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.