A nervous few hours with lightning all around us and above us. At one stage Sephina took a near hit and the watermaker turned itself on due to the power surge. Backup nav computer, sat phone and gps were all in the makeshift faraday cage (the oven) in case we lost ships electronics. The electrical storm to the North was an amazing sight. I was watching one cloud 5M distant. It just sat there motionless for over two hours. Big and black, around 10M wide and every minute or so it would release lightning from it's centre. Always the same place, closest to the sea, but not like any lightening I've ever seen. It was more like an ark welder welding metal. A thick yellow line of electricity vertical and it seemed 1/4M thick, turning on for 5 seconds then turning off. Elsewhere in the cloud were the usual fork and sheet lightening which looked tame compared to the arc. 

Natures power is awesome and intimidating sometimes...

 After dealing with squalls and this for 20 hrs I was exhausted and eventually left Sephina in Jen and Aviads hands to slowly motor on course and hope it passes over while I crashed out at 0300. In the morning things cleared and finally we had a great days sailing with Sephina romping along at 8-9K in the 15-20K southerly. I think the strange weather last night was caused by the low pressure system a few hundred miles north of us that had a trough running down to where we were located. Not much fun but the sailing and sunshine today has left that behind us.

Atlantic crossing - Dec 6

Atlantic crossing - Dec 2 - 5

Dec 2

A slow day..winds are around 10K most of the day today. The suns shining and small following seas but 10 K wind is hardly enough to keep the spinnaker full, let alone propel us along at much speed. Speeds are between 4.5 and 5.5 K with this wind. Hopefully it won't drop off too much more. Overnight the cooler air should help us a bit if the breaze holds.

Dec 3 and 4

A slow couple of days with winds 8-12K, but still managing to sail and keep up an average 5K which is OK. Forecast is for light winds for the next few days. Nice sailing again and the weather is warming up more. Jen is making mousse chocolate for Olga's birthday tomorrow. She had to wait till evening as it's too hot during the day to make it fluffy...
Large squall heading this way as I type. The first boat of the Atlantic odyssey arrived in Martinique this morning. Well done Gordon, Louise and Phil on board the larrikin.
Aviad had a swim off the swim ladder today to cool down while Sephina dragged him along at 4-5K

Dec 5

Balancing act..
The last few days of light wind we have been happy to cover 120-130M per day, averaging just over 5K, but the forecast is for little or no wind in a day or so, lasting for a few days. This puts us in the position of possibly having to motor for a couple of days, or drift around the Atlantic a few hundred miles from Martinique for a couple of days waiting for wind. Either option is OK but to give us the choice we are hoping to conserve enough fuel to have the option of motoring. We have approximately 180l of diesel left, which should allow 90 hrs of motoring at 5K, so 450M. We just passed 500M to go at 0100 so we,re hoping the wind holds for another 24hrs or so.
Another issue is arrival time. We would prefer arrive in daylight as the entrance is a little tricky with a twisting channel and possibly unlit buoys. So as we draw closer we may need to slow our progress to arrive early Tuesday 9th rather than late on the 8th. Over the coming days we will refine the plan..
One of the nice things about long passages is that we don't have to think too much about arrival time during the passage. With shorter trips we always plan our departure to arrive in daylight and generally have to keep to a minimum speed to achieve this

Atlantic crossing - Nov 29 - Dec 1

Nov 29

Sky's are clearing and we are seeing more fair weather cumulus and less squall clouds. Olga and I avoided a squall this morning with some slight course changing and since then has been pretty smooth sailing. The wind is decreasing a bit, backing to the NE and the swell is decreasing as well. We are averaging a little over 6K which is nice and travelling around 150M per day over the last few days which is much easier to manage than dealing with squalls and varying wind speed and direction.
I fell asleep before my midnight watch so Jen swapped her 0600 watch with me. It's nice to have a change of watch and I managed to get a good five or six hours sleep..
Music was playing on the stereo last night and it was nice to be able to hear it well at the slower boat and wind speeds. When the wind is up there's a constant roar from the wake which makes if a bit difficult to hear over.
The parasailor was up all night and doing it's thing, slowly pulling us west.
Earlier in the passage there were times I had constant music in my head, like strange slow symphonies. Maybe promoted by the sounds of the waves and autopilot sounds, but they seemed to go on endlessly, like some trance music. The sea seems to bring out some strange senses. Olga has the same sensation.
Also dreams.

