Angelasails.com

8 April 2020

And off we are..

One of the first things we did after we hoisted the sails.. ehhh.. unfurled the sails.. was changing the clocks, watches and phones to GMT.

For today that messed a little bit with lunch and dinner but as of tomorrow that will be solved.

I started my watch at noon GMT by making dinner which is really weird when you think about the fact that the local time is 08.00am.

Give us a day or 2 and it will not matter anymore.

I have the 12-4 am & pm watch and I am currently sitting behind the wheel with the full moon at my starboard side, doing about 9 knots of speed and enjoying our escape from reality.

Because that is what it is, isn’t it..

Today is very light, especially because we have been sailing in the lee of the islands Carriacou, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and now Martinique. The plan is to come up after Martinique and head into the Atlantic Ocean on a northeasterly course.

We are enroute to officially leave the Caribbean Sea and because of that we will also lose wifi soon after. There will still be daily updates though but they won’t come straight from my cellphone 😎

The spirit on board is good. We are just happy to be sailing.
Eventhough we are confined to the boat, a journey like this feels like absolute freedom.

Stay safe!

Saturday 11 April 2020
Time: 0230 GMT

Location: 18.01.714N – 57.57.097W

Oops.. When we were downloading our weather files yesterday morning we accidentally used all the credits we have on our SAT phone.

This means we cannot down- or upload anything for an indefinite period of time and therefor this blog covers a number of days and might be a bit long. Sorry about that..

So we are literally on our own right now. We cannot get in touch with our families, cannot download weather files and ´land´ cannot get in touch with us.

Our only hope is Skipper Mike his girlfriend who currently is in Scotland and has access to the SAT phones prescription. Mike and I have a bet when we think she will realize something is wrong: I think she will get into action Sunday afternoon, he thinks Monday afternoon. Both days are Easter days so we are confident that we will not have any new credits before Tuesday 14 April.

We are not worried. The current weather file has a validity of 3 days and after that our combined experience onboard will make sure we will make it across safely. I do feel sorry for friends and families following us and in my case especially my parents. I know they are following every update to ease their mind so these couple of days must have been really unnerving. “I am so sorry papa and mama, I hope you are at ease again after reading this.. “.

We are really doing better than expected. We thought we would have to use the engine non-stop for at least 3 days after leaving the Caribbean Sea but no such thing (yet). With an average speed of almost 8 knots we are eating the miles away. Obviously we do not know what is ahead of us, but this at least is in the pocket.

The mood onboard is good. We are slowly getting used to living on GMT and in our watch system. We are with 3 onboard: Michael (Mike) Brooks ) – skipper and Alex(andra) Booth and myself who are the delivery crew. Alex and I both worked at Ondeck in Antigua and we have done deliverie(s) together before. She knew Mike and on the 20th of March we both flew from Antigua to Grenada on what soon appeared to be one of the last inbound flights to Grenada.

Here, on the Atlantic Ocean, there is no Corona Virus though. We live in our own world enjoying what nature gives us. Up till now that has been a group of Dolphins during Alex her watch, crazy beautiful moon rises and a really tired bird that tried to rest on our boat during my watch. Unfortunately she tried to sit on the pull pit and kept being blown off by the wind. Sadly, after a couple of attempts I saw her plunge into the ocean, exhausted..

 

Sunday 12 April 2020
Time: 0130GMT

Location: 19.54.939N – 56.04.637W

I am a lucky person, but I probably have to explain myself when I add that I would not be living this life if given the choice. If given the choice I would have been at home right now being a proud mom of my 4 year old son. Unfortunately he passed away 1 month after he was born and sailing full time is my Plan B. I sold my house, left my job and literally left ´normal´ life behind me.

That is, how normal is life for you nowadays?

In this plan B I am very lucky. I had to work my ass off to get all my qualifying papers but it means that I am (ever so) slowly making a living while doing what I love.

Right now I am on my fourth ocean crossing in 17 month and the types of boats could not have been more diverse. First I sailed as crew on a 42ft Catamaran towards the Caribbean and then a couple of months later I skippered a 42.3ft Clipper Oceanis from Bermuda to the Netherlands (Bermuda – Azores also without weather updates).

But the most mind-blowing difference is if you compare 3 months ago (Gibraltar – Las Palmas – Antigua) on a Volvo 70 racing machine (Telefonica Black) with now (Grenada – Azores – ´probably´ UK) on a 24 meter luxury yacht.

On the Volvo 70 we had to hot bunk so I never knew where I would sleep, we had one gas bun and this was only to boil water for coffee, tea and freeze dried food. We were allowed to shower every 4 days or so using one of those black shower bags that heat up in the sun. There was no autopilot and the toilet (head) was a carbon pot right behind the mast facing the gas bun in the kitchen (galley).

Life onboard now is one in luxury.. I have my own cabin with private shower which I can use whenever I want. I have a full blown galley at my disposal (even at home I did not have so many appliances), we have aircon(!), I can walk straight up through the entire boat and I do not have to make any choices on which day I will have to start wearing my underwear inside out, I simply throw them in the washing machine!

