Logs

Tohuwabohu - Last day

So this years rally draws to a close for us as we near St Lucia, it has been another one of those bucket list life long dreams to cross the Atlantic, most of it is about preparation, some of it is thinking your way out of the problem, the other parts are about remaining flexible.Technology is fantastic when it works, but it operates 24/7 in some difficult condition, it is inevitable that it will break, but the plan is to have a plan, and then another.The importance of spares can not be overstated, blocks , pulleys, snatch blocks, shackles, sheets, whipping line, spinnaker tape tools, spanners, wd40.It can be difficult being on board a boat when there is little space, the art of communication is vital, there weren’t any really problems though as most of them came down to misunderstandings. read more...

Tohuwabohu - Leg 2 day 16

These are lazy days, the wind is very calm as we sit bobbing around the ocean.We made about 115 nm over night which means we have sailed 1873 nm leaving us with about 200nm to our waypoint which is north of St Lucia’s pigeon Island.Overnight we had some success as the wind did pickup enough. At around 3 pm today we started the engine as we want to try to arrive on Thursday morning. I said that I would talk about the sails sets on board and this seems like an appropriate time. Some of the boats on the ARC Plus have parasailors which for a down wind course are the best option, they create speed and can be flown in light winds and are easily managed by two people.The other options are Spinnaker and asymmetric spinnakers.The boat here does not carry these.She is equipped with two extending. read more...

Tohuwabohu - leg 2 day 15

Hay hay, we covered 119 nm yesterday and most of this was done under sail as the wind picked up to 9/10 knots which was fantastic for us , so code 0 and poled out genoa.This has been making a respectable 4.5 knots. We have 327 nm left to sail and have covered 1758nm.It was Lovely to have the wind back for a while , the forecast is for it to remain much the same maybe another day without wind.Apparently there is more wind further south, but we would have to drop a degree or degree and a half and at this late stage there is no guarantee we will find it, the decision has been made to carry on the direct route with the wind largely behind us.I haven’t really spoken very much about food on the trip and more importantly about the role that Simone has taken. She has prepared all the food since. read more...

Nikajuma - Day 14 - 400 nm to go

It is time for chrismas. We started baking the first cookies today and combined it with making bread and bunns. Delicious. This we combined with a melon from Las Palmas and goat cheese wrapped in bacon. And to really make a great day: wind. Finally.-- Grüsse von der nikajuma. read more...

Cloudy Bay - 7 Dec: Sailing, Marlin and dolphins

What a day again! The whole night and morning we had great speed from our Gennie! She doesn’t stop pulling... as long as there is wind though, we had up till 18 knots during the day and we were flying straight to St. Lucia. Later on, it dropped back to around 10 knots and changed direction :/ so, we were tacking along to get the best course. As we finished our fish the other day, our lure is out again. Yesterday we caught a small fish (of unknown species) which we released and we had again a big one we couldn’t reel in close enough to see what it was. This time it got lose without the lure still attached :) BUT today... we reeled in a monster! Technically it was not a monster, but a beautiful blue Marlin!! It put on a pretty good fight, but Sanne didn’t give in! We decided it would be a. read more...

Cloudy Bay - 5 Dec: Cinnamon roll saturday and Sinterklaas

Saturday again!! Which means it’s time for cinnamon rolls for breakfast, yumm :) I prepared them the night before and with this heat they rise almost uncontrollably! After they come out of the oven, they get drizzled with a coconut glazing as a finishing touch. So, with a coffee in one hand and a roll in the other we enjoy the sun in the morning. For lunch we had fish tacos with the last pieces of the massive Mahi-mahi we caught the other day. And after lunch it’s time for Sinterklaas! A Dutch traditional feast for which my lovely mom gave me a package with a note “not to open before the 5th of December” as a little surprise. More cookies and candy typical to Sinterklaas, lol!!Sailing wise we are doing well. It’s not easy to keep the sail from flapping or collapsing sometimes and twice. read more...

Tohuwabohu - leg 2 day 14

Well we have officially reached 14 days at sea and it has been the adventure that we promised ourselves, we have seen the sunrises and the sunsets and for all of us this has been the longest time that we have ever spent at sea.I think that it is good to get to a routine as soon as possible it help to know where you are and what you are doing,there are ways things to fix, or crew to feed or admin tasks that need doing,it’s also quite tiring and sleep is broken, it’s not a holiday as you would imagine it.Last night the wind dropped to AWS 1.4 knt so the engine stayed on lol night and today pretty much the same thing has happened.Holger and Simone topped up the tank with the remaining amount of diesel, we seemed to have burnt slightly more overnight at 1.3 litres per hour, I’m not sure if. read more...