Nov 30

Aviads birthday today. I think Jen will make a lamb pie and cake for him later. Aviad doesn't really like chicken of fish, unless it's from a tuna can, so he hasn't had the best diet so far, although he still cooks up a storm and loves to experiment :)
Nice sailing day again with 15K from the ENE.
Dreams on board seem to be very crazy and vivid for everyone as well. I guess promoted by the strange sounds and motions around us that our senses aren't used to. Mine last night was definitely all about the boat. I was chatting to Stan somwhere and I remember being worried about my kite. I'd left it tied to a tree at bird rock and I was worried it would blow away in the wind, which was steadily rising. My friends told me not to worry and it will still be there but I couldn't stop worrying about it. Eventually a friend agreed to come get it with me. I didn't have a bag for it but found one outside the bird rock cafe on the way and as he rode his dragster and I half ran along side I was disappointed to see my kite gone from its previous position. As I searched the sky and beach for any sign, I woke up to find Sephina hurtling along under parasailor with a rising wind. I askd Jen what the wind speed was as I asked them to drop it at 20K at night, and she told me it was 24K. Drop the parasailor I said, still half asleep, in the cake. We dropped it on deck, set the jib and were going very slowly at 4-5 K as the wind dropped back to 15K again. A bit later we reset the parasail to make better speed.
Obviously that dream was directly related to my thoughts, but many are totally random and strange...

A nice days sail today with an average of 6K over smooth seas and 15K trade winds. Very relaxed sailing and hardly a need to trim the sails or adjust course. Jen made lamb pie and chocolate cake for Aviads birthday and we had some red wine and played some guitar and sang some songs. Sailing through the evening and watching the occasional squall go by a few miles south of us. So far so good...

Dec 1

It's just after midnight and the plotter just ticked over 1000M to go to Martinique. Approximately 2000M in the last two weeks so ETA should be around a week or so, give or take. Air temp is around 30 degrees and the water temp is 27.5 but the trade winds are keeping us from getting too hot. All very relaxed on board Sephina. Well there's not much other way to be travelling 6000km at an average speed of 12km/h

A nice mornings sail and we ate fresh bread for lunch with dips and cheese and tomato and salmon. Yum. Afternoon squals had the wind variable and between 6 and 15 k so the sails were up and down a bit and a bit of motoring. We finished Aviads birthday cake :)

Jen napping, Olga reading 'at any cost - life and death at sea' and Aviad almost finished his 1500-1800 watch.

Nov 30

Aviads birthday today. I think Jen will make a lamb pie and cake for him later. Aviad doesn't really like chicken of fish, unless it's from a tuna can, so he hasn't had the best diet so far, although he still cooks up a storm and loves to experiment :)

Nice sailing day again with 15K from the ENE.

Dreams on board seem to be very crazy and vivid for everyone as well. I guess promoted by the strange sounds and motions around us that our senses aren't used to. Mine last night was definitely all about the boat. I was chatting to Stan somwhere and I remember being worried about my kite. I'd left it tied to a tree at bird rock and I was worried it would blow away in the wind, which was steadily rising. My friends told me not to worry and it will still be there but I couldn't stop worrying about it. Eventually a friend agreed to come get it with me. I didn't have a bag for it but found one outside the bird rock cafe on the way and as he rode his dragster and I half ran along side I was disappointed to see my kite gone from its previous position. As I searched the sky and beach for any sign, I woke up to find Sephina hurtling along under parasailor with a rising wind. I askd Jen what the wind speed was as I asked them to drop it at 20K at night, and she told me it was 24K. Drop the parasailor I said, still half asleep, in the cake. We dropped it on deck, set the jib and were going very slowly at 4-5 K as the wind dropped back to 15K again. A bit later we reset the parasail to make better speed. 

