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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 24, A Memorable Catch and Slacking On My Watch

Last night’s first watch was far and away my most difficult yet.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 22

Saturday February 19, 2022, 12:50PM

16’12.13N 57’21.39W 3188km made good.

SOG 6.0kts 

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The wind and seas are pretty calm, we have been flying the spinnaker with a reefed mainsail. Our speed has been ok.

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Dinner last night was pasta with a tuna tomato sauce that Jens made, it was quite good.

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Just after dinner last night we realized that the fishing line was still out. Dennis reeled it in, noticing as he was pulling the last of the line that there was a fish on the line. It was about 3 ft long with an eel like dark body, a regular fish tail, not an eel tail, huge eyes, and a set of pointy sharp teeth that would make any yippy rat-dog owner proud. None of us knew what it was, so we didn’t want to eat it. Since it was already dead we just left it at the toe-rail until this morning, at which point I took some photos and set it back into the sea from which it came.

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Cocktail hour was a single glass of red wine for me, we are seriously down on alcohol.  Only a bottle of Jameson and a bottle of red wine left. 

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Last night’s first watch was far and away my most difficult yet, only because of how tired I was. I was totally spent. Weird sleep schedules, V-berth barely habitable and constant movement have made for an exhausted me. Just after dinner, I was already on deck anticipating my upcoming watch, Dennis was on the wheel. My 8PM watch start time, came and went, I slept through it. Dennis passed the watch off to Jens, who was my watch partner. I woke up 30 minutes later just in time to take my (Jens’) turn at the helm. 

I stood behind the pedestal, glaze eyed, with my head no further than a foot from the compass, staring at it with drool running down my chin, literally drool running down my chin onto the compass. I was snapping my head up and down, nodding off for seconds at a time. I barely made it through my ½ hour at the helm before Jens, thankfully, took over for me. I then proceeded to sleep in the cockpit through my next shift on the helm, waking with about 5 minutes left in it. At first I thought “cool I woke up just in time” then I realized I screwed up, I slept through most of my watch. Jens said that he tried to wake me a couple of times, but I didn’t budge. I Will try to make up the time to him as we proceed through our last couple of days.

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Once relieved from our shift I brushed my teeth and went straight into the moist nest and crashed. Dennis had to shake me awake, which should never happen, I was so spent. I felt a lot better during our second watch, it was pleasant, sunrise, tea, biscotti followed by some coffee and more biscotti.

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We caught a mother of a Mahi Mahi, the thing was huge, easily 30 lbs.

We were sitting around debating whether we should have the last of the beer then or save it for later, when the fishing reel screamed WzzzzzzzzzzWzzzzWzzzz and the rod bent signifying we either caught another round of seaweed or we got us a fish. Our predetermined positions were taken, Dennis grabbed the rod, John on the helm, Jens with gaff and me helping wherever needed. We rolled in the jib, John steered a slower course, Dennis reeled whenever the fish would allow, it was a back and forth battle that we were going to win. Yesterday, after losing 2 lures to fish that got away I switched the line from an unknown test to a 60lb test. Dennis kept reeling and we were able to get a glimpse of the fish, determining that it was indeed a Mahi Mahi and a big one at that. Dennis got the fish to the stern of the boat, Jens gaffed it through its gut and with my help we lifted it over the lifelines and right into the cockpit, behind the wheel right at John’s feet. John jumped up onto the seat, while the giant Mahi thrashed about, somehow getting through and in front of the wheel where I had the unenviable task of stabbing the fish through the eye with my handy dandy sailing knife. We won this battle.

When the Mahi Mahi was in the water and while it was quickly dying, the fish was an incredible blue color, which faded as the fish died. It was really something to see and something to think about…Food for thought.

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Time to have the last round of beers, warm but celebratory.

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After several buckets of saltwater to give the cockpit a quick rinse of all the blood we took some photos and put the fish up onto the gunwale for me to butcher, which I made quick work of. At least 15lbs fillets, and incredible catch. Too bad we didn’t catch the fish earlier in the adventure, when we had refrigeration and more time to eat it.

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Once the Mahi Mahi was filleted and put away, within an hour of landing the behemoth, I made blackened Mahi Mahi sandwiches with coleslaw on my homemade focaccia.

