Transatlantic: Day 13 [Day 34]

July 20, 2018. We are racing North even though our destination is East. Why? To stay with the winds!

A massive high pressure is east of us and we don’t want to enter it, so we are trying to sail around it, but this thing is huge and moving towards us?

Will we make it out of its path before it covers us? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, we are keeping our fishing gear inside and out of the water because Portuguese Man-O-War are everywhere out here.  

Their tentacles stretch out around 100 feet and if one gets snagged on our fishing line, I would be in a lot of pain when I reel in the line.  

Yes, even severed from the colony or animal (their exact classification is still being debated) the stingers will still sting and cause extreme pain! To avoid this displeasure, we simply resist the urge to fish.  

Transatlantic: Day 12 [Day 33]

We are approaching the Azores High and it would behoove us to head further north to keep with the winds.

We are moving a little slower but still moving right along. The weather around us is stable and we are making great progress, but we know that the large high is rising up from the south and will bring calm winds and seas. The further north we can get, the more chance of keeping up this pace we will have.

The view never changes, everywhere we look, all we see are clouds and waves. The waves tell us what the winds are like right now and the clouds tell us what the winds will be like in the next few days. We haven’t bothered to receive a Weather Fax in weeks since they are so inaccurate. Instead, we get our weather the old fashion way: by looking up at the sky!

Transatlantic: Day 11 [Day 32]

July 18, 2018. We are still in the middle. Far from land in any direction and yet nowhere at the same time.

We have been moving quickly for over a week and this now feels like our new normal.

The clouds around us are rising again and that means that our winds will not falter. We are moving with the weather so that we can continue to exist in these wonderful conditions of speed and sailing. Bubbles in our wake disappear into the distance before they can pop, we are moving and moving quickly.

The thought always looms in the back of our minds that should we fall over, we would be the bubble left far behind and out of sight in no time. For this reason, we are always clipped in to the boat.

Life on starboard tack now feels normal. For the past 11 days, we have been on this same tack, with the same sails set and at the same angle to the wind. Life out here is just a repeat of yesterday and a preview of tomorrow.

Transatlantic: Day 10 [Day 31]

The hurricane has passed, and the clouds are telling that light airs are coming. We did not have access to the pretty and colorful charts that our friends had, but we did have a few things on board.

First, they and friends on shore were telling us to go North to avoid the calm conditions that were coming in.

Second, the clouds were warning of the changing winds and we needed to turn North to stay in the wind as the high pressure system began coming in.

While we are no longer going straight towards our destination, we are keeping with the winds and maintaining our speed. Day after day, we are doing 100 nautical miles per day for the first time in our lives and we have been able to hold this pace for the entire way so far!

Transatlantic: Day 9 [Day 30]

The winds have gotten a little odd on us. We are far from any point of land and able to sail in any direction to provide us the most comfort.

Far to our north-west is a hurricane, and it also has wind. A friend of ours that was about 400 nautical miles ahead of us the whole way had the ability to download and view weather routing information to his yacht. He would plug in our position and then tell us what waypoint to aim for to get the best speed.

The interesting thing about the software is it doesn’t care what is causing the wind, it simply sees wind and suggests a way to sail it. Here, it is suggesting we head north and into the hurricane. Our plan is to not sail into a hurricane and instead stay south as that monster blows past us.

We know that after the hurricane passes, we will have a high pressure to deal with and light airs, but we would rather float around in no wind than brave a hurricane.