And no, it is not a racing machine but with an average speed just below 8 knots and a max speed of 10,3 knots up till now I am pleasantly surprised.

Furthermore, both Mike and Alex are Yachtmaster Ocean instructors and I happen to use this passage as my qualifying passage for my Yachtmaster Ocean Ticket.

Two days ago I got the sextant out for the first time and yesterday I did my first position fix. If you do not know what that means, do not worry, I am not sure if I know what I have done.

But we still have many more days to go.

Happy Easter!

 

Tuesday 14 April 2020
Time: 0025 GMT

Location: 23.58.491N – 54.01.343W

I hope you all at a great Easter Holiday even though it might not have been a big family gathering like usual. Since we are completely disconnected from the world we have no clue how things are going with the Corona Virus in the different countries dealing with it.

Easter treated us yesterday with chocolate eggs and Sushi. Right around dinner time the wind kindly dropped and we ate like civilized people at a set table. Very nice.

Today during the day is the first ´work´ day after Easter and we expect to be back on line by the end of the business day. No pressure at all Ciara.

We are doing well on board. We are definitely set into a rhythm of going on watch, eat, sleep and repeat. It is getting colder outside which is a clear sign we are leaving the Tropics.

The water temperature is staying at an unusual height though and this matches the forecasts I read before we left Grenada that this season will be a very active hurricane season. They predict about 12 severe ones. After the Corona Virus this would be a devastating blow!

Luckily we are going in the right direction but I feel for all the people living or being ´stuck´ there.

In the meantime I am slowly starting to nail this sextant thing. I really am really enjoying it. I am still further off our actual position than I would like, but hey, I am getting there. Really cool!

At the same time Mike and Alex are working on their separate studies which means we are all using this crossing to the fullest to develop ourselves. What else is there to do apart from winching the main in (press 1 button), furl the headsail (press 1 button), winch the headsail in (press 1 button) and putting a reef in (press 2(!) buttons).

Seriously, it is easy sailing, or better: boat handling. But the tiring thing about trips like this is being vigilant al the time, not being able to sleep a full night and living on an angle non-stop.

Then again, I would not want to be anywhere else right now!

Be safe!

Wednesday 15 April

Time: 0031GMT

Location: 26.12.562N – 53.15.553W

The wind started to pick up since yesterday around 0600GMT and with that we are treated by moderate waves on a big swell. While I was in my bunk we did our first tack of the trip to avoid a big thunderstorm straight ahead of us. It was not a bad moment for a tack at all as it gave us an opportunity to head back to plotted line on the chart straight towards Horta. 

Since this boat (sorry: yacht) has two masts I have been playing around with the trim a bit which was a real work-out for my index finger. Well, to be honest, since the wind picked up the whole day turned into a work-out. Even this size boat (23.75m) is being tossed around as if it is weightless. I also found out why showers, even on super yachts like these, are still relatively small. You can just braze yourself in every angle as you are trying to put soap in your hair. ´Look mom, without hands..´

Around mid-day today we will be on our way for exactly one week and we are without any land based communication for 6 days. Well, not quite. We have a nifty little device on board which is called a ´Sailor Message Terminal´. The North Atlantic is divided into two sections for which Florida is responsible for the Northern part (section 1) and Toulouse for the Southern part (section 2). We receive weather updates in a text format for each section on a daily basis, well, normally.. Due to Covid-19 outbreak Florida has shut down their Meteo Updates and France has reduced their routine bulletins.. But, “security aspects will be monitored on a permanent basis and warning bulletins will be sent out”. 

So even here in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean we are affected by Covid-19.

I hope you all are staying safe. 

 

Thursday 16 April

Time: 0300GMT

Location: 28.56.229N – 51.34.844W

Yeah! We are back online! Even though anybody can do anything if something would happen to us here, it still gives some sense of security (or maybe satisfaction?) to be in touch with the outside world.

Unfortunately the first email I received was from my dad 3 days ago telling me my uncle passed away that morning. Granted, Erik was over 80 years old but that does not mean he will not be missed.

While replying to my dad I could not hold back my tears and I have to say both Mike and Alex have been wonderful. When I came on watch tonight there were even some freshly baked blueberry chocolate muffins in the galley with a note saying “you can have as many as you want, love Alex” 

 

Great comfort food and it really helped me with my heart ache. Now I have a stomach ache though.. haha

Sailing wise we had a great day. The wind is a steady 18 kn, gusting up till 21. The sea state has been (and still is) quite rough and irregular but I guess that is just part of being out here. Our apparent wind angle has been 40 degrees the last couple of days but just tonight we changed it to 50. Now that we have new weather updates we noticed that we are heading straight into a high pressure area and by altering our course slightly we are hoping to just hit the edge of it and therefor limit our time on engine. After having passed the HP area we are planning to be picked up by the tail of a LP area which theoretically should take us straight to the Azores.

So mentally we are preparing for 1 or 2 days with less wind in combination with using the engine after which we will probably be hit by 25 – 35 knots of wind for a couple of days.

To be continued.

 

See part II on this site for the rest of the trip