Breeze by Breeze - TransAtlantic Leg Three

Clearing into Barbados completed.  At anchor!  And so happy to be here!

Mindelo, Cabo Verde to Port St. Charles, Barbados
January 22 - February 8, 2020 (17 days, 1 hour)
2,636 NM

We anticipated a 14-18 day passage.  "Following seas" are what every sailor wishes for another - wind from the stern quarter means going with the swell and waves which is the most comfortable point of sail and easiest to handle - also, unfortunately, the slowest.  We had been looking forward to being back in the trades since tiring of the fickle Med winds.  The trades would be moderate, consistent winds from behind for the entire passage.  We thought.  The forecast showed light winds for the first few days to be followed by moderate winds for as long as the five day forecast lasted.

The local boats provided the only colour on exceptionally arid Sao Vicente.  There is no water source on the island.  Water used to be boated in from neighbouring Santo Antao.  Now all water is from a desalination plant.  The island looks like a mountainous brown gravel pit covered in a haze of Sahara dust.  Not particularly attractive.  Stunning that people choose to scrape a living here.

Eight miles away lies the magnificent Santo Antao.  Equally dry and desolate in the south, the north razor sharp ridges in the north are green growth.  We've seen lots of beautiful mountains but these were jaw-droppingly magnificent.  

Minus Day One - Provisioning Day
Lee, our crew, had arrived, a couple of hikes walked, and a day tour of the magnificent neighbouring island, Santo Antao enjoyed.  It was the day before the longest leg of our transAtlantic.  We were busy with last minute provisioning for fresh produce.  How did we feel?  Excited and anxious to get going.

There were lots of women selling their produce from barrows and carts on the street corners and sidewalks of Mindelo.  Many regally carried their wares in baskets on their heads.  This was the sparkling clean indoor farmer's market where we bought most of our produce in assorted booths from jolly women.

Food inventory - I had made and frozen more than 21 dinners in three person packages.  As well, we had lots of cheese, canned goods, sweet and salty snacks, two batches of granola, homemade yogurt and all the basics like rice, pasta etc. etc. etc.  I didn't think we would starve but I felt the trepidation of missing something imperative.  We had plenty of toilet paper - I had heard of others who had suffered paperback pages when that essential was forgotten.

A colourful array of fruits and veg in various stages of ripeness.  Hoping that it will keep us going for two weeks or more.

The three crew wandered the now familiar streets of Mindelo to the modest supermarket, farmers' market and bakery.  I was excited to pick up a stalk of bananas.  We had been warned that buying bananas in quantity is a mistake as all bananas ripen at the same time leading to a need for banana bread, banana muffins, banana pancakes - all things banana for a couple of days - an especially difficult mission on Milly with a defunct oven.  Nevertheless, toting a stalk of fig (small tangy) bananas was just too great a picture to miss.  I succumbed to a small stalk of about 35.

We also went to the fuel dock to ensure that our tanks were full of diesel.  We didn't anticipate much motoring but....

2016 NM to go to our Barbados waypoint with 2.9 knots of true wind speed to get us there!  Oh dear!

Day One - 131 NM travelled, pretty measly for measly winds. According to a solo sailor we had met who was heading out at the same time, eight boats were leaving Mindelo harbour on January 22 for various windward islands in the Caribbean.   We followed a French catamaran, a family of four with two kids, a very busy three and nine year old.  They were headed to Barbados, too.  We admired the parents who would need a lot of tricks up their sleeves to keep their seasick-prone brood happy and engaged.

Leaving our anchorage at Mindelo.  Essentially every boat in the anchorage and at the marina - the only one in Cabo Verde - was on it's way across the ocean sooner or later.  It was our turn.

Poor Milly was suffering from the Saharan sand which fills the skies so thickly that the surrounding mountains if visible at all are only seen through a haze. The deck, windshield, saloon windows, all the exposed lines were coated with red dust.  We hoped for a squall or two to rinse the decks before we arrived in Barbados.

