can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Vagaris - Atlantic weed and swimming



We've been motoring for a day, and every few hours have had to stop and let the prop fold to clear off accumulated weed.

This one has really puzzled us, for literally two thousand miles we've been passing large quantities of seaweed floating in the sea. We'd originally thought it was detritus from a storm, but it has been ever present for most of our crossing.

Over the last few days the small clumps have been getting bigger and forming 2-3 meter round floating islands of weed. Yesterday these islands started growing, with the largest being a couple of hundred metres long.

We didn't realise why at the time, but when we became aware of a slight juddering from the prop we changed into neutral and saw large clumps of weed exiting past the stern. A few seconds of astern and then forward was require to shift the weed.

We've repeated the same procedure every 6 or so hours to be safe and have been on the lookout for particularly large floating islands to avoid.

Today in one such interlude it was so hot and the sea water temperature was 30.5°C so we decided to stop, rig a safety fender on a line and jump in and go for a swim in the 3000m deep water. It was great. The boat was still moving along though at 2-3 knots so we had to hold on or swim to keep up.

Adrian

S/Y Vagaris


Previous | Next