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For dinner Jens made, you guessed it Mahi Mahi, he served it with Basmati rice.

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We set the spinnaker, which is easy once it’s up and flying however it can be a beast to set up.

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We are all stuffed with Mahi Mahi and a bit worn after a long day.

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I finished reading Beasts of a Little Land, by Juhea Kim, quite good.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 23, Less Than 400 miles to go.

As this adventure winds down and the seas have for the most part calmed down, I am getting the chance to reflect on the trip, the opportunity it has been for me, as well as its experiences……

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 21

Friday, February 18, 2022, 9:15AM

15’46.22N 54’42.89W 3003km made good.

SOG 7.2kts

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Sailing wing to wing again, triple reefed main and a bit of the jib.

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Dennis and John sailed through a squall this morning, 30 knots winds and heavy rain, I slept through it, there has been nothing but blue skies since.

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Shane, my son, finally got back to me about the Super Bowl, claiming he won our bet, we’ll see about that.

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We just had a visit from a pod of about 8 dolphins, they are always cool to see. With the rough seas it’s been about a week since we last saw them.

It’s comforting to be seeing dolphins again.

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Dinner last night was a collaborative mediocre effort. Soy marinated Seared Pork Medallions. When I made some sauce for them, using the marinade, I used too much of it. I could have used ¼ the amount and double the amount of butter which I used to finish the sauce, it would have been a lot better. Roasted potatoes, very good.  Needed a vegetable, considering we have about 20 cans of corn on board we should have used that.

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Cocktail hour was Parmigiano-Reggiano and spicy Lomo with more of Jens’ homemade crackers. It was another single beer Cocktail hour.

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We are seeing a lot of flying fish, occasionally picking them up off the deck, out of the cockpit and we even had one land on top of the dodger.

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I have the dreaded double watch tonight, hopefully the second to last double watch. 

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We haven’t seen another boat/ship in at least 10 days, probably more like 14.

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Bruises on my bruises, we are all getting banged around on the boat, both below deck and on deck. We have all ended up with many, many little bruises up and down our legs and arms.

Avocet’s galley, the culprit to many of my bruises.

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I’m looking forward to talking to Colleen and kids, taking a long hot shower and sleeping for more than three hours at one stretch.

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V-berth is hot, humid and dank, it’s where Dennis and I have been trading off the bunk, there is no ventilation there because we have Avocet’s dingy and a bunch of gear strapped to the deck right on top of the V-berth hatch. It was so hot in there last night that I ended up sleeping for 2 hours on the salon sole (floor).

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I made coleslaw with the rest of the cabbage, raisins and apples today.

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The only fresh food left at this point is 2 bulbs of garlic, 15 potatoes and 10 limes.

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Charging system for the batteries is not working properly- no more refrigerator.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 22, Making Great Progress.

Sailing is still pretty spectacular. 20 knots on our starboard aft quarter with 6-9 ft seas.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 20

Thursday, February, 17, 2022, 1:01PM

15’28.133N 51’51.311W 2858nm made good.

SOG 7.2kts 

Still major issues with charging boat batteries, the wind generator may not be putting enough energy into the batteries or it may be an issue with the charging unit itself. We did not run the refrigerator all last night, there are concerns that it is drawing too much power for the batteries to charge. This morning the charge was up to 83%, which is good, so the refrigerator was turned back on again for a few hours. Ice for cocktail hour is doubtful.

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This photo was taken right before I went below and wrote todays entry. 20kts of wind, 6-9ft seas.

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After a night of hanging on the lifelines, most of my laundry is dry, smelling fresh and clean.

Socks and undies are still out there, they are hung on the leeward side, closest to the water and getting splashed whenever they are almost dry. I will move them to the windward side later today.

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Going through our stores yesterday we realized that we still have several bottles of mayonnaise, which is great.  We thought we were almost out of it and have been rationing it for several days. Now tuna salad and coleslaw will be vastly improved with the addition of mayo.

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With the less aggressive conditions we are once again letting out the fishing line during daylight hours.

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Another single beer cocktail hour last night, more because we are getting low on alcohol than for any other reason, the conditions are good. We had crab salad, deviled ham, peanuts and crackers to go with it.