We weighed anchor at 10:15a.m. in the sunshine with wind on the beam.  I had never seen such a filthy bridle, black with the grunge in the anchorage.  Unfortunately, the transducer was probably clogged with the same muck preventing the little paddle wheel from turning.  We were unable then to get readings for true wind speed or boat speed.  Peter hoped that the water rushing by the paddle would jostle the muck out.  Problem was there wasn't much wind  (4.7 knots) - the water was definitely not rushing by.

Sunset was celebrated with a pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins cavorting at the bow.  Has to be a good omen!

Freezer meals ready to eat.  In big seas, it pays to have a selection of meals that only have to be thawed and heated.  We never tried the unleavened bread - next time.

I've included our dinner menu for each day as many people are curious about what we eat.  Breakfast is homemade yogurt with fruit - fresh while it lasts, frozen berries purchased in Gibraltar otherwise - and homemade granola.  Alternatively, Lee and I occasionally have porridge.  Lunch is always make-your-own - although we do eat together - with raw veggies, spreads, canned fish, egg salad, peanut butter, leftovers etc with bread, crackers or wraps to choose from.  Dinner is most often from pre-made meals I have frozen, although depending on the seas, sometimes I cook.

Dinner: root salad, rice salad both made yesterday.

We agreed on 3.5 hr watches beginning at 9 p.m.  Lee took the first watch, I took the second and Peter took the third.  I also did the 1-2 hr prior to Lee's watch when Peter was organizing water making, sail plans etc and, hopefully, getting to bed early.  The first night, I slept on the couch in the saloon to make sure Lee was comfortable.  It had been two and a half years since she had done her last night watch on our first transAtlantic.

Lee and I decided to bring in the larger headsail, the screecher.  We managed on our own.  I later let it out on my own.  It felt good to make the decision and manage the sails on my own.

Day 2 -  294 NM travelled (163 NM in 24 hr). Motors are on - boohoo, we thought we had left that frustration behind in the Med.  We are able to make water with both engines on.  Lots of noises going on - low rumble in the engines, creaking wood in the galley stairs.  Started cleaning Saharan dust.  Under 1900NM to go - I guess it's not good that we've already started to countdown.  Wind - 0.9 knots!  Arrrrgh!
Dinner - taco bean burger, rice salad wraps.

The captain completely is daily log with all the relevant stats.  He's a happy guy!

Day 3 -  426 NM travelled (only 132 NM in 24 hr)  We're sailing! with 8.9 knots of wind.  Peter wakes me up with some urgency saying that the clue on our mainsail has chafed through.  We reefed the sail.  There is no way we can fix the torn webbing so the rest of our passage we will have to use the smaller reefed main.  This is no problem but a smaller sail in light wind means even slower speeds.  Wind was so light that we hoisted the happy spinnaker sail moving us a little faster on our way.  Made yogurt.
Dinner - spinach and cheese ravioli with mushroom sauce, spinach, tomato and zucchini.
Nightwatch - Lee's watch the wind is dying wind.  I assisted by turning on motors and heading up to increase apparent wind. Back to bed. Then Lee noted lightning ahead of us with wind increasing to 20 knots. Squall. Our large screecher which doesn't like high winds was out without a main to blanket it.  Woke up Peter to furl screecher using electric winch.  Back to bed.   Why does the exciting stuff happen at night??

Making yogurt was one of my productive activities.  Made with easily stored and light dried milk, it is very boat friendly.  Avoiding the multiple puny plastic containers of commercial yogurt makes me feel virtuous, too.  

Day 4 -  588 NM travelled (162 NM in 24 hr.) We are all getting into our own night watch routine.  The key is to move slowly if conditions allow.  Mine (on a quiet night):  I force myself to just sit for 30 minutes, looking at numbers on chart plotters, checking out our distance from take off point and to destination, looking for lights on horizon, gazing at stars and photoluminence in our wake.  Then exercise for about an hour - made up conditioning routine that can be done while standing and holding on in cockpit.  A recorded selection of 8 min ab routines, has me lying on a mat, perhaps jumping up to check numbers.  Then I dance to music on head phones for as long as I feel the beat - love it!  Eat snacks - usually savoury rice crackers or cookies.  By this time only 90 minutes to 2 hours left in watch.  Rest spent listening to podcasts.