Obviously that dream was directly related to my thoughts, but many are totally random and strange...

A nice days sail today with an average of 6K over smooth seas and 15K trade winds. Very relaxed sailing and hardly a need to trim the sails or adjust course. Jen made lamb pie and chocolate cake for Aviads birthday and we had some red wine  and played some guitar and sang some songs. Sailing through the evening and watching the occasional squall go by a few miles south of us. So far so good...

Nov 29

Sky's are clearing and we are seeing more fair weather cumulus and less squall clouds. Olga and I avoided a squall this morning with some slight course changing and since then has been pretty smooth sailing. The wind is decreasing a bit, backing to the NE and the swell is decreasing as well. We are averaging a little over 6K which is nice and travelling around 150M per day over the last few days which is much easier to manage than dealing with squalls and varying wind speed and direction. 

I fell asleep before my midnight watch so Jen swapped her 0600 watch with me. It's nice to have a change of watch and I managed to get a good five or six hours sleep..

Music was playing on the stereo last night and it was nice to be able to hear it well at the slower boat and wind speeds. When the wind is up there's a constant roar from the wake which makes if a bit difficult to hear over.

The parasailor was up all night and doing it's thing, slowly pulling us west.

Earlier in the passage there were times I had constant music in my head, like strange slow symphonies. Maybe promoted by the sounds of the waves and autopilot sounds, but they seemed to go on endlessly, like some trance music. The sea seems to bring out some strange senses. Olga had rage the same sensation.

Also dreams.

Nov 28

Sleeping on a boat...

Last night after my watch I lay down in bed and found it a bit difficult to fall asleep. The motion of the boat was a bit off and the swell at an odd angle. As I lay there I tried to imagine how to explain the experience to someone who hasn't felt it before, so here goes...

It's a bit like laying in a waterbed, but the bed is moving so imagine a irritated bear laying next to you rolling and turning and trying to get comfortable, all the while rolling and turning you. It's like your muscles have to work constantly just to lay still. Laying on your back can help or stuffing pillows under your stomach to spread the pressure. 

Now imagine four dwarfs holding up each corner of the bed and lifting and lowering each corner 20-30cm randomly. The dwarf near your head has a strange sense of humor and slaps his hand hard on the wall next to your head at irregular intervals. Sometimes 30 seconds between, sometimes longer, but always when you least expect it.

Now for the sounds... Imagine another three drawfs with water utensils. One has a bucket and cup and  continuosly dips the cup in the bucket and pours the water back in from varied heights. Another has a couple of water bottles he likes to shake close to your ears and the third drawf jumps up and down in child's inflatable swimming pool.

Add to those sounds the dull whine of the autopilot keeping us on course, assorted creaks and groans as Sephina twists and turns over the swells, and the occasional surfing sound which is kind of like driving fast down a gravel road and you get an idea of what it's like to fall asleep on a 40' yach mid Atlantic.  

Sometimes these sounds are covered over a little by the dull sounds of the Diesel engine if there's not enough wind or if the batteries need topping up till the sun shines on the solar panels.

So while laying there imagining this strange twisted fairy tale of creatures around me I drifted off and had a deep long sleep, dreaming of goldilocks, Snow White, red riding hood or some other strange concoction put together in my sleep by the sounds and motions as I slept...

A nice relaxed morning today, Jen cleaned and cooked. We all ate,

Parasailor is up at around mid day and we are making great progress toward Martinique. The Sky is clearer today  and more settled weather with a steady 20K NE breeze pushing us along

Atlantic crossing - Nov 24 - 28

Nov 24
After last nights adventure with the parasailor we planned to drop it as soon as we felt the wind cool and rise in speed during the night to make it easier on all for rest and to avoid any damage to Sephina. After a good days sailing, some music and delicious humus dinner we felt the cool signs of a squall at around 2200 and dropped the parasailor and ran under jib only. Boat speed dropped a knot or two but it was fortunate we did as 20 mins later we were engulfed by a gusty rainy squall for over an hour which would have been pretty stressful with too much sail up and we still made 6+ knots with just the jib. The rain stopped at the beginning of my watch at 2400 and the usual light variable winds came, which also would be useless trying to fly the parasailor. We continued under jib only through the night with some motoring as well to charge the batteries.
We had hoped not to have to motor to charge batteries but a couple of things mean we will have to occasionally, one being the fact that the parasailor shades the solar panels from around 1600 onwards, the other being it's been quite cloudy.

