2020-02-25 Crossing the Atlantic-for the THIRD time

What to write about the Atlantic? First, let me tell you that we made it.

I am writing these lines as we are reaching the grenadines from Barbados. No suspense here. Now each crossing brings its surprises, good times, technical glitch, human scrambles and for sure weather patterns to discuss.

Every sailor should be able to talk about the weather at length… a bit like farmers. For this trip, we took off in a lightly set trade winds. (Arrival required in Barbados before the 18^th). As such we took the south-westerly direction to find them. It means that from day 1 we knew, we had to make 2750 NM instead of the 2300 of the straight line. Oups. Now we did not really expect that our direction for the next 20 days would be exactly down wind. You generally have favorable side to gain quickly towards your destination but not this trip. We spent the first 5 days gibing twice a day looking for this favored side without success… a couple of days of calm waters puts us back in line towards Barbados for another 15 days exactly in the wind direction. Unfortunately, it is definitely not the fastest way to go. By then, wind strength changing or not, we stayed with Jib only down wind and decided to gybe only when necessary… every day we would plan a gybe, which might often get postponed to the next day. Hardcore sailing it is or better defined as Cruising…

And comfortable it was. Ok, I am on a 45ft versus Thira as a 36ft but still, except a couple of days at 28 to 30 knots with 2 to 3 m swell, we all felt well all the time to the point that Gwen and Antoine took ownership of the kitchen. From day 2, we started a rhythm of great food followed immediately by discussion about the next menu. Every day was composed of free breakfast for all as we maintain the watch seriously until around 11AM, a great lunch together followed by a debate about the evening meal. Around 18h30, apero would be served (it is a French boat after all!)…. Followed by another great concoction from Antoine or Gwen or even sometimes by both. By then we were ready to discuss the menu of the next day. Never ate so well on a crossing. From Pizza freshly made, Brunch, Curry, Quinoa Salads, Tortillas, with the obvious pasta Pesto or Carbonara always required on board.

Now it helped that we fished so much…. After a fish famine on Cadiz to Las Palmas, we got a 5kg Tuna on day one still in sight of the Canaries. Followed by 5 Mahi-Mahi (Daurade Coryphene) from all size.  Adding fish to the menu, we had Sashimi and Nigiri, Ceviche (Not enough lemon on board), Coconut, fried, bread crumbed… Help by a couple of great cookbook but mainly the “Guide de la cuisine a bord” from Michele Meffre. (Thanks Gwen and her name-dropping abilities.)

Siting in a quiet beach, sipping a Kubuli (only brand from Dominica), It is time to write down the rest of the crossing. Looking back, I only remember good times, as we kept the watch with 2h up and 4 down, we all came up around lunch together and Apero, Dinner, it gaves us time to talk, play cards (Everyone ones holded the A… role and the president role), space team which the initiates would understand how funny it looks with 4 playing in the middle of the Atlantic. We also played THE GAME, and just by mentioning here, it means I just lost.    

As it is more than 20 days, we had to have a few problems… If I follow the advised I received, what I had planned was simply impossible.  Finding a yacht, preparing for liveaboard and crossing in less than 3 month, not ralistics, so obviously even working all the time, we left with a few small issues. Or so we thought… After a couple of days, the leak in the middle of the boat reappeared, damn it. I now had to sponge out 1l of dirty water every other day. No smell, green in color, coming from an unknow origin…. Definitely what you are looking for after 3 days starting a crossing.

All good like this up to day 8… Morning sail change leds us to realise that the top of the main sail was stuck. As the wind was reducing, we took our time and a coffee first to think it through. Up and down stuck, couple of tack got it free as it broke appart from the mast. All good sail down. Main sail cars break often so I had spares. Except that the top one had to be different. Damn it….

Mixing 2, we made one but it was quite fiddly to get it in. Filled with ball bearings, I had one shot, sitting on the main sail, to reinsert the 2 cars… in between 2 waves, job done. But the doubt remained if the track had been damaged. It looked dirty, scratch at the height of the 1^st reef top, about 85% of the mast height. Who will go up there in the middle of the seas… It turned out that everyone agreed, even desired to go up there. No sure if they were really bored, highly motivated or a bit suicidal… Giving me the choice, here you are Jason. You have been up the mast of quite a few boats by now and you even boasted of going up one of your small boat in the bay of Adelaide. So a couple of days later, here he went … On the second try, well tight to the mast, Jason had the best view around and the view on a slightly damaged main sail track. From now on, main sail full or 2 reef giving us more than enough options to get there.

I’ll pass on the small problems, pop up rivets, outside table, Bimini (maybe not a small one), water maker (oups definitely not  a small one),  electrics as we really had just a few minor items until a couple of days to the finish line when the wheels made a strong noise. One of those days that we were going well. Main sail up, 7.5 to 8 knots speed, helming and enjoying. The cracked changed that for us, main down and from there on, Rafa (our autopilot) had to take over. As he helms below the wheels and their cable systems,  we relied on him to get us there except the last couple of miles. And as we got some times to open the wheels, we found the split cable. I did not even try to fix it while sailing. Neither in Barbados as facilities are quite limited. For another 2 weeks, I would just managed to open it and replace the broken cable by a line making it quite “flexible”. Le marin in Martinique was the place to fix it almost 3 weeks later.

As we are closing to our destination, the numbers down on our DTD (Distance to destination), the anxiety, the planning of flights for Jason, the time to be spent on Barbados for Antoine, starts to affects our daily routine. It is amazing how independently on the crossing length, the first 3 days get you in the routine, then it all goes well until the last 2 or 3 when you start planning your arrival. It is an exciting time and as we draw near, we know we will not making it on the 15^th but now maybe not even on  the 16^th. It drives a lot of conversation but Gwen offered us a nice break as she celebrated her birthday on Happy days. Like her mum and dad celebrating birthday on crossing before, She celebrated her birthday and I hope it was very nice for her. Chocolate cake thanks to Antoine and after we convince her that she was not going to cook or clean or did any chores that day, we could relax and help her enjoy her birthday. To the point that we forgot to take any pictures.

Just a couple of days and a couple of hours to change of time. On the boat, we could follow the time line and change as per GPS coordinates but I found it much more entertaining to change according to sunset time to ensure a good apero. If it sets well passed 8PM, then we change by an hour. But this only last until we get close to the destination where we will need to catch up with the rest of the world. Gloria ended up comparing that to Maduro changing time in Venezuela. Only dictators have that luxury of defining time. Skippers must just be mini-dictators.

Finally, we made it to Barbados and after catching a glimpse of the island early morning of the 16^th, we see it growing all day long until we make it in time for customs and immigration at 4pm. Great! Except that the quarantine officer is not there. Oups sorry, can you come back tomorrow ?

22 days at sea to hear that…. But everyone took it well. Time to anchor have a nice swim, great shower finishing our remaining water and working on finishing our bottles of wines… hard job but we had to do it… Thank you Gwen, Jason, Antoine for your help, patience, commitment, hardwork, enthusiasm that made this crossing great. After all, we made it on time to pick Gloria up from the airport ….. Yeahhhh.