Of course, if conditions are not settled, routine goes to hell.

Nightwatch (12:30 to 4:00a.m.) constantly changing wind speed, dropping to 6 knots and requiring heading up to increase apparent wind.  Forecast had suggested that wind would be too high for screecher and at an angle that main would blanket the head sail.  To avoid waking crew for sail change, we opted to begin the night with genoa only.  However, the forecast was so far incorrect. The wind was dropping to 6 knots.  Our autopilot - our best crew member - does not like going below 3 knots of boat speed and notifies us of his displeasure by sounding an alarm and blowing a fuse.  Tonight my challenge is to keep the boat going over 3 knots so I don't have to rumble the other crew awake by turning on a motor.  After a big lull in speed where my hand was ready on the throttle the first of a line of squalls hit us.  The wind increased to a lovely 15-18 knots.  Wonderful! But I was hoping for (a little) more.  On radar there was no sign of heavy cloud but lightning in the distance.  Suddenly, the true wind speed climbed to over 200 knots and then quickly dropped down to the ten's, then just as quickly climbed to over 400 knots.  Up, down, up, down.  I rubbed my eyes, thought I was seeing things.  Lightning and wind increased, we were whipping along but I had no idea at what speed.  Just as quickly squall passed, true wind speed reading recovered reality and we were back to a sedate walk.

Peter reported seeing "the most amazing falling star I've ever seen" on his watch with two tails.  Somehow he always catches the good stuff.

Days full of reading, crosswords, more reading, gazing about, reading.  Lee meditates and exercises.   Peter is reviewing some medical topics.  I am catching up on emails which I'll send once we get there.

Dinner: salmon fillets with rice and root salads.

Lee was good at finding a variety of comfy places to read, draw, meditate, do crosswords.  Here she is in her berth.

Day 5 -  752 NM travelled (164 NM in 24 hr) Peter saw shearwater catching a flying fish in mid-fly.  Sail plan wing-on-wing with main and screecher.  Slight increase in wind speed but not at an angle where we can do straight rhumbline to Barbados.  At noon 1589 NM to destination - not even a quarter of the way there yet.  Very quiet day reading.  Only two sail adjustments all day.  We have not been able to get weather forecast downloaded.  Way too slow.
Dinner: red lentil soup with greens, brie and crackers.
Nightwatch:  Frustratingly low wind with true wind direction due east so had to head more north than want to in order to keep motors silent.  One cargo ship on AIS - first one in five days.

A flying fish on deck.  One of many.  Unfortunately, stiff as a board, we didn't attempt to clean and fillet.

Day 6 -  906 NM travelled (152 NM in 24 hr) We have gone 906 NM but are only one third of the way.  It's like driving on a mountain road with lots of switch backs. Three flying fish stiff with rigour mortis on deck.  Amazing that they fly so high to get stranded.  Change to spinnaker in afternoon but wind so shifty that main covered spin.  Spinnaker in very tight hour glass with lazy sheet wrapped inside.  Able to take down and untwist on deck.  Rehoisted but Peter noted sock was twisted as he pulled it up.  Hour glassed a second time and Peter unable to pull twisted sock down.  Released halyard so voluminous spinnaker fell onto deck where we promptly sat on it as we gathered it into our arms so it wouldn't blow away and wrestled it into the cockpit.  Under Peter's direction, the three of us managed to re-sock it.  Difficulty is that sail is much longer than space we had that was protected from the wind.  Finally, ready for deployment tomorrow.  Sadanza, the French catamaran that had left Cabo Verdes just ahead of us was back on AIS.  Spoke by VHF.  We reported our problems and he reciprocated.  His traveler block attachment had sheered but after 6 hours he was able to fix with bolts he happened to have.  Friend from home is giving him weather report - large blue hole (no wind) on rhumbline in about 36 hr.  He's heading south.  We decide to follow with wing-on-wing sail plan.

