Arrived in Barbados

We have arrived after 14 days and 2.5 hours to cross the Atlantic. We estimated 17 days and with the weather routing provided by Herb on Southbound II net we did very well on the crossing. We have some minor repairs to make here in Barbados along with a rum and island tour. Now it's time to catch up on some sleep.

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Things break

Passage to Barbados, day 13. On a boat something is always breaking. When you're in port or cruising the coast, it's annoying. On a passage it's that plus challenging. Can you fix or replace it? Can you rig a temporary repair? Can you work around it? Is it something you can continue on without?

We've been pretty lucky this passage, and breakage has been minor. First, the boom vang broke, but John was able to fix it. Then the boom bale (an attachment to the boom) where the boom vang and preventer connect broke. That can't be fixed underway, but there's another bale at the end of the boom, and John jerry rigged a combination preventer and boom vang of sorts to it. It makes jibing more cumbersome, but it works quite well. A flying fish knocked our American flag off the back of the boat one night. Bummer! It was brand new, and I'd just put it out after we turned off the engine leaving Mindelo. The old flag is now flying from the radar pole, and I like it there, but we need another new one. When we tried to lower our Cape Verde courtesy flag, we discovered that the flag halyard was fouled. John fixed that. On our five-day tack after we quit zigzagging, we discovered that our new jib sheet was chafed halfway through due to a malfunction in the fairlead. John hasn't been able to fix that, so we've been avoiding bringing the jib to starboard. We did turn the sheet around, though, so we can use it for short periods if we need to on our approach to the anchorage.

We hope that nothing else comes up in the last hundred or so miles before our landfall.

Day 13 stats: 161 nm (6.7 knot average) bearing 274 degrees. Our position at 1500 UTC was 13°16.976'N, 057°01.785'W. All is well aboard Solstice. As of this morning Orinoco hadn't reached St. Lucia, but he was really close. The tear in his genoa was slowing him down.

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Reefed

Passage to Barbados, day 12. Around noon today (UTC) we put a reef in the main sail (shortened the sail) because Herb's forecast called for winds a little greater than 20 knots during the day. Although we've seen a few higher gusts, the wind has stayed about 15-20 knots, but we haven't slowed very much by adding the reef. Unfortunately, we're still zigzagging a little because the wind is directly behind us when we head to our waypoint, and we simply aren't rigged to go straight downwind. From the forecasts and with the progress we're currently making, it looks like we'll reach Barbados before dark on Tuesday. A 14-day passage is excellent.

We did hear Orinoco on the net this morning. He was 110 miles from St Lucia then, so he should arrive tomorrow.

Day 12 stats: Much like the past few days, 163 nm bearing 257 degrees, 6.79 knot avg. Position at 1500 UTC Jan. 9 was 13°04.518'N, 054°16.974'W. All is well aboard Solstice, and the little dog's paw seems all better now too.

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Continuing problems with Yotreps

Passage to Barbados, day 11. We've had a couple of position reports rejected by Yotreps in the past few days. We don't know what they changed on their end that caused the problems (nothing changed here), but we aren't the only ones having difficulty. It's really too bad because there are a lot of people crossing the Atlantic right now, and Yotreps has been a service we've all counted on to keep our friends and family up-to-date on our progress.

After five days on the same tack running downwind with poled out jib, we jibed this afternoon (actually on day 12). There's a lot more to it with the pole involved and some jerry rigging we've done to work around things that have broken (tomorrow's topic). We're hoping to keep this tack the rest of the way to Barbados. We aren't fishing until we eat more of the fish we already have (wahoo salad sandwiches today), so, no, Shirish, no more wahoo, but thanks for asking. :)

Day 11 stats: 166 nm at 275 degrees (6.9 knots avg.). Position at 1500 UTC Jan. 8 was 13°39.167'N, 051°33.511'W.

We haven't been on the net to hear how Orinoco is doing, but we heard on Herb's net last night that Aquila has arrived, so Orinoco should be close to port. Friends of Orinoco will probably hear from Jim soon.