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As of right now, as the crow flies, we have 560 miles to go to get to Guadeloupe, less than a Newport – Bermuda Race, which is 636 miles, leaving us with 4.5ish days until arrival.

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Chip Gavin, we’re calling him “our Portland office representative”. Chip and I have sailed together several times, mostly on Beausoliel, a Beneteau 456 owned by Richard Parent. Doing at least 1 Yarmouth Cup Race as well as the 2017 Marblehead – Halifax Race on Avocet. Chip introduced me to John when John needed crew to deliver Avocet from Boothbay, ME to Beverly MA, I think that was in September of 2016.

Chip was called into action, using John’s Garmin InReach satellite communicator, to inform the marina in Guadeloupe that we will be arriving, probably on Monday, with no engine and possible electrical/communications issues. Chip found us a tow service that would tow us into the harbor, $750 for the first hour, that will not be happening. He followed up with the harbormaster who said he could tow us from the breakwater to the dock for 80 euros, that probably won’t happen either. The current plan is to “sail to the dock” which I have complete confidence in John and the crew’s ability to do this. If it becomes too hairy we will have the anchor ready to go.

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Our weather updates are all promising, decent wind with the possibility of isolated squalls throughout the remainder of the trip, the max predicted winds in the squalls is 30 knots, nothing to sneeze at, but nothing to over-react about either. Keep a moderate sail plan and deal with it.

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Dinner last night was once again Bolognese, from Villa Azul, still pretty darn good. Canned peaches for dessert, which were surprisingly good, albeit quite sweet, but they were still firm and actually tasted like peaches.

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I am making another loaf of bread today. I doubled the dough recipe so that Jens could have a bunch of dough to make more crackers.

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Sailing under double reefed main, stay sail and a bit of the jib. Making great progress.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 21, Spectacular Sailing!

Wind and seas have finally calmed a bit, wind is at 15-20kts and seas have settled to 7-12ft. Still rough, but not crazy.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

With the increased wind and seas, photos of the next few days were lacking. I will try to add some visual content with stock photos and some of my own photos that were not taken at the time. In addition, my writing time was clipped to mostly short snip-its that I hope still convey the nuances of our adventure.

Days 18 and 19

Tuesday, February 15, 2022, 12:45PM

14’11.045N 46.56.521W 2522nm made good.

6.2kts SOG

Dennis enjoying some light work on the helm.

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It started calming down last night during my first watch, before midnight. Sailing has been very good since then. It is a huge relief to be out of those conditions, the boat and crew handled it extremely well.

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Another one beer cocktail hour last night, olives, hard salami, Manchego cheese and crackers were last night’s hors d’oeuvres selections. Dinner was a bowl of the too thick, underwhelming chili that I made at Villa Azul.

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We are almost out of all of the fresh food. Lots of food still in the cupboards, though.

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We are starting to get excited about landfall in Guadeloupe; 6ish more days. I am looking forward to being able to talk with Colleen, Shane and Cate; as well as checking out the island. I have to see if Guadalupe is someplace that I would want to drag Colleen to in the future.

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I need to do laundry and have a quick boat shower.

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Bilge is still getting water in it, John is bailing it out 2-3 times per day. 

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We changed the ship’s clock back an hour today, we were supposed to do it at longitude 37’5, we are now at 46’5, oh well we’re on our own time.

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Day 19

Wednesday, February 16, 2022, 4:40 PM

15’75.099N 49’37.342W 2683nm made good.

SOG 6.5kts 

Seas are still quite high, high enough that if the weeknight ‘round the buoy racers were out in this, they would wish that they were at their Yacht Club’s bar drinking god-awful Dark ‘n’ Stormies while clad in their Nantucket red shorts, collar turned up Polo shirt and loafers while talking about their masculine escapades that they have partaken in behind their third wife’s back. 

The only good thing about Dark ‘n’ Stormies is the after race schwag handed out at large races by the rum distilleries.

One of my many Rum Race Hats

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The storm jib and trysail down, triple reefed main, staysail are up, with a bit of the jib out, just because we can. 

Dennis under the dodger, hiding from the sun.