Tohuwabohu - Leg 2 day 13

It appears that I have lost track of days and today should be day 13, I think I repeated the numbers of day 8 and 9, so for clarity today is day 13, the decision to use the engine overnight was a good decision as we averaged 2.4 knots of wind in a Very calm dark night, the moon seemed to take ages to come out last night and it is just over the half moon.When she does arrive she floods light onto the very dark sea and it is comforting to know that this light helps us. The night shifts of 3 hours are good as they give you time to plan , contemplate, replan, make decisions, come equilibrium with those decisions that have not be so good. This time of year for me has always been testing, and no matter what people tell you, the issues you faced in the past will always be riding along side you,. read more...

Cloudy Bay - 4 Dec: Catching up with wind

Gennie has been pulling us constant yesterday and today. We finally are in the wind zone again and catching up with the miles. Every 4h we are getting the position reports in and calculating our position in comparison with others. Are we losing or gaining on them? We are gaining baby!! Every time a small highlight :) Looking forward to sail the night away. The last few nights, the moonrise has been amazing and with some shooting stars it’s not a punishment to sit in the cockpit all by yourself to enjoy the moment!Ilse. read more...

Tohuwabohu - leg 2 day 11

The mood is very light hearted on the boat today and over breakfast Holger recounted a story about his black dog, as I’ve told you before they're farmers in Germany and have a good enterprise producing energy and prime steak.He recounted a story of his big black Newfoundland dog that used to roam the many acres of land at will.Given his freedom of the area the dog took himself to the local villages to visit and explore.As any young dog would do he found himself the centre of attention in these villages by the other young lady dogs.Whilst taking advantage of the situation the Newfoundland became somewhat of a Romeo to some new a bounder and a cad to others! This situation carried on for a number of months where the dog would return to some of his favourite spots and engage in doggy. read more...

Nikajuma - Day 10 - 830 nm to go

Based in Zürich we are used to having no wind, but still we were not prepared for this. Since 2 days we have wind in the single digit kts regime. But the sun is shining, the mood is good and we have enough food until ... don't ask. The kids have fun with their advents calender and I am enjoying an alcohol free beer. This tastes like paradise after 10 days of water, juice and soft drinks. And we finally cought a fish. After high waves , seaweedfields and two fish that got away we landed a 95cm Wahoo tonight. I almost feel like the old man and the sea. Except the fish is different and our boat bigger.Life is good...-- Grüsse von der nikajuma. read more...

Tohuwabohu - leg 2 day 10

So the last part of day 9 was spent dismantling a 12 volt kettle to use the parts to make a standalone auto pilot (ram driven) into an operational state. We have seemingly got to grip with sailing when we have wind with the hydro vane and can hold a good course over the ground, adjusting for light winds and so on.I think on a transatlantic crossing it is useful to have a similar product that uses the wind as it is free steering (4th member) and doesn’t consumer any energy, which is key on a small sailing boat.Having marked the positions and extended the auto ram on the pilot we just needed to fix this to the super structure and plug it in using the 12volt dismantled kettle. It worked ! Finally we have an auto correcting (doesn’t calculate drift) pilot that can be used in stead of hand. read more...

For Tuna - Log 3 - Day 17

Hello Sailors,whoever says atlantic crossings are boring please try again;) after chasing a few squalls yesterday the wind left us again...and so did our mainsail...it slowly fell down and decided to take a rest - in the pitch dark night (it was still cloudy all around us) we tried to figure out what happened: the halyard sheet on the head of the furler inside the mast loosened, some single strands first and slowly the whole knot came undone - we managed to fold the sail in nicely and it was time to walk up the mast - armed with a small weight and a fishing line to guide a new halyard sheet through the mast…it took us 5 hours until all was done and the sail is back up again - right when we finished a slow squall hit us and bathed the whole boat in rain - so Simon could finally test his. read more...

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...

Nikajuma - Day 9 - 935 nm to go

New estimated time of arrival: 22.12. The plotter does not tell of which year. What to do when you are stuck inthe middle of the Atlantic Ocean and the Wind is switched off? One day: very nice. Do some cooking, boatworks, washing and day-SPA. Then we motored a while to run our watermaker. Also christmas is approaching, so we did some crafty things. Let's hope for wind tomorrow.-- Grüsse von der nikajuma. read more...

