11 May 2026 at 11:16:14 BST

Day 10 – The Crew. Part 2

Ahoy ye! Another 4 days on and high time for another takeover by the wee scallywags… The Crew.

I’m sure you are all curious to hear what tales of the high seas have filled the last few days…. The odd insight to sailing and amusement that may not have otherwise made their way through from the good ship Sukama!

Hoist the mainsail! Oh …. wait…. you need wind for that bit don’t you!!… Over the last few days every little puff above 6knots has the salty dogs leaping up on deck excitedly sniffing for an opportunity to throw the sails up towards a largely cloud free sky; never an encouraging sign when seeking wind!…. Sometimes the sails would stay up for a whole hour(!) enough time for Sukama to perfect her slow boat technique. But then reality kicks in, sails doing their not so happy flappy dance with lines following closely, whipping around as sails fill, back and empty. We are either too far off course or more often, and more importantly, too slow to make a key waypoint. Miss that and we risk consigning ourselves to another day or two more of motoring than would be otherwise needed…… But, having hit our waypoint target with 3 hours to spare early this morning, then winds are due today! Since our last message we have also turned East; generally considered a far more useful direction by any self respecting navigator than due North when heading from the Caribbean to the Canarias!

Day 10 tracker of Sukama route

While George continues to helm and keep us on course there can be relatively little to do, especially under motor. For anyone who pictures windswept adventurers standing at the helm, white knuckled with a steely gaze locked on the forward seas, guiding through each passing wave and gust of wind with the precision and accuracy of great seafarers then…. consider your bubble burst! For one, our current ‘wild seas’ would be put to shame by any self respecting swimming pool and secondly, except for close quarters handling (trying to glide 20 tones into a spot with only two foot to spare either side is a whole different skill to master!) or extreme heavy weather, then George steers. George, the almost never tiring autopilot is, at times, adjusted a few degrees with the odd ‘beep’ as index finger muscles are flexed to press a button; I hope you can picture the extreme exertion this takes! Makes us positively exhausted just thinking about it! On boats however, having little to do is generally a very good thing, anything else and it normally means something has gone a little sideways!! Like Malcolm trying to tame the headsail in a sudden 24knot squall; we’ve all been there at some time!

So between all the button pressing finger exertion everyone has filled the day with adrenaline fuelled activities like reading, cleaning the metal work (Paul’s self appointed mission for today), designing, or in Sue’s case typing on her laptop.

Fishing remains a ritual pass-time. As Crew we are very proficient at catching the clumps of seaweed that continually pass the yacht but less so any actual fish; despite the rare yet highly celebrated success. Of course this lack of success couldn’t be due to our complete lack of knowledge or ‘make it up as you go along approach’, so we can only conclude this particular patch of 4000m deep sea must be a fish free part of the Atlantic! 2 days and no fish! Luckily we have a freezer full!

Yesterday’s event of the day was around course headings. As we, The Crew, were on morning watch and first to rise we had the boat to ourselves for a few hours. Paul is relatively new to sailing but has covered a huge number of miles given he first stepped on board a yacht less than 6 months ago. Anthony has years of experience and helped with some of the original design specification of Sukama, as well as the first Atlantic crossing, but has nowhere near the experience gained through sea miles of Malcolm and Sue. Nonetheless, we downloaded the latest weather plan. Charlie had requested a course of 100 degrees True and didn’t want us to go further North else we run into more light winds.

The sailors jargon bit: For those not familiar True and Magnetic North are not the same thing. They are as much as 15 or more degrees apart; this matters when your journey is 2800+ nautical miles! Charts are drawn to True North, naturally all compasses are Magnetic. There are guides on each chart telling you what the deviation between the two is as it changes depending where you are and moves slightly each year.

We did some calculations and set a required course over ground (not heading – that’s another totally different

George the autopilot is in charge of the steering wheel

thing – boats have a infuriating habit of not actually going where you point them due to wind, current, tides or which side of the pontoon they woke up on. Pesky things…) of 115 degrees Magnetic to keep us slightly high of Charlies waypoint so we had a better point of sail when the winds arrived, set a waypoint and adjusted the boat accordingly…. still with us? All is well, so we thought….

