Atlantic Odyssey 2 day 18

Day 18

We’re back! The fourth Crew edition of our swashbuckling adventure across the pond. So what’s been happening!

Well, it seems we managed to extract an entry out of Malcolm! Maybe this Crew intervention thing is catching! It at least appears to have made a positive impact aboard! The more observant among you however, will have realised, it is fortunate that The Crew are on-board for all the tricky button pressing at the chart plotter; our electronic navigation station. “turned West”, did we? Hope not! I mean we know about all that compass deviation business but 180 degrees is pushing it in anyone’s book, and we can assure you the pointy end of the boat likes to be in front!!

The Crew takeover has stayed in effect, 6 days and counting. We are adjusting sails, monitoring batteries, checking headings, water supplies all highly energetic stuff! Everyone’s feet are still dry, the autopilot is still on and none of the outside water has found its way inside so by our assessment all goes well! Malcolm and Sue appear to be relaxing more despite the weather and sea state becoming increasingly energetic. As the front of the low pressure weather system around the Azores passes overhead we have seen wind speeds increase through the day to a sustained 20-24knots and the sea state has grown slightly to around 2.5m. Nothing that Sukama cant happily take in her stride. Based on the latest forecast we expect winds to peak through Tuesday (Day 19) where they should stay until Thursday morning before decreasing slightly.

With the waves coming from our starboard aft quarter (boatie term for back right corner!) Sukama lurches one way then the other in roll while also pitching nose up and down as we crest and fall behind the waves which are running slightly faster than our boat speed. Slow down and Sukama wallows around more as the waves have greater influence on her. Speed up and, up to a point, the ride flattens out but has moments of sudden short sharp changes. Every once in a while one wave comes along at a different angle and slaps into the side sending us rolling off and invariably sliding sideways down another wave crest while George tries to catchup and get us back on course. The effect is a rolling side slide snaking and rolling one way then snapping back the other until the momentum of the boat eventually settles out.

Moving around with this momentum has its own amusement. You wait for the rhythm and time your steps, normally so that you are walking up hill rather than down. If going downhill the boat has a nasty habit of falling away quicker than you anticipated resulting in the somewhat challenging feat of standing on fresh air! Moving around, without holding on to anything, or using a wall to bounce off is simply not an option anymore. Anything left on the cushions or flat surfaces and not suitably held gets unceremoniously dumped on to the floor in the rolling motion; its just a question of waiting for a big enough wave! There are plenty of instance where we have all had to take an abrupt seat in favour of a missed hand hold or falling head over heels!

As you heard already, yesterday was the day for oceangoing wildlife. Multiple sets of dolphin pods came to play in the bow waves and 2 whales; 1 incredibly close by! To see animals bigger than a bus almost silently pass by within tens of meters and disappear beneath the waves without so much as a ripple is incredible. We all ventured to the foredeck at some point in the day. Malcolm inexplicably managing to walk into the pole on his way back on one occasion. I mean how a 6’ individual fails to see an obstacle placed at almost exactly eye level we cant explain! Today we have been visited by dolphins on 2 more occasions.

Last night was initially plagued by cloud cover as the beginning of the front rolled in bringing with it more unsettled but still overly light winds. Following this the sky cleared for one of the best stargazing nights of the journey so far. With only our masthead navigation light dimly visible from the cockpit there are no other lights for miles allowing even the faintest, most distant star to fill the sky.

To pass the day there were a few exceptionally minor maintenance tasks to complete. Fixing a door handle that had decided to start working loose or leveling a cupboard door that had taken more than its quota of rum and gone a bit squiffy. There is an inevitable balance on some tasks. It would be good, for example, to try and understand some of the configuration settings in the plotter and see if we can improve its functionality however this involves downloading, modifying then uploading configuration files to the plotter. Should we get something wrong our ability to fix it currently is very limited and could result in the plotter becoming unusable; best left alone!

Man with life jacket on crawling on deck fixing something on yacht

Malcolm crawling on deck

Malcolm was caught red handed trying to find something to do and had decided it would be a good time to empty the 40l of backup fuel supplies into the main tank. This would involve opening the filler cap on deck and attempting to pour the diesel into the tank while pitching and rolling around, not to mention the risk of water getting into the main tank during this process and contaminating all our supplies! Anthony was less convinced of the immediate need, just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should! Having reviewed the current remaining fuel as 3 days worth, without using the additional supplies, and our expectation to be sailing from now up to the harbour approach, then Malcolm was convinced that the need is possibly not as great as the risk and instead needed to find something else to do; taking a mid afternoon nap, catching up after watch, won!!

Sue has taken to her laptop with a view on sorting out and organising files. The current system is “throw everything on the desktop and hopefully I might possibly be able to find it again later… but probably not”. The concentration etched on Sue’s face while we all know the inside voice is screaming “I don’t know what to do!” Is an amusing sight. Give Sue a sailboat and some paper charts to look after and she is perfectly at home, but do something that involves interaction with electronics and the pink spots start to appear very quickly!

After the very light winds of the night calling for some motoring we have had the full headsail out for most of the day. With the wind coming from behind us then we have it poled out to prevent it flapping around n the lighter breeze of the day. Boat speeds on the slow side we experimented with the storm jib to see if it would give us any benefit but having seen it was blanketing (covering) the headsail and that it offered no advantage over headsail alone in terms of speed through the water, we took it down again. The rest of the day passed without event as the wind became more consistent through the day. As we neared the evening speeds started to pick up and so we took the headsail down to 1 reef (boatie term for reducing the size of the sail, used to manage stronger winds he the full sail would be over powered) for the night passage with Charlies weather outlook indicating a maximum of 23 knots.

Sue was again on cheffing duties but we were in for a treat. Pineapple upside down cake! A not insignificant achievement on a yacht that lurches around without warning. Sue again helped with the washing up having outdone herself once more!

It is now 4AM on the boat. It is inky black outside where it is just about possible to make out the horizon line but there is no way to see the incoming waves that continue to toss the yacht about as we press on at 7.5 knots through the water. Based on current speed we expect to make landfall early Friday morning however we are advised the stronger winds are due between now and Wednesday so, on paper at least, there is a chance we make it to port on Thursday. It is safe to say however the weather has been very halfhearted in playing its part on this journey so far, so nothing is guaranteed……

Until next time.

The Crew