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Changing time

Passage to Barbados, day 10. For this passage we decided not to change our clocks as we pass through time zones. The Canary Islands are on UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), and that's also the time used for our various radio check-ins, so we decided to keep it. Now, more than halfway across the Atlantic, that means that the time on our clocks is out of sync with the sun. I used to have the sunrise and sunset watches from 6 to 9 morning and evening. I still have the same watches, but the sun now rises and sets after nine o'clock. I used to feed the dog on those watches, but now she eats on John's watches. There's a four-hour offset between Barbados and UTC, and we'll deal with that when we arrive.

We have continued to have good wind, although now we are also getting a little rain and a chance of squalls. Day 10 we sailed 166 nm on a course of 259 degrees. All is well aboard Solstice, but we were late checking in this morning and didn't hear Orinoco. Our friends on Aquila have arrived at Antigua, and Orinoco should be close to St. Lucia.

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Sea state

Passage to Barbados, day 9: One of the conditions that boats include in their daily check-in to the Rum Runners Net is the sea state. That and wind are the two most important factors in any passage. In the Mediterranean we learned that even moderate winds of 20 knots could make the sea state extremely uncomfortable with high waves very close together. The oceans are a little different. Here in the mid-Atlantic we get swell, which is waves that run in the same direction over great distances, and wind waves. Waves from swell are generally a little further apart with the time in between being important for comfort. Boats report swell, and some include wind waves as a separate thing. Thus, we sometimes hear "2-meter swell from the NE with 1-meter wind waves from the east on top." Where we are, I don't remember hearing anyone report anything less than 2-meter swell. More often it's 2 to 3 meters or more (3 meters is about 10 feet). And that's what we've been having and expect to continue having until we reach the shelter of some islands. As we often hear on the net, we're rocking and rolling. People haven't been reporting the timing, but John estimates about 7 to 8 seconds, which is a little too close for comfort. I don't remember it being this bad (uncomfortable, not dangerous) when we crossed to Europe, but that was summer, and this is winter even if it feels like summer here. Any storm you hear about in western Europe or eastern North America is sending us swell down here in the tropics.

Day 9 statistics: 175 nm, 7.29 knot average, bearing 268 degrees. Yes, that's another record. Position at 1500 UTC Jan. 6 was 13°36.063'N, 045°52.724'W. (We did receive a message that Yotreps rejected one of our earlier position reports.) That's 3 degrees of longitude in one day, which is excellent. We have less than 800 nm miles to go to Barbados. All is well aboard Solstice and Orinoco.

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Past the halfway mark

Passage to Barbados, day 8. Today we passed our halfway point on the crossing. Our route from Mindelo to Barbados was nominally 2,010 miles. The distance to our waypoint marking the approach to the anchorage at Bridgetown, Barbados, is now just 930 miles away. We've been making really good time the last couple of days. In fact, day 8 is our record best 24 hours. We covered 171.9 nm for an average speed of 7.16 knots. Our previous best was 171.3 nm crossing toward Europe, so it was really almost a tie.

At 1500 UTC Jan. 5 our position was 13°40.611'N, 042°52.792'W. All is well aboard Solstice and Orinoco.

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Go, Speed Racer!

Passage to Barbados, day 7. Sceptres (the kind of boat that Solstice is) are classified as performance cruisers, meaning that they're supposed to go pretty fast for as heavy as they are. We haven't seen much evidence of this with Solstice until this passage. But until now we haven't been going the same direction and maintaining contact with a lot of other cruising boats. Today we caught up with a Swiss boat that left Mindelo a few hours ahead of us, Alua. It was fun to get so close to another passage-making boat (we were less than a quarter mile apart), and we took lots of pictures of each others' boats. We'll trade when we meet again in Grenada. We're hoping that we'll also be able to catch up with our friends on Jinja. Now that we've stopped zigzagging, we're moving right along.