During our first leg, Peter had been unable to download weather on our satellite phone.  In anticipation of continuing difficulty we had asked several friends/family who we knew followed our passage to act as our weather router if need be.  Required was a cell phone for SMS contact, an interest in weather and familiarity with reading Windy.com.  For various reasons, our available routers narrowed to one.  Dear friend Anne took it on with gusto.  Her at least daily reports gained more confidence and detail as the passage went on until she was telling us the latitude/longitude that would enable best boat speed.  We are grateful and hope she had fun doing it!  We asked Anne for confirmation of the blue hole and, indeed, a large swath was sitting in front of us.

Dinner: Wraps with white beans, slaw, cheese, eggplant.
Nightwatch: motors off and on as boat speed decreased to less than 3 knots.  One cargo ship heading SSW.

Relaxed listening.

Day 7 -  1072 NM travelled (168 NM in 24 hr) We are communicating a lot with Anne and decide to go well south wing-on-wing with main and screecher.  In case of wind increasing to require furling screecher, I practice gybing the main to blanket the screecher.  It is very difficult to furl the screecher in wind over 18 knots or so.  Turning on the motors to bring down apparent wind and gybing will be essential to furl and allow the captain to continue sleeping.  Anne also sends news about corona virus.  Scary!
Dinner: potatoes, zucchini, green pepper, onion with egg broken over top and cheese.  Attempt at Spanish dish we had enjoyed.
Nightwatch:  Completely uneventful.  Two sailboats occasionally on AIS - Andanza and Gemma.

Luckily we all enjoy reading!

Day 8 -  1234 NM travelled (162 NM in 24 hr) Crossing a time zone today.  One hour back which elongates our day.  I slept until 11:00 a.m. so should be ok for watch.  Light breeze.  Seems to be taking ages to even get half way which is still 200 NM away.  Frustrating!  And not feeling very well today.  Took half dose of Bonine.  Spinnaker up for afternoon.  Moving at better speed.  Able to contact friend who lives in Barbados to arrange mending of main sail once we get there.  Amazing that we can do business by SMS from midAtlantic.
Dinner:  shrimp, avocado, tomato salad, slaw, humus and crackers.
Nightwatch:  Beautiful moonlight path for early NW shift with smiling sliver of a moon.  With moon set, stars and bioluminescence in wake are magnificent.

Big, blue swells with a long period seemed almost lazy.  It was hard to capture height with a camera but the colour  was lovely.

Day 9 - 1391 NM travelled (157 NM in 24 hr) Spinnaker up alone in a.m.  All three of us had treat of warm shower.  Water only warms when motor is on so one benefit of motoring during sail change if that is necessary.  Tropical sky now with small cumulus clouds.  Water temperature has climbed to 26 from in Cape Verde.  Bigger swaths of sargassum in ocean.  All signs of tropics and nearing Caribbean.  Soaking alfalfa seeds to get some greens in our diet.
Dinner:  Couscous with tagine

Sprouts provided a bit of green crunch when the fresh produce was no more.

Day 10 -  1534 NM travelled (143 NM in 24 hr) Only ship seen in several days will be 2NM away at closest point.  Always amazes me that our speck of a boat on huge ocean will happen to be on near collision course with only other ship out there!  We are now heading on more direct course toward Barbados with less dipsy-doodling back and forth across the rhumbline.  More than half way to destination.  Spinnaker up.  More reading, crosswords, Peter studying, Lee drawing.  Lots of texting with Anne and Emily - thank goodness for Delorme.  One bird today.  Otherwise only feature on the ocean is waves and occasional flying fish.  Set up 500 piece jigsaw puzzle given to us by another cruiser in Kea, Greece.  Scene - Austrian mountains and village.  Very far from our current reality.
Dinner: Wraps with black beans, marinated and fried zucchini, cheese

Puzzle number 1 complete.  