Nov 25

A nice relaxed morning, sailing in the warmer treade winds. Jen decided to throw the fishing line in and 10 minutes later hooked a 60cm mahe mahe. As she was pulling it on board Olga noticed something following the boat...shark??. Nope it was the mahe mahe's mate. I had neglected to tell Jen that mahe mahe have one mate and often after catching them the mate will follow the boat for hours. I knew that would put her off catching them but now I couldn't withhold the information any longer and had to spill the beans. Her reaction was as expected and soon she was rapidly de hooking him and trying to breath life into him to return him to his mate. He floated a second when she returned him to the sea and then swam away happy again with his love and with a great story for his mahe mahe mates.
An hour later Jen decided to try again with the idea that she could just set any mahe mahe free. Soon after we caught another, but this time much smaller and with no mate following. Olga and I convinced in he was a juvenile and probably had no mate yet, and as he was bleeding quite a bit Jen conceded that it would be best for him if we ate him for lunch :). Mmm beer batter mahe mahe

Nov 26

Parasailing...well it's lots of fun but it definitely has it's pucker moments, like surfing at over 15 K as the wind rises and wondering if it's too late to take it down or if the wind will back off again. Today we have had a great days sailing at 7-8 K and now the wind has risen a bit and we are doing 8+ and surfing at 15+. Sephina is handiling the conditions beautifully and we are sailing with the swell and trying to decease yawning as we come off the waves.
At this rate we will be in Martinique in 5 days...time to slow down!
Nov 27
Half way! About 1500M covered in the last 11 days and about 1500 to go. We dropped tmentioning the 15K surfs and haven't had it up all day today as conditions are quite changing with a lot of cloud bringing variable wind direction and speed but it's been a relaxing days sail, averaging around 6K in the 15-25K conditions. Swell is around 2.5m and comfortable from behind. Lots of flying fish on the deck this morning. Jen had a cooking morning making pasta and tuna. We chatted to freedom II as they passed us on VHF and it sounds like they have had enough of the rally swell and squalls. The weather forecast looks good but cloudy till Sunday which I guess is what's bringing the squally conditions. Hopefully after then it will be the traditional trade winds at least during the day time. All at well and rested aboard Sephina. Balrog has been pretty quiet and lazy and probably wondering why we haven't stopped and dropped anchor for a swim for so long..
Tonight we watched captain Ron together and ate chocolate and sugar coated peanuts. Life's good :)

Nov 28
Sleeping on a boat...
Last night after my watch I lay down in bed and found it a bit difficult to fall asleep. The motion of the boat was a bit off and the swell at an odd angle. As I lay there I tried to imagine how to explain the experience to someone who hasn't felt it before, so here goes...
It's a bit like laying in a waterbed, but the bed is moving so imagine a irritated bear laying next to you rolling and turning and trying to get comfortable, all the while rolling and turning you. It's like your muscles have to work constantly just to lay still. Laying on your back can help or stuffing pillows under your stomach to spread the pressure.
Now imagine four dwarfs holding up each corner of the bed and lifting and lowering each corner 20-30cm randomly. The dwarf near your head has a strange sense of humor and slaps his hand hard on the wall next to your head at irregular intervals. Sometimes 30 seconds between, sometimes longer, but always when you least expect it.
Now for the sounds... Imagine another three drawfs with water utensils. One has a bucket and cup and continuosly dips the cup in the bucket and pours the water back in from varied heights. Another has a couple of water bottles he likes to shake close to your ears and the third drawf jumps up and down in child's inflatable swimming pool.
Add to those sounds the dull whine of the autopilot keeping us on course, assorted creaks and groans as Sephina twists and turns over the swells, and the occasional surfing sound which is kind of like driving fast down a gravel road and you get an idea of what it's like to fall asleep on a 40' yach mid Atlantic.
Sometimes these sounds are covered over a little by the dull sounds of the Diesel engine if there's not enough wind or if the batteries need topping up till the sun shines on the solar panels.
So while laying there imagining this strange twisted fairy tale of creatures around me I drifted off and had a deep long sleep, dreaming of goldilocks, Snow White, red riding hood or some other strange concoction put together in my sleep by the sounds and motions as I slept...