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Cocktail hour, olives, tuna jerky (blah), smoked gouda and Jens’ crackers.

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Jens made crackers from some focaccia dough that he asked me to put aside for him. They were great; crispy, olive oily and salty.

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Dinner was Chicken-Coconut soup, for the third or fourth time, a crew favorite. The recipe is in chapter 4.

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I did laundry by hanging the dirty laundry, pants and t-shirts off the stern of the rapidly moving, for a sailboat, boat. No detergent, no fresh water, just salt water. For the underwear and socks I did use detergent and salt water in a bucket, rinsed a few times and then hung them out. The clothes are still drying. I will report back tomorrow on how things worked out. 

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Sailing today and yesterday has been spectacular, moderate winds 15-20kts, and moderate, comparatively speaking, seas of 7-10ft.

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Still no motor, wind is our power source, providing just enough power for the fridge and little else..

Avocet on a mooring at Damariscove Island, Maine, in August of ’22,
the wind generator is attached to the stern.

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We have moved on to some gawd-awful coffee, something John has had on board since somewhere in the Mediterranean, it’s possibly two years old. The grind is for espresso and we are using a percolator. So, not only does the coffee taste like ass, it has a lot of chunks (well…grinds) in it. I keep drinking as much as I can handle at a time, maybe three ounces, before dumping out the remaining dregs. 

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 20, Battling the Elements.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

With the increased wind and seas, photos of the next few days were lacking. I will try to add some visual content with stock photos and some of my own photos that were not taken at the time. In addition, my writing time was clipped to mostly short snip-its that I hope still convey the nuances of our adventure.

Day 17

Monday, February 14, 2022, 4:15PM

14’11.827 44’32.653 2363nm made good.

SOG 7.3kts 

I’ve been strapping myself in at the nav-station to write in this journal each day.

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The waves are mountainous! The ride is precarious! 

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A typical roller coaster is 2 minutes long, this ride has been going on since dusk Friday. 

Comet, Paragon Park’s (Nantasket Beach, Hull, MA) wooden coaster in 1974.

Keep the car on the tracks, go around the corners on two wheels, crawl up and speed down the hills, don’t forget- you’re driving.

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Look at the compass. Yaw to port, turn the wheel to right. Look at the compass. Keep on track, turn the wheel 3 feet left, 5 feet right, spin back left, 6 inches right, a foot left. Look at surroundings, look at the compass. Pitch down the front of the wave, boat yaws hard to the right, wants to breach, can’t let that happen, with all your might turn the wheel hard left, boat rights it course; 3 seconds of reprieve. Sliding down the back side of the wave, feel the keel catch the water under the boat, sliding to port, turn to starboard. Wave breaks over the starboard aft quarter, cockpit fills, everything is wet. Look at the compass, stay on course. Pitch down and to the left, turn to the right. Yaw to the right, turn to the left… That’s about a minute of steering the boat, we will each steer the boat for about 6 hours each day. My hands, arms, shoulders, hips and legs ache. 

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I got soaked on the helm this morning, I am trying to dry out before doing it all over again. 

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Winds are in the upper 20’s, gusting well into the 30’s. Seas are really big, predicted 14 ft, we’ve surpassed that easily. No doubt there have been some 20 plus footers mixed in. Waves are still sporadic, it’s like you’re steering the boat through angry, frothing, 5000 sf McMansion sized moguls that are chasing after you, while they’re trying to knock you down.

Moguls and McMansions.

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Rough weather predicted through tomorrow, Tuesday. Followed by “moderate” seas and winds. 7-12 foot seas and 17-22 knot winds.

I’m looking a bit bedraggled at this point.

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We had a cocktail hour last night. A beer, Serrano ham, smoked gouda, smoked sablefish that Jens brought and crackers.

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Dinner was Villa Azul Tagine with Couscous.

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Finished another book, Code Thief, by Justin Anthony Conboy, don’t bother reading it, lousy plot, not well written.