Cloudy Bay - 2 Dec: Gennie, sun and an even bigger fish

We are still sailing strong :D All through the night, not fast and not so stable either. With the morning the sun and the wind came out and Gennie (as we call the gennaker now) is loving it! She is pulling us like a real hero. The whole day has been sunny and super warm. We all have been lazy laying around, reading, eating and napping in the shade. Just another nice day out at the wide open ocean. And then while preparing dinner, the fishing line went ppfffrrrrrrrr... The fish was putting up a decent fight and as it comes closer to the boat we can see it’s a beautiful big Mahi-mahi. It’s swimming just below the surface from left to right in all its blue/green yellow glory! As we hook it and pull it on board, it starts to change color :o The yellow disappears and the blue is getting more. read more...

Tohuwabohu - leg 2 day 8/9

Yesterday was Tuesday, 1st December, 14 days before flight home, 24 days to do the remainder of any Christmas shopping.The wind dropped no we were completely becalmed which is another experience, so much ocean and no wind no waves, lots of sun.The best thing that we could do was take a mid ocean Atlantic swim. With a tethered line sent out the stern of the boat and a fender attached to it to keep it buoyant, I took the first dunk, this was an experience, the water was very salty, however it was crystal blue and under the water it was the deepest blue colour I have ever seen.The temperature was like bath water, warm and not too hot.I have been told that the ocean is like a desert and there are vast areas of nothing.This is true because I didn’t see anything apart from a quick inspection. read more...

Cloudy Bay - 1 Dec: Patience, sail changes and a dive

We should not have stated that we sailed for 7 days straight :o As of last night we have been struggling with the wind and sails. Starting with a flapping goose wing, we tried the gennaker. It worked for a while, until the wind really died to below 3 knots and the engine was started. The wind picked up... sails out again, wind dies down... back to the iron horse. At around 10 this morning, we wanted to try every sail configuration we could think of. Gennaker again, Code 0, only poled out jib and goose wing both sides, nothing seemed to do the trick with a variable4-8 knots and a little swell. The flapping drove us almost crazy... That was the point where we decided to let us just drift on the waves and to take a dive in the great blue ocean!! We always had one man on the boat just in. read more...

Cloudy Bay - 30 Nov: A whole halfway day

Today we reached our halfway (nautical) milestone!! As it is not sure when exactly, due to weather and route, we decided to make it a whole day when we reach less than 1050nm to go. Therefore, today we had a nice halfway-pizza-lunch, halfway-cheers with Poseidon, halfway-caramel-ice-cream, halfway-games, halfway-songs and a halfway-face-mask is planned for tonight. A full halfway day of celebration because we already made it halfway the Atlantic :DIt’s not like every day is a little celebration... the sailing is great, the company awesome and the food delicious and to top it of we play our new theme song everyday: “He is a Pirate” from Pirates of the Caribbean.Caribbean here we come, yaaaaarrrrrr..We have been sailing for 7 days straight now, the longest together so far! Only changes in. read more...

Tohuwabohu - Leg 2 Day 8

What a day, we woke up after 3x3x3 shifts last night which in essence gives an amazing 6 hours rest, unless you are me and drew the middle shift from 12-3am, anyway we are working to UTC on the boat which means actually it was still dark. So I woke to breakfast with the boat and a plan had been hatched to fix the code 0 to the mast with a prussik loop using the bosun chair.Now a this is easier said than done, making sure that that we are safe especially as we are officially 1000 miles from land, we double checked our plan and made sure that our roles were clear.There is a huge risk to go up masts at sea, with all sorts of potentials to go wrong. So with a plan set Holger set about climbing the mast with the aid of an electric winch.The ground school had been practiced and rehearsed. read more...

Tohuwabohu - leg 2 day 7

With a little bit of luck I will actually save this blog properly as it is my second time of writing it! I’m not sure where I got to last or if I’m writing a day behind, so I’m going to bring everything up to speed.The email connection has been rubbish for the last few days so I’m trying to get this uploaded as soon as I can.We made 138 nm yesterday and we are aiming to hit mid way sometime on Monday morning , however the wind has abated a bit with an AWS of 9knts which puts us under the sun 5 knot.The thing that we don’t carry enough fuel to be super productive by motor sailing , we have enough food and water to keep us going, we just need to be t the airport by the 15th December. So, back to boat stuff, we have been hand steering for the last 560 or so miles and we have had numerous. read more...

