Crossing the Atlantic: A white knuckle roller coaster ride…

Crossing the Atlantic: A white knuckle roller coaster ride…

Get yourself in the place where you’re you’re steady it’s the most important thing I’ll lunge it forward and see if you can get under it okay okay great going have to come help yeah I Will Hello and welcome to the Atlantic I can’t believe I said yes due to the wonders of starlink we can bring you our episodes while we’re actually Crossing and we’re almost there we are at 13 days since we left windel on our way to Trinidad I hope you like the film come

Coming up the Children’s Parade it’s Carnival time in mindelo spoiler alert yes Steve did catch a fish and changing the sail pattern in Angry Seas it’s taken 4 days to sail from Africa to mindelo the mouth of the harbor is flanked with Outpost islands and we zigzag to avoid the ship traffic the other hazards are more permanent we anchor behind this sunken ship we’ve made it to a windy mindelo

Going to go slowly so too Splash yeah I think I’m already splashed so it’s quite a long way into the into the marina it’s choppy but anyway we are chancing our our luck and we’re taking our laundry with us and some gas and hope we can get everything done before we cross yeah

Going by AAL that’s all fairly local there there’s things quite local here there’s a dingy dock uh there’s reports of theft from here but I don’t know I think that might be just when the the ark is in town and you know there’s lots around people don’t seem to be too

Bothered at the moment um but yeah there’s sort of secure place a dinky do here anyway we’ve lock the boat up so yeah we go and uh get what Provisions we can and get ready we can’t we can’t actually book in today can we no Saturday and Sunday immigration is

Closed so depending on how we do we might never book in because we’re planning to leave Monday or Tuesday yeah if we leave on Monday that that’ be good car L on Tuesday so it’s tempting to stay for that but we’ll see the local business here is fishing

But today the boats are on the beach because everyone is at the Children’s Parade it seems It’s Carnival all week lucky for us though the market is still open we’re getting some nice fruit and veg it’s good to get stuff that hasn’t been chilled it’ll last longer it’s not too bad prices here and some things are really really cheap we got

Some uh some gas €4 would you believe for for a new gas but over the road we laer at €1 a load job’s done and we stop off at the marina this place gets packed at the weekend all the more when it’s Carnival and then all too soon it’s time to

Leave so that’s it anchors out for we hope we’ll be a couple of thousand miles bit more than a couple of thousand miles and uh yeah we’ve I think we’re ready I I thought at this stage I’d feel nervous or you know excited but in fact feels

Like another trip to be honest um I think we’re ready though we’ve got uh got four water tanks we haven’t got full fuel tanks cuz we couldn’t get fuel here which is a bit of a shame so I’m about half full but listen we’re a sailboat

We’re going to sail it so it’s fine what about you how you feeling yeah excited I think I’m looking forward to the Caribbean you’re looking forward to getting there already I am I am I’m afraid um and I’d like to see a whale that’s that’s my only ask for this trip

Great that’s all we need need lantic and a Whale 2,180 M to go says it’s going to take us 16 days and 23 hours 17 days they said 18 just now did it yeah yeah there you go I’ll be happy if we can do it in 3 weeks with the trade winds coming from the Northeast we’re looking for a good

Run once we pass the wind shadow of San anteo the predict wind chart has all the models heading slightly South to get the best wind and then turning up the coast close to Surinam arriving safely in Trinidad Think best day look at this we are steaming along 7 and 1/2 knots I think we averaged about 7 knots after we got out of the windshadow of the uh the islands last night it’s a little bit of a rly se but not too bad at all got full

Man up little bit of a reath in the uh in the Yankee just overnight might uh put that out later but I mean we’re going fast enough at the moment don’t need to overstress it and I did have some success fishing last night or sort

Of I mean uh didn’t do a lot for my lines cuz it tangled both at the m it’s it’s this thing not great eating I don’t think it’s going to be very bony if I bother to uh to cook it at all a shame I

Couldn’t get it uh off in the middle of the night I’m going to have a quick look at a charts I don’t often use charts nowadays in fact hardly ever use them but for a long passage I think it’s quite nice to be able to sort of plot

Your plot your way across every day and uh work out how you how you’re going and remind yourself of uh you the proportions and the things that go on the projection of the chart because we’re all used to using uh chart plotters now and you don’t think about

It they’re Vector charts you can zoom in and out do what you like with them but when you look at something like this I mean for instance if you look at the size of things in proportion to each other remember pretty much every chart we use is a m projection which is a

Cylindrical projection so so basically it’s the globe with a piece of paper wrapped around it around the equator and it’s like if there’s a light bul in the center of the Earth projecting that out and it means it it stretches everything in the higher latitudes so when you look