Our position at 1500 UTC was 13°41.699'N, 039°55.874'W. Our 24-hour distance was 155 nm at an average speed of 6.46 knots, bearing 268 degrees. All is well aboard Solstice and Orinoco.

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Added in Grenada: sample photos from our picture exchange with Alua.

Alua

Solstice

End of zigzagging

Passage to Barbados, day 6. Today we took advantage of slightly less wind and perhaps reduced swell to pole out the jib and start sailing wing-on-wing. (I think our British friends call it goose-winging.) This means that our foresail, the jib, is held out by the pole on one side while the main sail is on the other. The configuration allows us to sail more nearly straight downwind, which is the direction we need to go to get to Barbados. If we had done this days ago, we could have saved more than 100 miles.

Our end of day 6 position at 1500 UTC was 13°46.157'N, 037°16.665'W. Straight-line distance covered was 127 nm while actual distance was 147 nm at an average speed of 6.125 knots. All of our distance should be in a relatively straight line now, at least until we get close to Barbados.

All is well aboard Solstice.

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Wahoo!!!

Passage to Barbados, day 5. This afternoon John landed his first wahoo, a big tasty fish that he's been after since Mexico in 2007. (This occurred after the technical end of day 5, but it's too exciting to save for later.) We had planned to eat mahi-mahi for dinner, but had to try the wahoo instead. It was excellent! We may have enough fish for the rest of the passage. Certainly we have enough that the hand line has been rolled up and put away for a few days.

Day 5 stats: 134 nm made good on a course of 267 degrees. Our actual miles and speed were the same as yesterday. Our position at 1500 UTC Jan. 2 was 14°14.524'N, 035°09.539'W. All is well aboard Solstice and Orinoco. (In case you missed it and have been wondering, we're including Orinoco on behalf of our friend Jim and his friends.)

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Happy New Year from the mid-Atlantic!

Passage to Barbados, day 4. The Rum Runners Net this morning was full of New Year's best wishes, and we know at least one person on each boat was awake to see the new year in regardless of time zone. Both of us were up because midnight is watch change.

Today we saw and talked with another sailboat. Transcendence is an Irish boat with a multi-national crew. We've been hearing them on Rum Runners since before we left Mindelo (they didn't stop) and on check-in with Herb since we've been underway. We knew they were a little ahead of us, but today we caught up. They said we're the first boat they've seen since they left the Canary Islands. John took a picture of them with his long lens, but they were several miles away, so you really can't see much.

Day 4 was a fast one: 161 nm actual (6.7 kn avg) and 138 nm straight-line (5.75kn avg). Our position was 14°21.422'N, 032°51.84'W.

All is well aboard Solstice. Marzen's paw is getting better. On Orinoco Jim is well, but the genoa got a rip in it, so that has slowed him down.

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We're not alone

Passage to Barbados, day 3. Within hours of the end of day 2 John spotted sails behind us and quickly got on the VHF to make contact. VHF radio has a range that is essentially line-of-sight. The boat was Saba, one we didn't know. They left the Cape Verde islands about when we did, but they're headed to Martinique. We agreed to call them again after we got weather from Herb since they don't have SSB radio, but by then they were out of range. Besides Saba, we know of five other boats in our vicinity, but we haven't seen any of them. It's a big ocean.

All is well aboard Solstice. Little dog Märzen is still limping, but seems OK otherwise. Our end-of-day position at 1500 UTC was 14°36.797'N, 030°29.875'W. The wind isn't letting us go straight to Barbados, so although our total distance was 148 nm (6.167 kn avg), our way-made-good was only 129 nm (5.375 kn avg). Not bad, but we hope to do better.

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Trouble with SailMail

Passage to Barbados, day 2. We continue to have difficulties connecting with SailMail, and when we do connect, the transfer rate is very slow. As a result, we are not picking up our inbound messages right now, not even the grib files that show the weather forecast. If you need to contact us urgently, please put URGENT in the subject. Otherwise, we'll have a lot of catching up to do when we get a fast connection.