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Coffee and grinds spilled throughout the galley, somehow finding their way into the refrigerator, a royal fucking mess. While being tossed around in the galley I emptied the fridge, cleaned its interior, and cleaned each item before returning it back to the fridge. The grinds got into every little crack, nook and cranny, we will be cleaning them up throughout the rest of the trip.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 19, Riding Out Some High Seas.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

With the increased wind and seas, photos of the next few days were lacking. I will try to add some visual content with stock photos and some of my own photos that were not taken at the time. In addition, my writing time was clipped to mostly short snip-its that I hope still convey the nuances of our adventure. PM 4/22/25

Day 16

Sunday, February 13, 2022, 2:37PM

13’59.987N 41’53.504W 2216nm made good.

SOG 6.0kts

The winds are in the low to mid 20’s, seas- many over 10ft. Still sailing with just the storm jib and trysail, yesterday from about noon until 11pm we also pulled out several feet of the furling jib giving us a little bit more speed without overpowering the boat.

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Today’s winds and seas are what was predicted by Chris Parker. We are still trying to stay a bit south to avoid the highest of the forecasted wind and seas. 

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We should be through the shit on Tuesday with favorable wind conditions for the remainder of the trip.

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Jens’ bunk with Jens in it, got swamped. Jens had just gotten off his watch and was in desperate need of some rest, he had just settled into his bunk. In an effort to let some of the dank out of the now shuttered for days sweatbox of belowdecks, the hatch just above his bunk was open, only about a half inch. The wind and seas are following us, so the chances of a wave breaking over the bow into Jens’ hatch were minimal, still existing though. He and all of his bedding got soaked. He closed the hatch, changed his clothes, dried off and moved around his bedding and climbed back into his bunk when we got hit by another wave. Even with the hatch closed and secured, he got sprayed again. The 34 year old hatch seals are the culprit, another item for John to add to his upcoming repair list. Jens went through the process of drying out himself and his bunk again. 

One of Avocet’s hatches in the foreground, not the culprit hatch, that one is difficult to see, located between the mast and life raft. Jens at the helm in the background. This photo is from Boothbay Harbor Races in July 2023.

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We did have a Cocktail Hour last night- Serrano Ham, olives, nasty smoked dried tuna, smoked gouda and crackers. A bit of red wine for John and I, whiskey for Jens and Dennis. Villa Azul Bolognese for dinner.

Serrano Ham, a staple of our Cocktail Hour refreshments.

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All of this hand steering is making my shoulders feel the pain, only about 1100 more miles with no autopilot to go.

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These seas are the kind that would even have Erik Aanderaa of the YouTube channel “No Bullshit Just Sailing” fame appreciate them. They are relentless.

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John is still pumping/sponging out the bilge a couple of times a day. He believes that the engine’s raw water intake through-hull fitting is leaking and being exacerbated by the sea conditions; another item to add to his growing list.

An example of thru hull fittings.

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Dennis threw out some of the chicken breasts we cooked at Villa Azul in Lanzarote, this is an indicator for us to keep a close eye on the remaining Villa Azul food. Fortunately the bottom of the fridge is very cold, keeping a fair amount of that food frozen.

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If you are enjoying reading about my transatlantic adventure, pleas Like and Share.

Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 18, When the shit hits the fan, shit goes everywhere.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

With the increased wind and seas, photos of the next few days were lacking. I will try to add some visual content with stock photos and some of my own photos that were not taken at the time. In addition, my writing time was clipped to mostly short snip-its that I hope still convey the nuances of our adventure. PM 4/22/25

Day 15

Saturday, February 12, 2022, 1:50PM

13’45.90N 39’21.21W 2067nm made good.

SOG 6+kts

When the shit hits the fan, shit goes everywhere.

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No engine, with heavy wind, the wind generator was kicking in some amps, so we have been able to run the refrigerator, VHF and navigation lights

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Last night was hellish, 40kts of wind, 10-14ft erratic seas. Before dark we lowered the mainsail and pulled up the storm trysail. Until about 9PM we sailed with the trysail staysail combo, at that point Jens and I were called on deck, we were off watch until midnight, to drop the staysail. The plan with the increasing wind and seas was to sail through the night with just the trysail; we were getting battered.

A great picture of John taken after the real shit weather.