At the chart and you look at the size of the UK the trip that we’ve just done down from the Canary Islands down to the Gambia it looks like that’s not even the length of the east coast of the UK uh but actually when you bring that down

And make it the right scale this this does it for you it’s really quite clever you bring it in you’ll see it’s almost twice of length it’s almost the whole way around the UK that trip to come from the Canary Islands down to to The Gambia so really deceiving if you’re look you

Know used to looking at things just on any map because they all M projection the other thing obviously to think about is uh what course you’re going to steer because on a a large Voyage like this on a long Voyage if you are using a m chart

Then you’ll be steering a rum line and that’s not the shortest way the shortest way is a great circle route well when you’re this low in the latitude it’s not a great you know it’s not a big deal the the line will always just curve slightly

Up towards the pole but but down here not very much if you go up to the to the higher latitudes it’ be a lot more in fact if you look at something like the predict wind model you can see on there you can move it from uh from one bit to

Another so you can see how much more it bends when you get up into the to the higher latitude so would be a thing if you were doing a passage up there and you you’d have to know that you wanted to steer a great circle route and work

Out a way of doing that probably by putting a lot of way points in uh on on different rum line uh routes to be able to do it down here there isn’t much of a Bend to it anyway and and actually it doesn’t really matter because we’re

Going to go further south mean the the on a m chart you’d think you’d have to go North to be the the great circle route but it’s much more important to to get the proper wind here so we’ be going south of that line even if it was on a m

Chart but this one isn’t a m chart this one is quite good for long passages this is a conical projection so a straight line on this would be a great circle route so that’s what we’ve got this one’s actually uh oblique conformal charts but yeah it’s a conical

Projection uh which means that you know a straight line on this will be the great circle route so I will plot get the land along and plot it as we go along and see how we do I think we’re probably going to go quite a way under

This line but yeah we’re try and keep it as straight as we can and and as short as we can obviously well it’s day three and we sing along quite nicely but we are also rolling around a lot as well it’s uh pretty uncomfortable has been very

Uncomfortable for the last day and night um it’s a bit of a shame it’s my least favorite part about Tradewind sailing really when you’ve got this sort of direct downwind and a bit of confused sea it’s just all got a bit lumpy and yeah you just end up wallowing around

Like this you can see we’ve got the Yankee pulled out taking the mle down the first day first day and night actually were the best where had a little bit more North in the wind and didn’t even need to pull out we just had both out and we screaming along at 8

Knots uh now wind’s backed a bit and it’s died down uh so yeah we’re we want to go dead with it so we thought we’d try this out actually yesterday evening cuz we thought we if we’re going dead with the swell we we might get less rolling but it’s just too confused for

That to work really so yeah we’re still doing this so hopefully hopefully we’ll just get a bit of a change at some point we change the S plan and we get somewhere with this rolling If things are going to get worse I need to start baking banana bread these bananas have really have really seen better days they are yeah look look there’s not they’re not going to last another day put it that way so I’ve been mashing out bananas and then

Everything else I need is um out already because we’ve had a couple really big waves that have come Wham on the side and things go flying so hopefully with these sticky things down I can I can actually Cook oh that was quite a big [Applause] One TN cake perfect is it nice yeah it’s Curr are the best bit I know everything has to have currents we are still rolling around a little bit as I’m sure you can see so I’m going to put my love jacket on before I go out

And have a little deck walk to do my usual morning and evening rigging check we’ve dropped down in speed quite a bit as well you can see we tend to be doing sort of 5 and 1 half knots now rather than six or seven so I might uh have a

Bit of a change of sale plan uh at the moment we’ve still only got the Yankee out as you can see uh that’s really because we have been doing seven knots just with that so no need really to uh to do anything else and and go wing on Wing uh especially

With all this rolling it’s it’s a lot of wear on on the boom and everything else all those uh fixtures when you’re rolling around like this so yeah if you’re you’re making good speed I don’t bother with it but know we’ll see if this L continues then uh might have a

Little go at that and go go things uh part of my deck walk it’s uh clearing off these guys get lots of these usually three or four how amazing the Flying Fish and how uh how big their wings are incredible there a little one as well

And it sad I might actually try and use some of these as um as bits I was reading um reading up last night on catching mahi mahi and some of the things they use are these they’re on the back of a lore they Ed the Muppet laws

And they they stick just a tow of one of those in so might have a go at that yeah I’ll go around and do the the rig check I do what uh Jade our riger has uh always said is the best way is to not just go around and glance at everything

Because you miss stuff go around each time and do one thing so doing Bottle screws today so I’ll go in and check every bottle screw make sure all looking okay no split pins missing no odd signs or anything happening sure on the uh lewood side of the boat that everything

