16 May 2026 at 12:56:52 BST
Day 15
8pm Sukama time – GMT -4 having marked another Friday in the traditional Blackwell manner with the close harmonies, floating trebles and reverberating bass notes of Lucid enhanced by the saloon speakers. Cheers all!
Trust you enjoyed the trusty crew’s blog. They’re having a blast creating it, and are careful to never share their irreverences until after it’s been sent. Very wise on their part though of course it can work both ways, but with general bon homie holding up so well, a little leg pulling seems a small price to pay. And it must hit home as it leaves me in a fit of uncontrollable giggles every time with tears running down my cheeks!
We decided today that we’d better do something about Sukama time zone so decided on +1 hour each day for the next 5 days. With today being the first day we’re +1 from Caribbean time, so now UK -4.
We’re back to the default setting of this trip with an improved understanding of Malcolm’s ever conservative take on using the engine when we can possibly get away without it. Sadly there’s no wind to sail by as we travel the now windless corridor between a developing high to starboard and a developing low to port. For now it’s motoring or drift as the winds are too light to propel us along using sails of any shape or hue that we carry – 7.5knots is useless behind us. Wind indicators are dancing in circles around the dial.
But to press it’s been good. We sailed through last night though there were times when it threatened to stall, and others when another reef made good sense in both sails, and that priceless moment already shared by Anthony when he and Malcolm decided to put the kettle on for tea and I woke with a start much to their amusement, presumably primed to participate in any tea imbibing opportunity, even at 4am in the morning. Fuelled and ready for the day, I set to with a will and spent the next 4 hours engrossed in writing about ‘happiness’. Matched every single minute by Anthony writing the Crew blog.
Stocktake. Dwindling supplies.
Milk for tea – 2 cartons, fruit – 5 apples, veg – potatoes and onions, salads – white cabbage – 1, cheeses – good supply, wine – 1 red, 1 white, spirits – lots. And tropical fruit in the freezer for more delicious fruit smoothies. That’ll be it of the critical commodities. Time to break open the substitutes.
Milk – almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk
Fruit – tinned pineapple (Paul’s favourite)- lots, luckily! Tinned peaches – 1
Veg – jars and tins
Salads – mixed beans ++
And a freezer still barely touched whilst we’ve been enjoying dining on mahi mahi and jack.
How will we possibly survive? We’ve pretty much chomped our way through the lot! Scurvy pending! Been at sea for 15 days, 5 more to go to destination Azores.
Sue
17 May 2026 at 14:18:06 BST
Day 16
The Crew say it is time for the ‘Skipper’ to do the blog. Not sure Sue agrees with the ‘Skipper’ part but is quite happy to relinguish the blog writing duties.
It has been my ‘day off ‘ so have enjoyed the Crews antics in sailing the yacht. Fortunately we did not have a repeat of turning the autopilot off and wondering why Sukama decided to go in a different direction. Think maybe Sukama thought the Caribbean was warmer and sunny so started to head back. We had some decent wind in the morning and the crew spent the time trimming the sails and calling out the boat speed as they discussed what to do. Proudly announced they managed to get (briefly) up to 10knts before the wind fell back. Rest of the day was gently sailing along in lighter winds and the crew have had the pole out then in, the mail sail up and then back down again. All without too much mishap and most importantly no one fell in.
Anthony tried to do some fishing for a short time but no luck which was fortunate as the freezer is still full. We turned West in the morning as there is a high pressure south of us (so no wind) and a low pressure (very high winds) coming across the direct route to our north. Curently trying to sail between them until Wedneday when hopefully we will miss the worst of the low and it will have passed. We can then head straight north to Ponta Delgarda. Monday night to Wednesday morning looks like some interesting sailing. It should be coming up behind us so hopefully more like the trade wind sailing we had when going to the Caribbean. Unfortunatly the wind died overnight so we had to put the engine on and motored through the night. At least it tops up the batteries and we can run the watermaker.
Being my day off meant I was on ‘feeding the crew’ duties. They all seem to have survived the expereince and no one complained. At least it meant I did not need to do the washing up. Sue decided she had time to finish off the saloon table cover she started back in October, so we may have a new cover by the time we get to the Azores. It was Paul’s turn to cook breakfast which he attacked with some encouragement from Sue. He did complain that he had not dressed for the occasion nor done his hair since finishing his watch this morning as Sue filmed the proceedings.
We now seem to have 4 times on board. Our phones are still on Caribbean time as they have not picked up a signal since we left, we are moving the ships time forward an hour a day until we get to the right time for the Azores so are currently 1 hour behind, our computers are on UK time ands all the instruments on board use UTC. A little bit of mental arithmatic is needed to work out what the time really is!! They say time is a man made concept.
Having not seen any dolphins up to now we have had 2 pods visit us. Both had over 20 dolphins and it is always a fantastic sight to see them leaping towards us as they then take their turn playing on the bow. Paul managed to get some great underwater video of them at the bow. Sue has been saying it would be great to see a whale then we heard the blow and a huge whale surfaced no more than 50 metres behind us and went on its way. By the time we got the cameras out he was too far to get a decent picture. It is an incredible sight to see these huge creatures slowly make their way across the oceans.
Malcolm
__________________
Team members: Malcolm, Sue, Anthony, Paul, George the autopilot, Charlie our weather router
Pete and T-J are in the UK receiving and sharing our updates via the wonders of satellite.
Photos and videos from previous crossings by Sukama.
Previous adventure updates
Odyssey 2 start – day 3: https://blackwells.biz/atlantic-odyssey-2-start/
Odyssey 2 day 4 – 5: https://blackwells.biz/atlantic-odyssey-2-days-4-5/
Odyssey 2 day 6: https://blackwells.biz/atlantic-odyssey-2-day-6/
Odyssey 2 day 7 – 9: https://blackwells.biz/atlantic-odyssey-2-day-7-9/
Odyssey 2 day 10: https://blackwells.biz/atlantic-odyssey-2-day-10/
Odyssey 2 day 11 – 13: https://blackwells.biz/atlantic-odyssey-2-days-11-13/
Odyssey 2 day 14: https://blackwells.biz/atlantic-odyssey-2-day-14/