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Soon after we started our midnight watch Jens had just strapped himself in at the wheel, and he got swamped. A direct hit with a wall of water square in his back, not only drenching him, but also pushing him forward into the wheel and across the helm seat from starboard to port. Besides being soaked, he was okay. In the immediate aftermath of this ginormous wave, Jens thought we had “gone into irons”, this is when your sails are trapped in the no-go zone, in essence stalling the boat. In reality we weren’t in irons we were in the froth of the wave that broke into our cockpit, the water was so roiled and aerated that it was causing the boat to stall. I had to shine my headlamp onto the sail to show Jens that the sail was full and fine. We were just stuck in the waves’ backwash.

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Did I mention it was a rough ride? I have been in higher seas, easily 20 feet high, on Neil and Ronel’s boat Tiger during a delivery from Bermuda to Antigua. Those waves were rollers, all in the same direction, well spaced apart and we were riding them; more fun than scary. The seas last night were much angrier, no rhythm to them, just bashing us, unsettling. 

Not my photo, but it’s a good representation of the seas we delt with for several days.

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In the wee hours things calmed down a bit, winds 20+ kts, with 7 to 10 foot pissed off waves.

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This morning we unhooked the staysail and replaced it with the storm jib. The storm jib is a very small day-glo orange sail, with the intended use of, you guessed it, sailing in a storm or storm like conditions. To change the sail Dennis and Jens with their harness on, attached to the Jack-lines, crawled to the bow. I manned the halyard from the relative comfort of the cockpit. I lowered the staysail as they gathered it on the deck, unhooked, bagged and sent the sail back to me in the cockpit. I passed up the storm jib and we repeated the process in the opposite order; unbag, hank-on, and pull the sail up, done. This is all done with the boat pitching and yawing erratically and an occasional wave breaking on to the deck. 

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The good news is today, tonight and tomorrow morning the winds are predicted to remain reasonable. The bad news is that last night’s drama is predicted to only be a prelude to what tomorrow night through Tuesday is expected to bring us. 25kts of winds with higher gusts and 10-14 foot seas for 2 days. Argh!!!

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Jens is a galley god, during the early part of last night’s mayhem he made some rice and heated up some chicken-coconut soup.

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I haven’t showered or changed my clothes since Wednesday, Yuck!! I am planning on making that a priority later this afternoon.

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Cocktail Hour was postponed yesterday, due to foul weather.

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Food stores are still plentiful, fresh items remaining include a few apples, 3 bulbs of garlic, ½ a head of cabbage, 5lbs of potatoes, 6 tangerines and a dozen limes. With the wind generator going strong, it should keep the remaining Villa Azul vacuum sealed items fresh for a few more days. We also have a vacuum sealed pork loin that Jens is going to cook soon, weather permitting. After that we do have lots of canned and dry goods, I won’t be making any bread until at least Wednesday.

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It may be windy and cool on deck, however with the wind and sea conditions we have to keep all of the ports shut making it a musty sweatbox below deck.

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If you are enjoying reading about my transatlantic adventure, please Like and Share.

Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 17, The Engine Won’t Start!

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 14

Friday, February 11, 2022, 2:08PM

13’64.56N 37’35.43W 1928nm made good.

SOG 7.5 kts 

With the increased wind and seas, photos of the next few days were lacking. I will try to add some visual content with stock photos and some of my own photos that were not taken at the time. In addition, my writing time was clipped to mostly short snip-its that I hope still convey the nuances of our adventure. PM 4/22/25

Lot’s to report, The shit has hit the fan, no power, no motor!

AAGHHH!!

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Last night at about midnight we were running the generator, John wanted to use the gas generator to charge the batteries, saving the diesel, for the main engine. The generator stopped having a load on it, and had a noticeable drain of power. The batteries were not charging and the motor would not start. John worked through the night trying to figure out the problem to no avail. 

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No power means- no autopilot, no charging of boat batteries, no refrigerator, no lights, no instruments etc. The battery power we have remaining is being conserved for navigation and compass lights.

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We set up the windvane, a mechanical backup to the autopilot, and it is also not working properly. I got to hang over the stern of the boat to replace a couple of lock washers on the windvane. I was harnessed to the boat, however it was still a bit unnerving to be hanging over the water with no land in any direction for nearly a thousand miles. Without the autopilot or a properly working windvane, it looks like we will be hand steering the last 1400 miles.