Is uh is still tight as well and not going slack as we go around I do as we go there I’ll sit in here check all the ropes and stuff all the guy ropes for the uh for the pole as well because that can be uh you know they can be a problem

You can get cha doesn’t look like there’s any chafe happening so that’s all good another couple of victims down here him these ones good this is the the extra stay the inner stay if we were in a storm that goes out that’s why that’s FL move about there actually need to uh

Tighten up the lashing at the bottom there a little bit so I’ll do that it’s all good look at this one big eye on him bit different from the others I try eating them at one time I think they’re a bit bony but um quite

Tasty I think yeah if I get out early and uh before they’ve gone a bit sort of frazzled I uh I’ll have one morning I think we’re still heading Slightly North of the direct line to Trinidad on the M chart but fear not if you look at our

Plot on the paper chart you’ll see we are still slightly south of the great circle route so actually on on a good course it’s just very Rocky So the key when it’s really Rocky like this is to have somewhere decent to sit up the Companion Way steps show you Jesus B dark out here let me put that one while a room mid night vision but oh that’s what that’s where I sit so I’ve got oh everything I want

Nice comfy arm wrist if he goes in there got my iPad got the uh plotter I can watch Netflix on here perfect set for the night put this back to Red okay one of the most important things about food on board is not just the main meals it’s the snacks I think

And if you’re British that means crumpets now crumpets are really difficult to get in lots of places outside the UK you can get them in jalter in the med and you can get them in weirdly British places like Malta uh but otherwise you got to make them and

Luckily War Burton who are the main producers release the recipe during covid to cheer the British people up and it’s dead easy it’s flour salt bicarbonate soda uh some yeast um and yeah you just you just make them and then you can store them you can freeze

Them anything like that and you just grow them when you want them there we go and just stick this outside in the warmth that’s enough ready to go so now you need something to actually put them in uh and I haven’t got anything so I cut up this is a big

Pineapple tin a 4in pineapple tin so I’ve just made a couple of rings out of that uh just put some batter on them this sort of ladle for each one it’s going to rise it’s not going to rise a huge amount but it will rise so these

Are just about done they’re not wet on top anymore remember they are going to get grilled so don’t have to be completely done and the underneath not burnt that’s fine we just stick them on our drying rack do the next Two and we have a fish yeah this is my uh my special lure I was actually just thinking about changing it CU fight last [Applause] night yet got it on the surface if I get it flaming on the surface it’s uh I can put it in a bit but we’re going quite

Fast I can’t slow the bo down be running the yeah w [Applause] quite big it’s a good size yeah you can see him the Surface all right get my light ready then you want to once you think it’s close enough don’t just have hanging there just get it under and up quickly cuz it it’ll try and be Bell see get there F Hey Big Fish here come yeah I

Will we’re going to be eating that for a week what a lovely fish lovely fish oh so sorry you go away this Up the catch is great timing early evening nearly halfway through our trip we appreciate a slap up dinner I thought I’m going to do a salsa with it cuz we got some uh pineapple left over cuz I need the tin for my crumpets uh and amazingly we’ve got some uh

Spring onion that we got from uh from The Gambia that’s still good and some coriander so I’ve got a peir as well I’m going to put in there so yeah I’ll make a nice salsa I just pan fry it so i’ got a bit of flour on it that

Fting UPS not that easy going to do it on the cooker cooking isn’t getting any easier but it really is worth it the last thing we find in the fridge is sweet chili to bind everything together there you go go hang on to this oh well perfectly cooked delicious hold on Steve it’s

Lovely one thing about long passages is that while Steve’s fishing because that does take quite a long time I’m getting through a load of books I recommend this one I’m reading it again the dictionary of lost words by pip Williams really really beautifully written absolutely

Lovely book and if you want a love then Richard Olman I don’t know if you’ve come across him this is called the last devil it’s the latest in his series about the Thurs Day murder club which is a murder mystery Series where old people like C are stars old people serve Mysteries

Wonderful and at night I’m reading a fantastic book which is much more serious it’s getting us ready for the Caribbean it’s called the Caribbean by James a Mitchner so that’s a nice bright moon tonight which is good because it’s also a few schools around and I can I can see

Them without bothering to turn the radar on and uh just look out theide here uh so either go around them or um if they’re quite big uh I’ll I’ll just wind the the Yankee in and motor through them because you get some big wind shifts sometimes in those so yeah it’s probably

The easiest thing to do since we’ve only got the Yankee out to do that uh not a complete surprise because we did have a look at the cape forecast it’s quite good at showing how much energy there is in the uh the atmosphere and there was a

Little sort of bubble around this area saying we should you know we could get something for the first time so yeah this it gives you something to do on the night shift we’ve been sailing on just the Yankee heading slightly Northwest so far but it’s now time to change the sail

