Ydalir II - Log Ydalir II Halfway over the Atlantic

N 12´59,8477W 43´05,287 On Tuesday, December 1, with 1078NM made good and still 1078NM to go, we start to celebrate this special halfway over the Atlantic day. The day begin with a Dan excercise: He has found a solution for our watermaker problem. The watermaker is driven by our Panda generator, and as salt water waves flushed over the stern and through the vents into the inverter of the generator, it had got out of function some days ago. We still had sufficient fresh water to survive to St. Lucia, but it is troublesome to manage with a strict water conservation role. Now Dan disconnected the power from the generator to the watermaker, and connected it to the standard inverter instead and the watermaker made fresh water again! We were very delighted and Dan is now. read more...

Ydalir II - Blog Day 4 Ydalir cross-Atlantic

Windy and very bumpy night. Now UTC 13:00 Position N 15'51 W33'57Still 25-30 knots wind with 35-40 in gusts.Smaller genoa and reefed main 7-9 knots.All well on board. Nilla is serving her boat made youghurt with müsli and fresh passion fruit from Mindelo.  . read more...

Ydalir II - Blog Ydalir Cross Atlantic Day 3 Nov 26

Position UTC 20:29 Nov 26: N 16’ 19”; W 32’ 27”.Yesterday at sunset we caught a gold mackerel cira 2 kg, which provided a tasty lunch today. We sailed through the night in increasing and turning winds, which brought us a more northenly course than planned, as we wanted to wait for daylight before we gybed. Today we have sailed on 210 degrees, to keep pressure in the sails in the somewhat strong wind and a bit rough sea. WInd 20-30 knots with gusts close to 40 and 3 m wavesNilla impressed by baking a choclate cake despite the rocky sail. Now tonight, at least for the moment the wind is 20-25 knots and the sea a bit kinder. We hope it will last during the night. We are uncertain if our Blog Day 2 got through, but yesterday was truly an awsome day at sea, with Atlantic spotted dolphins. read more...

Ydalir II - Ydalir cross Atlantic day 1

14.40 UTC Position N16’48 W27’09Finally we were able to have formal ARCplus start, with majority of participants. A smaller group left the day before and decided not to await the severly delayed Covid-19 pcr tests.15.00 Cap Verde time, 16.00 UTC we crossed the starting line, after warm and somewhat emotional farewell hugs and fair wind wishes between the fleet crews and from all our new Cape Verdian friends in Marina Mindelo. Good winds execpt for a couple hours around 21.00 in the evening when we decided you use our engine for 60 minutes. Now we are sailing in warm winds, ca 15-20 knots from north east, making 6-7 knots SOG. Our Hydrovane Windrudder is steering with a steay hand, sea is friendly and crew relaxed. We still see a couple of the other yachts on the AIS and here them on VHF.. read more...

Ydalir II - Log Day 6

Finally Friday! But Friday the 13th... We heard another boat calling on us and asking for Dan´s advice on a motor problem and on the VHF they could check that it must be something wrong with the propeller. At daylight, they could dive and see that the propeller was missing. Lost in the ocean. Luckily there is wind enough, but it is really scary to think about how lost you are far out on the sea with thousands of miles under you and as many miles to the next harbour. On the other hand it is good to get the experience, what to do in such a situation and how important it is to have spare parts on board. Today we tried the genacker, just as a practice and then continued with the parasail. The waves are long and gentle and it is warm both day and night. The water temperature is 24.5. 12. read more...