Fortunately, our contact with Herb (South Bound II, 12,359 USB, 1930 UTC check-in) has been excellent, and his forecasts are better than grib files anyway. We also continue to connect with the Rum Runners Net (8131 USB, 1000 UTC), so we hear what weather those ahead of us are having and keep track of our friends' progress. Both of these radio contacts get our position, and we continue to send position reports to YOTREPS, but we don't know if the problem with those position reports has been worked out. We aren't the only ones who had problems.

All is well aboard Solstice (and Orinoco), but the little dog hurt her foot, so we're babying her even more than usual. Our end of day 2 (1500 UTC) position was 14°58.885'N, 028°18.879'W. Our average speed was 5,33 knots, but we only made 117 straight line nautical miles.

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Fresh mahi-mahi restocked

Passage to Barbados, day 1. John caught another mahi-mahi on his 9 o'clock watch yesterday morning. That was preceded by a small something yummy that we ate the next before and a small mahi-mahi that he let go. He still has a hand line out, but it's catch and release until he gets a wahoo. We need to eat some of the other provisions we stocked.

End of day 1 (1500 UTC 12/29/10) we were at 15°26.544'N, 026°21.572'W. We netted 117 nautical miles in a straight line, but we had some course changes along the way. At the end we were heading west.

All is well aboard Solstice, and we heard Orinoco on the net this morning, and he's fine too.

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Beyond Cape Verde

Passage to Barbados, day 0. We left the fuel dock at Mindelo at 1440 UTC Tuesday with about 15 knots of easterly wind and higher gusts in the channel between the islands. That was a nice, fast ride. Unfortunately, the winds have eased considerably now so that we're probably only averaging around 4.5 knots. We're also heading south of southwest right now, so it's probably time to jibe pretty soon. When we talked with Herb earlier, though, he said there's more wind further south. The seas are pretty lumpy, so we aren't having a very comfortable ride.

Jinja and Alua left ahead of us. Free Spirit and Avocette are leaving Wednesday.

All is well aboard Solstice. Our position at 0240 UTC on Dec. 29 is 16o23'N and 025o51'W. (There's no degree symbol in SailMail.)

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Passage to Mindelo: Day 7

The stats for day 7 are the same as day 6: 133.2 miles, 5.55 knots average. Maybe that's because we had the same light wind conditions and motor-sailed almost the whole time. When we use the SSB radio, we have to turn the engine off, but then our speed has been less than 4 knots, not good enough to get to Mindelo before dark tomorrow, so we turn the engine back on. (Now on day 8 we finally have enough wind to keep the engine off again.)

Besides checking in with Herb for weather in the evening, we use the SSB to check in with the Rum Runners Net, an informal radio network of English-speaking cruisers crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Our friends on Orinoco and Aquila are on the net, and that's how we keep up with them. We've also met a couple of the other boats but really haven't gotten acquainted yet. One boat, Stardust, is from Portland. They're circumnavigating but didn't seem too interested in getting to know us since they're cruising with people they've known for many miles now.

One difference today was that the dolphins were back. I'm pretty sure they were different ones because I think I'd recognize the wounds on one from the other day.

All is well aboard Solstice, but we're definitely looking forward to landfall tomorrow--on the solstice--and catching up with friends on Orinoco, Aquila, and Avocette, who is arriving on the 22nd.

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Passage to Mindelo: Day 6

If we're able to post this, I'll be relieved. Last night when we were trying to get new grib files, Sailmail refused our connection request. We hope whatever caused that will be cleared today. It's a reminder, though, not to worry if you don't hear from us for a few days.

Last night we were able to sail much of the time, but this morning the wind really slacked, and what remains of it is too variable to use, so the motor is back on. We expect it to continue this way through the night, but we have hopes for a little wind tomorrow. We're about two days out from Mindelo at our current pace.

This morning before dawn John landed another mahi-mahi, quite a big one this time. It was a relief because his old jig was lost, and it was a proven fish killer in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Mediterranean. Perhaps that pilot whale took it after all. Whatever, it's good to know that the new jig works too.

