Crean - Day 1-3

Day 1 11 Nov 2018

Despite having almost a year to prepare, the last week has been hectic. Purchasing all the groceries, meats, fruit and vegetables, we also had to consider critical spares not just for the Atlantic but for the Pacific Crossing early next year. The Skipper in a flight of fancy also splashed out on an additional downwind sail. This time a very large, very second-hand symmetrical spinnaker.

The crew for the passage to the Caribbean is Brendan (Skipper), Ciara, Rena, Seanie & Shauna and everyone mucked in to get us ready on time. Ciara even managed to cook a meal in the middle of all the chaos on Saturday in preparation for our first night at sea.

We only had two minor hi-cups. Our meat was delivered vacuumed but not frozen and the B&G Technical Support Engineer, Ivan while kindly doing a system review Saturday afternoon discovered our Auto-Pilot computer settings were not correctly loaded.

Our NZ friends on board Kiwa, James and Marina kindly stepped up and offered to freeze the meat in their empty freezer - they do not leave Las Palmas for another couple of weeks. This was great and got us out of a real jam, our freezer would not have coped at all.

With the Auto-Pilot, we decided to conduct an autotune this morning on the way to the start-line.

Departure was lovely with lots of friends to wave us off. A big thank you Angela and her pretty assistant Mike for the marina departure pictures and videos which we received as we crossed the start-line!

Our start when well - fifth across the line was not too shabby we thought! Our first night at sea was pretty uneventful. The high for sure was Ciara’s chilli which was superb. On trips like this, dinner can quickly become a focal point to look forward to and we were not let down.

Day 2/3 12/13 Nov 18

Our first full day at sea has us among the fleet. In lighter winds we raised our new (secondhand) symmetrical spinnaker briefly. Unfortunately the sock jammed when we were taking it down and we lost an hour or more trying to sort - another job for Mindelo. As darkness fell the wind ranged from 20-28 knots from the NNE and the swell went to 1.5 meters. Unfortunately around 2200hrs, the clew of the mainsail parted from the boom taking its stainless steel fittings with it. This necessitated taking the mainsail down and running just with the jib overnight until a temporary repair was completed at first light this morning. As a result our speeds dropped and Realta Bheg among others few past nearby in the dark.

This morning we woke to 2 meter seas and 15-23 knot seas. Once the main was repaired and back up we reviewed the weather and decided to head back east of the rum-line towards the African coast for the next 36 hours in the hope of stronger winds later in the week. Lunch was a treat and consisted of chicken curry, dahl and the remains of last nights chicken stew - happy faces and full tummies all round.