A nice relaxed morning today, Jen cleaned and cooked. We all ate,
Parasailor is up at around mid day and we are making great progress toward Martinique. The Sky is clearer today and more settled weather with a steady 20K NE breeze pushing us along

Atlantic crossing - week one

Atlantic crossing - week one

Nov 16

Woohoo, and we're off. Finally our departure day and it's a perfect sunny morning with light  northerlies. We said our goodbyes, lots of hugs and kisses to all the new friends we have made and look forward to seeing them all soon enough in martinique.

We headed out for the start and hoisted the parasailor for the downwind start about 2 miles upwind to time the start perfectly. We crossed close to the start boat packed with the Cornell sailing team and lanzarote officials and were first across the line...perfect! We even beat the starting gun by about 20 seconds :)

 oh well, it's a rally, not a race, so no need to re round any mark before continuing, and the fleet had a great first few hours sailing south in close competition until the wind dropped and motors started to come on. We have our friends Aviad and Olga joining us for the crossing and we all relaxed into a nice night, shared a meal and watches and look forward to the coming weeks together..

Nov 17

Some good but slow sailing. Almost did a circumnavigation of gran canaria as the wind shifted us around. Trying to get away from the island before the forecast low with 5m swell and 35K westerlies arrive...

Nov 18

Some motor sailing, a bit slow against currents tang are supposed to be going gone other way. Oh well, had a yummy pet dinner and all well on board Sephina.

Nov 19

The magical silence

Today I heard the magical silence I first heard when I was around age 13, sailing my first catamaran, an Arafura Cadet named Bobcat II. It was an 11' sloop rig plywood cat and they had a fleet of 8 or so competing at the local lake yacht club. So I forked out $150 or so of my hard earned paper round money and was now the proud owner of my very first cat. Bobcat was the oldest and definitely not the prettiest of the fleet. She had been handed down few a few generations by the previous owners and somwhere along the line an all over fibreglass coating was added to the hulls, which also added considerably to her weight. She was all original, with timber cross beams and timber deck, probably around 20 yrs old at the time. Most of get other AC's at the club were newer with mesh trampolines and aluminium cross beams 

Anyway, she mightn't have been the fastest cat in the fleet, but she was definitely mine !

As with just about every boat I've owned first thing to do is, strip it back, fix it, repaint it and relaunch, which I promptly did after applying some handcut name decals from contact. A mate of dads gave me some great tips on how to criss cross the handbrushed paintwork to achieve a pro gloss finish ( that actually worked !)

Anyway, many great days sailing were spent on the lake with  Bobcat II, racing and learning to sail like I had always dreamed of while sitting on the magazine counter in  Mum and Dads news agency after closing hours, reading all the latest sailing magazines over and over. Cruising helmsman, wooden boat builder, you name it, I read it cover to cover while savouring the odd stolen fruit tingle.

So it was on Bobcat II I first heard that 'magical silence'

It's the sound, or rather the lack of sound, you experience just as the windward hull lifts clear of the water and the stress and strain of it forcing through the water seems to drift away in a magical silent sigh.

You are leaning out, hiking hard with your feet under the toe straps, angling forward and everything is balance perfectly. The rustle of the water against the hull stops and there it is..the magical silence...

Other times I've experienced this sound are when kiteboarding, there's a lot of sound as you fly across the water but the instant you kick and flick the board skyward all vanish except the wind in your ears.