An example of a windvane.

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We changed our watches back to 2 man shifts, I’m now with Jens and we trade off at the wheel every thirty minutes. 

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Last night before the electrical issues we hung out in the cockpit and I learned how to play the card game Hearts.

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Dinner was baked potatoes filled with Villa Azul chili, cheese and onion, not bad.

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Vodka and Tonic equals Gin and Tonic without all the flavorful parts, we suffered through them during last night’s cocktail hour. Jens served up Spanish white anchovies, Serrano Ham, hummus and crackers.

A Boothbay G&T, enjoyed well after our transatlantic sail, a night before we sailed Avocet in the Boothbay Harbor Regatta races.

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I am amazed at how many birds there are out here in the middle of the Atlantic.

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Decent winds out of the northeast at about 18 knots, boat speed is good. 

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 16, Reaching the Halfway Point.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 13

Thursday, February 10, 2022, 11:05AM

14’01.797N 35’35.259W 1772nm made good.

SOG 6.0knts 

We have wind!  We are sailing wing on wing, the mainsail has a single reef in it and is out to port, the staysail is poled out, with the Jockey pole to starboard.

There was discussion yesterday whether it was “wing to wing”, “wing on wing” or ”wing and wing”. I have heard wing to wing, and wing on wing, I have never heard wing and wing. When I have internet access and on the off chance I remember this topic, I will look it up to see what the actual term is supposed to be. I digress, as I said we are sailing, heading west, close to our exact halfway point. Historically the first half, which we have completed, is the slow half, lighter, flukier winds with the boat heading south even though your destination is west. If all goes well we should be in Guadalupe in 11ish days.

Officially, according to several websites, it’s “wing-on-wing”.

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Winds and seas are still predicted to increase over the next couple of days, followed by favorable wind speeds for the rest of the journey.

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We are out of gin! 

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Up to now the weather has been quite benign, as wind and waves pick up, I’m sure our Cocktail Hour will either lessen or we will lose the cocktail part of the hour. 

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No fish hooked since the big one that got away, we have caught some plastic and a lot of seaweed. So much seaweed that we have reeled in the line until we get out of the seaweed patches.

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Dennis made wraps for lunch, chicken and coleslaw. 

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I did dinner last night, seared rib-eye steaks with pepper-onion-tangerine-Worcestershire sauce, carrots and roasted potatoes. The potatoes were the star of the show, potatoes, garlic, EVOO, smoked paprika and salt; roasted on high, great. The steaks themselves, not so good, typical Spanish steak, very little intramuscular fat, a bit tough, not a lot of flavor. 

Too lean (equals dry) Spanish beef rib-eye steak.

Cocktail Hour, as previously mentioned we finished off the gin. Jens served up some cured smoked tuna- Tuna Jerky; weird texture, it will definitely not be a future go-to item. Spanish White Anchovies, love’em. Iberico Ham, so good, Jens exclaimed how the it tasted “nutty” and I explained how pigs used to make real Iberico Ham are fed a diet of almost exclusively chestnuts and black acorns giving the ham the nutty flavor that Jens pointed out, as well as a dark, almost purple color to the meat. It was wonderful.

Iberico Ham

I just opened and read my kids letters. Cate’s was very sweet, written in different colors with a girly flourish.  Shane’s on the other hand was much longer, not nearly as sweet, lots of profound language, starts off his letter by referring to me as a “Fuckhead”, rants a bunch in the middle about football, skiing and about how much he expects that I will be looking forward to a beer when we arrive in Guadeloupe. In closing he signs off as Tommy Chong, does he think I won’t get the reference or is he trying to bust my balls? I’ll go with the latter. Both kids have always shown their love in different ways, their letters epitomize this. I love them both the same.

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No dolphins in a couple of days.

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I made another loaf of Focaccia yesterday, I flavored it with green olives, freeze-dried basil and sunflower seeds. 

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John swabbed out the bilge, checked and added some oil to the engine as well as checked the engine coolant level.

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We have used more than half of the fuel on board, hopefully we won’t need to use the engine often during the remainder of our voyage. As a precaution, to conserve diesel we are going to run the gas generator on deck to recharge the batteries, instead of using the boat’s engine to do it.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 15, Weather Prediction, Still Fishing, Doing Some Math.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 12

Wednesday, February 9, 2022, 12:45PM

14’19.546N 32”34.801W 1631nm made good.