A few hours later there is agitated muttering around the boat. Sue was up and deeply concerned that we would be miles off course, needed to change to due East immediately else all would be a disaster! Due East as a course would, by our logic, take us Northerly, something we needed to avoid, due to the difference in Magnetic and True. Sue’s concern however originated because there wasn’t the usual rosette defining the Magnetic / True deviation on the large scale ocean crossing chart and a sense that everything in the plotter was given in terms of True. The conclusion therefore being that you should ignore the deviation for the purposes of ocean going passage making…. An approach to bending the laws of Physics that Newton would be proud of but not exactly shared by all. Operation “convince Sue all is well” started.

Pointing out the big, obvious ‘M’s denoting Magnetic next to all the bearings in the plotter helped resolve one concern fairly swiftly. Providing the deviation figures for either end of the crossing, being essentially the same, was considered insufficient. Pointing out the deviation lines shown on the large scale chart, after some debate, however did manage to quell any final concerns. As it is such a large scale there is no ‘single’ deviation but rather it varies as you go. At least the navigational knowledge of The Crew was tested, proven, everyone benefited, and we continued on our merry way without any change to course. Impending ‘disaster’ narrowly averted!

Having hit our planned waypoint at 5AM this morning, 3 hours ahead of schedule the wind started to swing round and fill in. By 6AM we were under sail, yes S A I L …. shhh. Not blistering speeds but at least a consistent enough wind that we can make good progress, a welcome change from previous days. From that point on we have managed to keep her going under sail, and meet our required 4 knot average to hit Day 11’s 4AM waypoint. It is still slower than we would all ideally like but it is hugely positive progress over motoring at a similar speed, not to mention we have ‘just’ 5-6 days of fuel left if under engine. I say just as other boats we started with had 2 days total to start with so we are in a privileged position really as Sukama is exceptionally well kitted out for this sort of journey. The lighter winds of the early evening never arrived as forecast, hopefully a further sign favourable winds are on the return. We are expecting the current winds to gradually grow over the next few days which should help to get our average speed back up.

It is Sue’s day off from watch tonight which means it is again Sue’s day to cook. You read so much about the output from the galley, but this little event is worth recalling. It amused us at least, it’s the small things these days!….. Remember that time honoured, and well perfected technique of kitchenware consumption! Well, the day starts off with scrambled eggs cooked with chorizo and diced melon to follow. Having completed the cooking and all hands up top to tuck in, Sue just starts weakly giggling to herself with the realisation of how much has been ‘utilised’ in the kitchen. Paul heads down below to wash up, followed by a shout of “What’s all that!”…. Anthony joins Paul to help with the washing up from what would, to most mere mortals, require minimal utensil’s. Every possible surface covered, 2 pans, 2 boxes, 3 chopping boards (can’t even begin to comprehend how that lot got involved!) extra knives and forks, more cups and glasses than we have people on board and we’re through the worst of it….. It truly is a well perfected technique!

Moving on in the day our pre-lunch unscheduled entertainment included Malcolm trying to cover both himself, and the boat, in veg. There is a reason you don’t throw things over the upwind side; they have a habit of trying to come back at you! It’s a shame the winds aren’t stronger as it would have made for a far more amusing spectacle! Paul and Anthony sat in the cockpit watching it all unfold, with bemused “how did you think that would work!?” expressions, you can sense the sympathy!

We heard that some are worried if we would have enough food supplies to last. We can assure you all, as is typically good fashion for Malcolm and Sue, a week in and the fridge remains well stocked with cheese and the hold with wine. Once they run out the cupboards have plentiful supplies of crackers and rum. The basis of any meal for all champion sailors, just ask Captain Jack!! On a more sensible note however every nook and cranny remains stuffed with dried and tinned goods, dinner tonight was the first real dip into the freezer, so there is still plenty to go at!

Until next time.

The Crew

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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/