Day 11 -  1696 NM travelled (162 NM in 24 hr) Puzzle already completed.  Woken up at 7:00 a.m. to change screecher to spinnaker.  Couldn't fall back asleep but had luxury of nap in afternoon.  After a few days of eating two fig bananas each - these are the small, tangy bananas - the stock is now empty.  Banana mission completed.
Dinner: Adapted salad nicoise
Nightwatch:  Lee woke us at about 11:45 p.m.  Wind increasing.  Decided to furl screecher, take down main and sail on rhumbline with genoa only.  Made good distance on my watch.  Only company was "Professor Logacher", marked on AIS as other ship, anchored in the middle of the Atlantic.  Research? Let Peter have an extra 30 minutes sleep but had to stand up by helm to keep from falling asleep myself.

One little mandarin remains.  A squash, cabbage, carrots and apples in the fridge. On to frozen berries and veg and lots of canned and jarred. 

Day 12 -  1835 NM travelled (139 NM in 24 hr) Lee able to help Peter with sail change without waking sleeping first mate.  Wind decreased and veered so unable to continue on rhumbline.  Less progress toward destination as we're having to gybe back and forth.  Started a new 1000 piece puzzle, "Currencies of the world".  Getting excited about arrival in about 5 days!
Dinner:  Cauliflower and broccoli flan with vegetable dumplings

Puzzle number 2.  This became a major entertainment and distraction.  We had to constrain time spent so as not to finish too early.

Day 13 -  1992 NM travelled (167 NM in 24 hr) More puzzle work, harvested sprouts.  With sprout rinse water began washing deck leaving a few husks behind.  Milly has never been so dirty.  She seems to have accumulated even more Saharan sand and we've seen squalls around us but little to no rain has favoured Milly.  Spinnaker up mid morning in very little wind. I have not pulled out the fishing lines partly due to extreme lethargy but mostly because there is so much sargassum in the sea that I'd be forever clearing the hook of weed/algae.  Catching a fish is exciting, eating a fish is delicious but killing a fish is unpleasant.  Sargassum accumulates in patches or in long continuous streams.  It is thick and yellow, looking much like a weed but is actually algae.  Wind increased in afternoon so we could actually move at 6-8 knots along the rhumbline.  Yay!  Against all recommendations for safe passaging, decided to keep spin up all night.  Made me nervous and question the captain but ended up being a great choice.  Very easy to manage.
Dinner:  Pizza with vegetables.
Nightwatch: Gorgeous stream of moonlight across the water.

Day 14 -  1992 NM travelled (167 NM in 24 hr) Spinnaker up all day and we are making mileage!  Maybe get there by day 17.  One quarter of total distance to go.  More puzzle work but we're trying to limit time so we don't finish days before we land.  Feeling restless!  Peter has actually said that time is a bit tedious and that's something coming from him.  Cleaned the deck a bit more.
Dinner:  Pasta with zucchini, asparagus, artichoke, roasted red pepper, sundried tomato, tomato sauce.  Only zuke was fresh.
Night watch:  Dithered about which sail to use overnight.  Wind is supposed to increase to more than 20 knots by mid morning.  Weather router Anne confirmed forecast by SMS.  We are making such good distance that we're reluctant  to take down the spinnaker.  It's been up for about 36 hours.  Decided to keep it up with limitation of more than 15 knot true wind speed to wake crew for take down.  All well with Lee's watch and with mine although gusting to more than 14.  Bore off to decrease apparent wind speed.  Increased exercise time to 75 minutes.  Under 75 hours to destination!

Chafed and severed spinnaker halyard.