So, back to the point.Today I heard the silence as I lay in my bunk for the first time in days trying to get a couple of hours sleep. The last days have been busy sailing and I've mainly been napping in the cockpit between watches.

As I lay there I noticed the usual sound of the waves slapping the hull had diminished and become more like trickles, and gradually they disappeared all together. It was like Sephina was sighing, flying a hull..

I knew Jen was at the helm, enjoying trimming her for maximum speed, and she was doing around 7 Knots in the 15 knot breeze, so hearing the silence, not just for a second, but for minutes at a time, in dispersed with the occasional splash was truly magical.... 

Nov 20

Well the predicted swells and wind have arrived finally and mid morning it was too tough to sail or motor into so we foreached North to make the motion as gentle as possible and not lose too much ground to the southeast. Winds are higher than forecast with 35K plus gusts. So much for an easy trade wind sail! We let out a handkerchief amount of jib and lashed the wheel hard over and Sephina sat quit well in the swells, slowly sailing upwind at about 2K and at a slight angle to the waves. We crashed about like that for most of the day till later the wind turned a bit more northerly so we managed to proceed again toward the SW. Only 75M covered at an average of 3K. All a little seasick...

A good experience and Sephina took it all in stride but not something any of us would care to repeat often...

Nov 21

Wow, great days sailing. I'm about to finish my 1200-0300 watch and there a gentle breeze from the North pushing us along at five knots over a 'finally' calm sea. The seasickness is also finally subsiding and I enjoyed eating a real meal for the first time in days, pasta with broccoli, compliments from Aviad the chef.

Nov 22

A good fast days sail, probably close to 200 miles which can get pretty tiring. 

I'm tired. I'm fine with my watches and usually crash out soon after my 1200-0300 watch but the problem is I wake an hour or two later and struggle to fall asleep again at all during the day. I'm really really looking forward to a 6 hr sleep to feel totally refreshed...

Jen is loving her sunset and sunrise watches and the dolphins come to visit her most mornings. She says she can hear them talking to her as well.

Nov 23

Nice days sail under parasailor in 15-20k NE again. We have covered about 1/3 of the distance in 7 1/2 days as the distance to Martinique just clicked over to 2000 miles at midnight as Olga and I sat on watch. That's pretty good going considering the slow start with a fair bit of motoring and dealing with the low pressure system. Now average boat speeds are around 7 K and tonight we were surfing between 9 and 11 knots which is a buzz! The time to Martinique as showing on the plotter at around 10 days and Olga and I were both saying that's too fast. We have too many books to read and food to eat before we arrive. Plus higher speeds mean more attention to watching the course and sail trim and being prepared to deal with de powering the sail quickly. 6-7 K is more relaxed, especially at night.

Nov 24

A little too much excitement..

At around 0200 with rising winds we decided we needed to drop the parasailor. Wind was a steady 25K gusting to 30K and the squalls weren't showing any sign of letting up. Add to that some unpredictable surfing at 12K and the autopilot fighting hard to keep us on course, so Aviad and I prepared to drop it. It was a difficult drop, partly because I neglected to release the lazy sheet so there was a bit of tension on the sail keeping it filled. Jen heard me yelling above the wind to Aviad and came to assist us and we managed to recover it unharmed. The parasailor was flapping around like a cut pig as Aviad and I finally wrestled it on deck and into it's bag Jen said the plotter was showing 38K...ouch! 

The cooler damp night air has about 30% more power than the daytime air due to the added density. We really feel the difference as Sephina is comfortably cruising at 7-8K in a daytime 20K, but easily adds 2K boat speed in the denser night time 20K winds.

After they we toddled along under jib only at 5-6K for the rest of the night and re raised the parasailor in the morning to have a nice sail all day averaging 6.5K

Tonight we will probably drop the parasailor before the evening winds get too strong and relax again with just the jib overnight. It looks wet and squally ahead and it's easier on everyone to keep watch as well as sleep if speeds are lower and just the jib to take care of...