Wolkenschlößchen - Day 19 - Neptune is Australian

We have entered into the 19th day which - as it appears - will be the last day of our Atlantic crossing. We almost made it!!!Winds have slowed down last night and today, giving us a good time window for arrival early Friday rather than in the middle of the night. Neptune was again favourable of us. Along the entire trip, we were blessed with mostly calm winds and comfortable waves and almost no trouble and or squalls. Today, half a day before arrival, Neptune sent us a huge squall, perfect to have a decent boat wash before arrival. Fred tried to shower in it but the rain was not quite made for that amount of washing! We were joking that all it needs now are dolphins and whales - and bang! Dolphins were delivered just a few minutes later. So, what did we do to earn Neptune's blessings? We. read more...

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 18 - On direct course

We keep ignoring the suggested weather routing which has served us well on this trip. Currently, this means we are sailing directly towards Saint Lucia with our main sail only instead of tacking with both sails. Compared to the boats tacking around us, this seems to be faster and definitely is more comfortable as we are having most waves directly from behind. This gives us the opportunity to keep cooking the still fresh vegetables that we carried along. Despite not putting any in the fridge, we managed to preserve them along the entire trip. Most fresh produce is now gone but also, as it looks, tomorrow will be our last day at sea. It has been a fantastic ride thus far and we are confident to finish now calmly. We are rather taking some speed out as we prefer arriving early morning. read more...

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 17 - Dolphins and letters

We started day 17 by reaching our '500 miles to go' milestone. Yes, we are getting close!! It was a very shaky day in the waves but we had nice winds in the morning, allowing us to sail in "butterfly" mode.  Not too easy as we are not having a Spinnaker pole but it worked well for some time. After that, we went back to our beloved Oxley that we sailed until sunset. Amazing how much we used that sail for the trip. Almost all days and all but 4 nights.  After breakfast, a group of dolphins came to visit and jumped a bit in the aft of our ship. Perfect to watch from the safe space of our cockpit. And while we were having a 500-mile Gin & Tonic (alcohol free but surprisingly refreshing), Lonneke prepared a letter in a bottle and sent it off. We hope someone will find. read more...

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 16 - They exist

Today was our squall premiere! After an unpleasant night in which our normal sails were banging most of the time, we pulled up the oxley first thing in the morning. So much better! This also meant, we had to be observant for squalls and today, they actually came! Around midday we were able to avoid the first big one by altering course but only a few minutes later, the next one hit us. When it was 4 miles away, we quickly took the Oxley down and just 5 minutes later winds increased from 15 knots to 26 knots within seconds! But after a bit of rain (sadly not enough to clean the boat) all was back to normal again. Good for us though to gain some experience with these things. We had a second small one later the day but now starting into the night, all looks gentile again. We still took. read more...

Wolkenschlößchen - Day 15 - The stars

The moon is getting less each day and also it only comes up around midnight. Good nights for us to see this abundance of stars all around us. Being so far off civilization, there is practically no light distortion and it really makes the difference.  We are enjoying comfortable sailing although wind is expected to pick up during the night. Thus we took down our oxley and give our normal sails another chance. Better safe than sorry. In the absence of fish, we made our first curry today. With all those vegetables that we are still having, it was delicious none the less. We were really worried about the food amount that we stocked-up. Now that we are getting close, it is safe to say that we have too much food. Luckily, there is a charity on Saint Lucia where we can pass it on. read more...