SOG 6.0knts 

Winds are still quite light, we are and have been since dusk last night motor sailing, which is exactly as it sounds: running the motor while sailing.

Chris Parker, our weather guru, has insisted that we continue to head south-west until we hit the 14 parallel of latitude before changing our course to due west. The goal is to try to avoid some nasty weather to the north of us. The predicted weather the next few days will be a stark contrast to what we have dealt with since Sunday.  Winds are expected to pick up tomorrow and Thursday, to the low to mid twenties, while continuing to pick up through Saturday.  Thursday and Friday, expected winds are in the mid-twenties with gusts to the high-twenties. The worst of it is expected on Saturday, sustained winds in the high-twenties, with gusts into the mid-thirties. Leveling off a bit on Sunday in the low 20’s and Monday, becoming just right, about perfect, in the high-teens. The winds are predicted to be coming out of the north-east most of the time which means we will be on a starboard tack, taking the wind on our aft-beam which is preferable. None of the predicted seas are to be over 10 feet, which is high, but not scary. Bigger than the kiddie coaster, not the loop-de-loop coaster.

Heading west into the sunset and an ominous forecast.

Well, the head is still jocked. I did what any experienced boater should never do; I overloaded it, not with poop, rather with toilet paper. I know better! I’m embarrassed, not because I did it, but because I shouldn’t have done it. Wipe, flush way more than you think you should, repeat. I didn’t pump enough between wipes, dumb ass. Good thing there is a second head on board, you can guarantee that if the other head gets clogged it won’t be my fault.

Jabsco manual pump toilet, like the one on Avocet.

We got another hit on the fishing line. Our reaction was perfect, we all got into our predetermined places, ready to go. This fish was obviously quite large, the rod was bent to a promising angle, the fish was running, Dennis was reeling at the right time. We never did see this fish before the line snapped. This time it was not an operator error, it was the fish was bigger than the line test called for. We strung a new lure and leader and set it back out again vying that if the line breaks again we will change it out for a higher test. We’ll see…

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We broke into our Villa Azul food stash again last night, Chicken-Coconut Soup with Basmati Rice. It was delicious, not the depth of flavor I get at home with ingredients that were not available on Lanzarote, but like I said, still delicious. We have 3 more meals of soup remaining, not a bad deal.

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Cocktail Hour was Guacamole, Spanish White Anchovies, Manchego Cheese and Crackers. For beverages we tried/drank some Strawberry Gin and Tonic, and yup, it sucked. Round 2 was Bombay, much better.

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This morning we discussed amongst many other things, how much booze we have already consumed, considering we are getting low on gin, we were curious if it was over consumption or under provisioning. Since we drank a total of 6, 750ml bottles of booze (25oz, 150 ounces total) in 11 nights, equals less than 14 ounces per night, which is less than 3.5 ounces each. Obviously, we under provisioned.

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Dennis and I cleaned out the cooler that was full of the Villa Azul food. It was fairly nasty, with the expected upcoming rough weather we wanted to clean it out now before it got even nastier. While we had the cleaning supplies out we also cleaned the cockpit which was dirty mostly from general use and a little bit from fish blood.  We’re becoming domesticated, our wives would be proud.

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I am once again clean, showered with clean under garments.

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Amazingly, we are still on our first roll of paper towels, granted they are the industrial, heavy duty Spanish type, but one roll for 11 days is impressive. 

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Our plan is to fire up the watermaker again this afternoon, the main tank is just about empty.

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As of this morning we still had 1,700 miles to the harbor entrance in Guadeloupe, which is still more than half the distance. The encouraging thing is now that we have turned west all of the distance we travel will be “made good”, meaning that we are now making a beeline to our destination, no longer heading south so that we can eventually turn west. We have made that turn. 1,700mi/135mi per day = 12.59 days, which is very conservative especially considering the weather forecast. Alternatively 1,700mi/150mi per day = 11.33 days, still a bit conservative, yet doable.

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I will open the letters from the kids tomorrow. I am looking forward to it.

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