Nikajuma - Day 6 - 1300 nm to go

A dayof breakage followed ba a day of fixing. We go back one day. Friday was also at work the day, when things went wrong. As a sailor, luckily there is no weekend. Start of failure was 6 a.m. utc. Pitch dark. Our sail just crashed into the water. Result may be due to a broken block. Midday. Shakle got loose on genua. Afternoon: water in motor bilge. Luckily fresh water. Nighttime: we ripped out 2 blocks due to a jam with a towel. Easy to see in daytime... But good news exept the sail, everything is fixed again. Resulting in a saturday with no big highlights. But looking at the good things of a lost friday: we had boats around us (Selkie and Damasi II) on AIS and in sight. This gives a lot of confidence. And we got a new speed record surfing down the giant waves. Good night.. read more...

Tohuwabohu - Leg 2 Day 6

So yesterday was average we didn’t break anything more but we didn’t manage to fix anything either ,we had a good following wind it built to AWS 21knts and a boat speed of 6/7 knots so we made a fantastic 149 over a 24 hour period. We had information that two of the boats, Boheimen and Ibex were closing down on our position, we were glad of the company to be honest and it was good to know others were about. We are still hand steering as we have been unable to attach the windvane rudder. We did haves discussion about leaving with this attached before setting off.This may have been a good idea as trying to do it sea is virtually impossible. We have settled into the grove of 2x2x2 so my trusty crew at home had better get used to the idea when I eventually get Girolle operational!The weather. read more...

For Tuna - Log 2 - Day 10

Hello Sailors,Fishcount: 7 - we managed to reel in 5 mahi mahi and two tunas;) Still eating fresh fish and even conserved some tuna in olive oil. As wind and waves picked up we decided to pause fishing for now and are well on route with an average of 6.9 knots and all sails max reefed.Today we celebrated Gretas Birthday with some freshly baked sacher cake and finished the day with pizza - our Autopilot was named Oskar and since then is able to cope better with the heavy waves. During the day we hand steered a lot as we were surfing the waves with a max speed of 14.5 knots. the waves still can’t decide what to do so every now and then they throw us out of bed (literally!) or bath us in saltwater:)Salty wishes from For TunaMichael. read more...

Tohuwabohu - leg 2 day 5

It’s my birthday and it was lovely to wake at 6 am to Holger and Simone singing happy birthday and in the saloon area was cake and candles. They both had very thoughtfully brought me a picture print of an original Cape Verde male at a celebration, this photo certainly captures our stay in Mindelo with its vibrant African heritage, people and culture. Although the stop in Cape Verde was longer than expected, it shows a different side to life, people, poverty and society. Today was a good day for sailing we had some great wind, until the auto pilot stopped working suddenly and for no apparent reason (tinkering possibly) however this has meant that we are now having to steer the remaining 1600 miles by hand and so a change of shift has Come into play 2x2x2 (this works well for me as I don’t. 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...

Cloudy Bay - 26 Nov: Fast sailing and more fish

Two more days of fast sailing with the code 0 and second reef have gone by. Last night we changed to goose wing settings due to the forecasted wind and direction. The first few hours it felt a little bit like a wrong decision,because we sailed “just” around 5 to6 knots. However, later in the night and morning we were back to our new normal an beloved 6 to 8 knots.I had the shift with the sunrise and because the last two days we didn’t catch any fish I decided to throw out the lure around 7am. Not expecting to catch anything (soon) and wanting to take a nap... BUT... 15 minutes later the line went pfffrrrrrrr!!! Before Sanne even had the chance to drink her coffee, we were busy reeling in a big Mahi Mahi. It was a beautiful 85 cm fish! So, at 0730 we were fileting our long wanted fish. 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...

Tohuwabohu - Leg 2 Day 4

As I write this blog it’s a beautiful day and the sun is shining, I, not sure what the weather is doing where you are, but rest assured if it’s not sunny and dry it is somewhere else in the world.For yesterdays evening entertainment we snapped the code 0 or spinnaker halyard at the top of the mast, throwing our code 0 into the 5000 metres of seawater below, acting like a huge dragging anchor. The sound of snapping and bending seems to be a daily occurrence, I can assure any readers it wasn’t bad preparation. It appears that the culprit for this little incident is chafe/chaff. Anyway, however it’s spelt, the rubbing of fabric and metal eventually means we gathered the very wet sail on board and now have new task to rig a new/old halyard inside the mast to get the code 0 up and running. I. read more...