Plan and Jive round we hope that going Gull wied will stop some of the rocking either way we want to get the main sail up and start heading more directly to Trinidad once the main is up on this point of sail we need the preventer and ours has the full run of the

Boat from the back of the boom so you need to loosen that as I tighten this once I’m ready around the Samson post at the bow and controlled at the winch on the marst go look looser okay guys loosening the main sheet at the same time as tightening the

Preventor keeps the boom under control and the last job is getting the Yankee back Out Yes it has been a very Rocky rolly ride um it just hasn’t let up has it no that’s the thing it’s not what I expected at all because uh you I was expecting sort of long rolling waves out the sea and and it’s been throwing us

Around all the time we had a couple of days in the Middle where it wasn’t so bad but yeah I mean if you were seasick on a journey like this it would be hell I mean luckily we’re not but it means you get nothing done doesn’t it AB yeah

Absolutely one thing a day so you either cook a meal you or you bake a cake or you do something but other than that we’re just sort of sitting and reading which actually suits me yeah I had lots of things I wanted to make some soft shackles and do but you know actually

Just getting stuff out of lockers and that it’s so much hassle when you’re being thrown around you just can’t be bothered to do it so so we haven’t we’ve just we’ve just been yeah Sting but we shouldn’t complain should because the wind has been absolutely fantastic we

Could not have asked for more I mean I thought we’d be out here for for three weeks and it looks like it’s going to be well short of that oh God yeah yeah we we’ll make it in 14 15 days well probably yeah 15 16 days so yeah amazing

Because we have been going we’re going 7 or eight knots the whole way we’ve had 25 knots of wind pretty much constantly all the way through I thought we were talking to our patrons on the way over on saying oh Gary say oh you going for a

Swim well no Gary I’m not look at the look at the sea and you know it’s just you you can’t heave to because we’re we we’re pulled out and I mean I wouldn’t want to anyway I don’t no you wouldn’t I don’t think so I haven’t seen my whale

Sadly I haven’t swam with whales are all the things I like fantasize about but it has been really it has been really quite fun yeah oh it has to be honest it’s been great just not what we expected at all not what we expected at all oh and

And a little quiz for you in this see if you can guess how many ships we’ve seen we’re going to do a little thing at the end of The Next Episode once we’ve finished of statistics of of you know all this stuff to do with it how many

Miles we’ve done speed all that sort of stuff and bits and pieces some trivia but how many ships do you think we’ve seen while offshore on this passage yeah I’ll give you a clue and it’s not many we have had a couple of cloudy days though so power we haven’t quite kept up

With the power or rather the solar hasn’t quite kept up no but not not as bad as I thought no just we put on the engine once every coup couple of days but literally for the power not because it’s lack of wind which is what we thought we might have today yeah yeah

Yeah no no that’s right yeah we we wouldn’t have had to turn the engine on at all because we’ve SED the whole thing when when we’re doing it it’s not it’s not actually for propulsion at all is just for a little bit of charge um yeah we haven’t got wind vean steering that’s

Something we were going to to to fit if you following long in Lagos and for various reasons didn’t get round to it but yes if we if we if we’ had that then I think we’ve been absolutely fine because the auto Helm is working really hard in these conditions as you can

Imagine I’m sure it’s just sucking up the foul and starlink has been a game changer so pleased we did that we’ve been able to talk to people every day when we’ve turned it on sometimes we thought we might be out of range because it took like an hour to normally it

Takes 15 minutes when you’re rolling around a lot it’s pretty quick in an Anchorage but 15 minutes if you’re rolling around a lot one time it took an hour in the middle of the atantic and we oh God I wonder if it’s because we’re now the other side it thinks we’re

American it’s going to stop us but it wasn’t that I think there’s just not many satellites but that’s the other thing in the comments if anyone has done this uh with with one they’ve purchased in Europe because basically they’re they’re purchased in a continent they

Work in that continent to do it on the cheap deal so I think when we get to America we’ve got to somehow register this in America to be able to go back to the to the unlimited cheap deal which is obviously what we would want to do so if

Anyone’s done it do let us know in the comments and we look forward to seeing everyone in the Caribbean anyone who’s there who wants to connect we’re on our way to Trinidad we should there in a few days time so thank you very much to our

Patrons and we’ve even had a couple of patrons who’ve joined us during the trip which has been really nice we managed to connect with you thank you to our subscribers and thank you for watching thanks for Watching

We set sail from Cape Verde to Trinidad and have a good following wind but very lumpy seas. And it stays that way for the first 13 days! It’s like living in a tumble dryer. Even the simplest tasks take a degree of energy we don’t always have. But we are moving faster than we ever thought possible and the highlight…… Yes…… Steve catches a fish!

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