Day 15 -  2154 NM travelled (162 NM in 24 hr) Couldn't get to sleep on Peter's night watch.  Just began to read when Peter summoned me urgently.  He is very rarely urgent so I knew something was up or, as it happened, down.  The spinnaker was down and under the boat.  He hadn't heard a thing but suddenly noted that the boat had slowed down to a crawl.  Yelled to Lee to get on deck.  With a bit of struggling on both our parts, we put on lifejackets.  Lee went on deck and I stayed at helm in an attempt to steer the boat.  We were unable to start engines, very little steerage, of course, so Milly did her own thing, wanting to go beam to wind.  I managed to keep her at slightly bow into the wind.  Peter struggling to get sail away from boat to leeward side.  Halyard had chafed through and snap shackle on tack had released.  Sail only held with windward sheet and sock lines.  Peter grabbed windward sheet with boat hook and started to pull it under boat.  I locked helm and released sheet from windward winch, dropping it into ocean. Peter pulled it in.  I attached to leeward winch and brought it in to fairlead.  Peter on sugarscoop pulled in sail while Lee and I bundled it into cockpit.  Our happy golden sail had multiple tears.  Very sad!
Lessons learned:  Always rig lazy line even with consistent trade winds and little possibility of gybing.
Practice putting on lifejacket regularly.  Hate to admit it, but I had not had to wear LJ in more than four years.  Lee and I both struggled stupidly to put them on properly.  Time wasted that could have been tragic in a crisis.
Don't leave spin up for almost 48 hours.  Although Peter had adjusted lines and halyard every 12 hours, it still chafed through.  Inspection of halyard block and shiv on to-do list.
Spinnaker now out of commission, main reduced.  Luckily wind picked up and angle to great to use main effectively anyway.  Wind speed too high for screecher.  Unfurled genoa.  Boat speed decreased by at least 2 knots from spinnaker speed.  Time to destination increased to 90-110 hours!  Fantasizing what we will do when we arrive.  Swimming is on top of list!  Laundry and cleaning is on mine.  February 5th - Five years ago today, Peter and I moved on to Milly!  Quite a milestone!!
Dinner:  Spicy cabbage curry with fish in wrap.
Nightwatch:  Lots of chatting with Anne - thank goodness for DeLorme.  Otherwise, uneventful.

Our happy spinnaker sail, sadly bundled into the cockpit with several tears.

Day 16 -  2315 NM travelled (164 NM in 24 hr) Wind 18-22 knots.  We're making steady progress.  Crew is more and more restless.  I think this happens in last few hours/days of passage no matter how long it is.  If we knew we had more distance/time, as in crossing the Pacific for example, I'm sure we'd just delay our restlessness for a few days.
Dinner:  Cauliflower soup.
Nightwatch:  At Peter's bedtime, 19:30, 90 NM to go!

Complete!

Day 17 -  2479 NM travelled (157 NM in 24 hr) Day of patience and anticipation.  Puzzle completed.  Book finished.
Dinner:  Paella.
Nightwatch:  Barbados on chart plotter  in detail with roads marked. So exciting.  Two boats on AIS! I can see lighthouse and lights on coastline!

Just around the north point of Barbados.  The anchorage is in sight.

Day 18 -  2636 NM travelled. Rounding north point as I woke up.  Sails down at Port St Charles, Barbados.  Tied up to customs dock but official not yet on duty.  We were not allowed off the boat until clearing in completed but it sure was good to be tied up in calm seas.  A smiling Peter Douglas, friend and sailor, came to welcome us.  So great.  Clearing in completed.  Out to anchor, swim and relax.  Dinghy into shore and surprise greeting by Connie and Tom who had timed their welcome perfectly.

At the shaky customs dock waiting first for the official to come to work and then Lee and I waiting for Peter to complete the paperwork.  A security guard kept a close eye on us to ensure we stayed aboard.

All in all, an easy and quiet passage.  The wind was a bit too light if anything and I don't say that easily.  I'm sure if you have endured this lengthy and boring post, you have a good feeling for the tediousness of the passage.  Hopefully, you've also felt a bit of the beauty and solitude.  Forever grateful to Lee for her company, constant dishwashing and pluckiness to do night watch allowing us to be more rested.

Scrubbing the decks clear of Saharan sand which remained on Milly's decks even after almost 3000 NM.  

Great to have our second transAtlantic behind us.  Now we look forward to staying in the trades, in lovely blue water and consistent winds.  After a year on the move, often rushing to get to certain destinations by a certain date and feeling like we're missing a lot along the way, we are determined to slow down and just be where we drop anchor for awhile.