Tohuwabohu - Leg 2 day 3

Firstly apologies for the lack of updates, I think there was a technical glitch on my emails which meant that the email system, satellite phone etc wasn’t working and we have been without communications for the last few days.I must admit sailing with the forecast for the next few days was ok however I was concerned that I couldn’t get any further updates from John R who is our uk weather router! As I mentioned in a previous blog this is a German/English boat and it appears that a new language is developing. We have been able to signal to each other about various different tasks, I’ll try and explain in a key below (Imagine the sound)Peep peep - mobile phone alarm Drip - small leak Drip drip - bigger Leak Drip drip drip (repeated quickly) - serious leak Wiggle wiggle - move over Woggle. read more...

Nikajuma - Day 3 - 1750 nm to go

The stars are waving us. The moon and our toplight are shining. White glitter is following us on the waves. Its so good to be on nightshift. Just finished "the old man and the sea".I always liked Hemingway. You can feel between the lines that he was also a man of the sea.. read more...

Nikajuma - Day 2 - 1895 nm to go

Its Day 2 of leg 2. And after so many miles it is the first time with no AIS signal from other boats. Feels ok. We still get radio calls on vhf and ssb. Nice to be in ARC. After some flying fish and first time octopus on deck(now we know how the real one feels), dolfins again and a hooked dorado (got loose in last second) we enjoyed the wind from the 90° pacing us forward. The kids are also on their way to sea rythm. Which means crafts project, painting, school.. read more...

Tohuwabohu - Leg 2 Day 2

Leg 2 Day 2 Some of the problems that we had on the first leg have returned. The email systems that we are using appear to be very temperamental especially when you need them.It’s not just because we receive our weather forecasts but other important comms are sent PCR test results, process for St Lucia etc (although this is some time off yet) although we do have an army of helpers forecasting, gathering information for St Lucia’s authorities and sending us news.If our sat phones stop working I don’t know what we do!In a more light hearted mode the Captain was taking a well deserved nap in the saloon having worked into the early hours of a night shift.Whilst deep in sleep and dreaming about what ever Captains dream about, the gentle rocking motion of the boat and waves were complimenting. read more...

Tohuwabohu - leg 2 Day 1

Leg 2 Day 1It’s 22nd November and what an interesting week. The long story short is that following a very efficient PCR test which was organised in Mindelo marina, the world then fell apart in getting the results. It’s appears that as of yesterday the 80plus tests taken for COVID were left in box in a room , somewhere in CV(Cape Verde), and that despite some meetings and visits and various promises none of these came to fruition.“Them rules is rules”kept floating through my head as the boat became a democracy for a few moment, stay or go?We elected go..... based on the support from WCC and safe in the knowledge that if”stuff goes south” we can use sea quarantine and gets PCR test in Rodney Bay St Lucia.We departed about 1 pm local to CV and headed out west. For us all on the boat the. read more...

Tohuwabohu - Day 6 - Mop up consolidation

Day 6The technology which keeps us more comfortable on passage making still continues to play us up , although we seem to be working our way all the issues to make sure that we have everything in top shape for the second leg.We all feel like the first leg has been a long test to see which bit works , which bit doesn’t quite function properly, how can we improve on the systems, have we got the right food and water provisions,have we made enough allowance for fuel. We are getting closer to the Cape Verde islands with just 170 miles left to go.The weather boffins have forecasted an easing in the wind to single figures, they got this right as the apparent wind dropped overnight to 3 knots.This of course meant putting the sails away and motoring towards Mindelo.We all agree however that it. read more...

Tohuwabohu - Day 6 plus - what did we hit !

Day 6 plus The afternoon of the last night..... we had just logged our position which has become a daily ritual for us.It’s great to see our progress on the chart and also for a little bit of fun and with complete guesswork, as we have a competition running to guess to the nearest nm the distance travelled.The prize for the winner is for Ein Gross Bier.We were settled around the lunch table eating fried eggs, with a Mediterranean salad . Laughing and joking is common p,ace at the table as have been our spirits which have been high throughout the journey , Holger was in full conversation about making me dive under the boat when we arrived in Cape Verde or if we got caught in a fishing line. Suddenly, without warning the boat came to an abrupt stop, the cutlery and plates flew off the. read more...