It is time to cross the Atlantic and return to the Americas!
We are currently in Cape Verde and setting sail today for Suriname, on a different continent and the opposite side of the ocean. To make things more interesting, I’m going to be crossing only using traditional methods. No GPS, no weather information, no electronics! Just a weather eye, a sextant, and a sound boat.
Follow along as we cross the Atlantic Ocean right now!
We are embarking on a rather long voyage, from Madeira to Suriname (with a short stop in Cape Verde). For the duration of the voyage, we will not have internet access so the blog posts will pause for a bit. Once we make landfall, they will resume again!
During our voyage, you can follow us along in real time on our live tracking map and even message us directly to the boat! All you need to do is become a Patron on Patreon to receive the password to the map.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Herby and Maddie
Starting our second Atlantic Crossing
We are almost ready to leave Madeira to sail to Cape Verde and then on to Suriname. The batteries are all charged up, the water tanks are filled to the brim, the food lockers are stuffed to capacity. We are ready!
Except we forgot to download movies on the iPad! Weather windows and tides can be ignored, there is always a “next one later.” Crossing the Atlantic without any movies would make for a very long crossing, so our departure time has been rescheduled to “whenever Netflix finishes downloading.”
For our first crossing, I was much more nervous about all the unexpected and unknown that awaited us out on the open ocean. Now, I know to expect endless blue swells and the need for some entertainment. We have books, games, conversation, and plenty of editing to do for our YouTube channel; but sometimes it’s nice to just turn off your brain and unwind with a silly movie.
Out at sea, we will watch anything. It can be good, it can be cringeworthy bad, but it’s the only thing we have so we will watch it for the duration of the passage.
Yes, a properly downloaded movie collection on the iPad is a requirement for going out to sea! A large enough requirement that it could postpone the very start of our long voyage. 1,100 nautical miles to our next island in Cape Verde and then 2,600 nautical miles to Suriname. We are expecting to be disconnected from the outside world until mid November, so having some shows is always a comfort.
Mizzen Spinnaker
Why do some boats have a mizzen mast?
So that they can fly their Mizzen Spinnaker!
The mizzen spinnaker is a spinnaker sail that attaches to the mizzen mast and adds more sail area when cruising off the wind.
While this sail requires a significant amount of work to set, and you can’t change tacks with it up (because the main boom is in the way) it does provide a significant amount of speed, power, and stability to the ride. The boat becomes more balanced as the headsail is not the only sail in operation.
While you could get a sail in that space aft of the mast by setting your mainsail, the mizzen spinnaker sail is far enough aft that it doesn’t block the wind from reaching the headsail, meaning you can sail on a deep broad reach without any sail loosing its wind.
This allows you to carry more sail on a broad reach while still having a more balanced helm and plenty of power as you sail towards your destination.
The mizzen spinnaker is a great sail, but it is not a sail to set if you are in close quarters or going to be jibing anytime soon. It takes a fair amount of effort to set and douse the sail, making it ideal on a long passage where the sail will be up for hours (if not days)!
How to make Soft Shackles
Soft shackles are great, but kind of expensive if you need to buy a bunch of them. I’ll show you how to make your own for only a few dollars and exactly 20 inches of 1/4 inch SK78 Dyneema!