All is well aboard Solstice, and we're having pizza tonight despite the fresh fish.

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Passage to Mindelo: Day 5

We're finally actually pointing toward Mindelo again after almost three days of sailing south. Last night Herb advised us to go even further south--or even east--and we tried all night, but it was very slow. What little wind we had was directly behind us and not doing us any good since we aren't configured for true downwind sailing. Finally, this morning we decided to sail for awhile at 90 degrees off the wind. That took us west of south (yay!), but it was fast, and when the wind eased even more, we set a track west for a waypoint near Mindelo. That's been working out fine so far, and we can always turn south again if necessary.

Yesterday after the dolphin show, a pod of pilot whales came by. I was just as glad that they didn't get too close. And this morning we saw a big turtle. (John saw one yesterday too, but I was busy at the time.) Other than what I've reported, most of the sea life we've seen has been ships. We've been surprised how much traffic there is along the African coast. Meridian 18 west is almost like a highway, and the ships seem to move in convoys. (They probably don't, but it looks like it.) Now that we've turned, we expect to less traffic.

Yesterday was a slow day: only 109.5 nautical miles (4.56 knots average), but that's in a straight line, and we did turn.

All is well aboard Solstice, and by the way, we're officially in the tropics having crossed the Tropic of Cancer on day 3.

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Passge to Mindelo: Day 4

We just had a visit and show by a group of 50 or more spotted Atlantic dolphins. They arrived quite suddenly. John spotted one on the starboard side just as I noticed a bubble circle on the port, and then they were all around us with more racing in from the distance. At one point I counted 12 in our bow wake, but a minute later there must have been 20 or so. Meanwhile, along the sides and off a little ways, a trio was practicing high jumps for their debut at Sea World. We thought the show was over and were heading back to the cockpit when a soloist performed the finale: a series of two 3+-meter jumps with twists and somersaults in the air. Spectacular!

On to the mundane: our 24-hour distance for day 4 was 133 nautical miles, all in a line heading south. That's a decent average speed of more than 5.5 knots, but it was two-thirds motor-sailing. Herb, our weather router, told us last night to continue along the 18W meridian to 18N latitude before we turn west. This is disappointing since it adds miles to the passage, and we're now looking at 8 days or total since a calm is expected over the weekend.

All is well aboard Solstice (and Orinoco too).

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Passage to Mindelo: Day 3

In the past 24 hours we covered 122 nautical miles measuring in a straight line. That's an average speed of a little better than 5 knots (but we really went a little farther and faster because we had a course change as explained below). Most of that has been motor-sailing because the wind is light and still from the southwest.

While dining on fresh mahi-mahi in the cockpit yesterday evening we spotted a whale on the horizon. It was our first confirmed sighting in a couple of years. It was too far away to tell for sure, but judging from the blow and the silhouette, we think it was a sperm whale. This morning a pilot whale was investigating John's jig. Smarter than a mahi-mahi, it didn't linger. Also, we've discovered what we suppose are jellyfish that are new to us. We only see them at night when they look like beach-ball-sized flashes in our wake.

At the end of day 2 we were heading straight for Mindelo on a bearing of 230 degrees. However, last night we were successful in connecting with our weather guru, Herb of South Bound II. We couldn't hear everything he said very clearly, but we did get that there's a little weather system between us and Mindelo. Boats on the other side of it are getting nice sailing with northwest winds. Herb advised us to head straight south until Friday evening, so that's what we're doing. But I hope he changes his mind tonight and lets us go west. The grib files are totally wrong about the wind direction now, so we have to trust Herb.

We learned on the Rum Runners Net this morning that lots of boats are headed to Mindelo. It was news to us since, as I mentioned before, we were isolated from other cruisers in Las Palmas. I don't know how long they're all staying, but most of them will beat us there. I sure hope the marina saves our reservations.

All is well aboard Solstice, but we'd really like to turn the motor off and still get to Mindelo before Christmas.

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