Atlantic crossing Day 1-5

Flying fish, mahi mahis, a captain with a fever and a cracking rudder.

We record our daily impressions of the crossing in a small diary, as well as the distance travelled in the last 24 hours. We measured it every day from 4pm to 4pm. Join us on our adventure!

Farewell Cape Verde!

The time has come! At 4pm it's "Cast off!" and we leave the marina of Mindelo. There's a strong wind between Santo Antao and São Vincente, gusting up to 35 knots, and we're flying at 8 knots with a reefed main and a shred of genoa! 😎

Marti & Wulfi cook spinach tortellini for dinner and so we go into the night with significantly less wind. In the cover of Santo Antao, we have some extreme wind shifts, and in Wulfi's shift we even sail a course of almost 180 degrees. That means getting up, jibing and on off we go again!

We make our first encounters with flying fish slapping our deck. The wave takes some getting used to and pushes us around, everything rattles and we don't sleep very well.

Day 1

Early in the morning, the line buzzes and it's "Fiiiish Alarm!". A mahi mahi tried to take a bite - yay! 🎣 Of course, it's processed straight away and we have a rice bowl with vegetables and fresh fish for lunch. In the afternoon, we read and sleep a lot and slowly get into the groove of everyday sailing life. Wulfi wins the afternoon dice game from zero to hero! In the evening we have fish curry from Marti, and so we go into the night after an easy day. Each of us takes on a 3-hour night shift, from 08:00 in the evening until 08:00 in the morning. During the night we wear our life jackets, which also form a kind of safety harness with a carabiner. We pick ourselves up in the cockpit, and if a manoeuvre has to be made, we wake up at least one other person. There are lifelines running from the stern to the bow of the boat on both sides, which we can hook onto if we need to go in the front of the boat. Safety first and all that 😉 With the moon waning, it's now time to say good night! 🌒

Covered distance: 138nm

Day 2

The wind has dropped noticeably, it's around 10-15 knots, which means it's Oxley time! 🪁 The manoeuvres are usually very smooth, we are slowly becoming a well-coordinated team. We start our Starlink for the first time since casting off. We only use the internet on the Atlantic for weather checks, to send a sign of life to the outside world from time to time and in case anything else important comes up. We're not very interested in watching Netflix or social media at the moment.

Unfortunately, our tablet, which we need for navigation, crashes a bit in the morning. The charging socket smells burnt and it only charges sporadically. So Marti & Wulfi's replacement tablet is used on day 2 already. It's off to a good start...😅 For lunch, we have summer rolls with fresh vegetables and the last of the leftover fish. We also take it very easy in the afternoon, reading and sleeping. In the evening, we eat spaghetti bolognese and head off into the night with the Oxley. It looks like it's going to be a comfortable night and we're all hoping for a few hours of peaceful sleep.

Distance covered: 135nm

Day 3

After a reasonably restful night, Thierry & I (Mogli) put in a training session on the front deck. A bit of exercise does us good! Afterwards we treat ourselves to a bucket shower at the stern. A great start to the day! 🌞 Marti & Wulfi cook scrambled eggs, couscous & babaganoush for Sunday brunch. In the afternoon, our second mahi mahi bites after what feels like 15 minutes of bait in the water. The notorious seaweed patches that are floating around in the Atlantic are slowly increasing. This will probably make our fishing fun a little more difficult... We are travelling super fast with the Oxley, and the boat is super stable. In the evening we have trachana (a type of wheat from Greece) and mahi mahi with orange sauce.

We leave the Oxley up again overnight, but during my shift (from 8pm to 11pm) the wind picks up and we have to take down the Oxley in the dark. We only fly the Oxley up to a constant wind force of around 18-20 knots. The more wind there is in the sail, the more stressful it is to pull down the recovery tube. But there are four of us and everyone helps out, so the manoeuvre goes really well. Good night for tonight!

Distance covered: 112nm

Day 4

The wave at night is super uncomfortable 🥴 The wind is slightly over 20 knots and pushes our Cervino back and forth. Everything rattles, the glasses in the cupboards, the bottles in the floor and at some point a new noise appears. It's clearly coming from the back of the boat. Hmmmm...

In the morning we go to investigate, and unfortunately we have bad news: the cracking is coming from the rudder, it's probably the bearing. As far as we can tell, it's not cool but not dangerous. But yes, the fact that it happened on day 4 is pretty unnecessary. Let's see how it develops. Thanks to Starlink, we can consult with friends who have more experience. They all give the all-clear. Well, I guess it'll be ok then... 😅

We collect 8 flying fish on the bow. The more waves there are, the more water hits the boat and the more fish land there. 🐟 Unfortunately, Thierry has now become really ill and is lying in his bunk with a cough and fever. That worries me a little, but what can you do? Lots to drink and Dafalgan to bring the fever down. Bed rest is the order of the day. Today is not the best day, we read and sleep a lot. In the evening we have fish fingers with mashed potatoes from Marti & Wulfi. It was very tasty. Off into the night and see what the new day brings.

Distance covered: 146nm

Day 5

The night was again pretty uncomfortable with lots of waves and winds of up to 25 knots. We made good progress, but we didn't get much sleep. And we collected no fewer than 30 flying fish on the deck and in the cockpit. 🐟

Thierry is unfortunately still ill. The fever has gone down a bit, but he is still weak and sleeps most of the day. Poor him ☹ I hope he gets better soon.

The day is rather pleasant. We see our first other boat since we've been travelling. Well, we don't actually see it, but it appears on the screen. A tanker, 5nm away. Wulfi also throws the bait into the water again and after about 15 minutes we have another bite: another mahi mahi. At the moment, our fishing success rate is higher than ever 🎉🥳

The rudder noise seems to be decreasing. Seems to be. 🥴 Maybe it's also because the waves are slowly getting longer and the boat is no longer being pushed around so much. We have now set our clocks back an hour so that we are awake with the sun. So it's our own time zone, so to speak 😉 Off into the next night!

Distance covered: 147nm

We're about a quarter down!

Let's keep it going...