THE ATLANTIC CROSSING:  9 -23 November 2016,  Mindelo, Cape Verde to Bridgetown, Barbados – 2020 Miles, 14.5 days, 5.9 knots average speed, 82.4 engine hours

Total Miles from Falmouth: 4834.8

Up at 0630 hrs to get ready for the big trip.  We departed Mindelo following Luke’s final VHF broadcast at 0830 hrs.  We were certainly going to miss his cheery voice and enthusiasm but we will take his handy tips, knowledge and experience with us wherever we go. 

Initially there was little wind then it picked up to a good 20 knots once we were out of the lee of the island and we were doing a speedy broad reach.

Our shift pattern for the trip -

Jenny: 0800 – 1200 hrs

Ken: 1200 – 1600 hrs

Don (Ken’s father): 1600 to 2000 hrs

Jenny: 2000 to Midnight

Ken: Midnight to 0400 hrs

Don: 0400 to 0800 hrs

This suited us as Ken is a night person, Don an early morning person and me the chef, so mealtimes could be prepared outside of my shift! 

The wind rose to gusting 30 knots so we painstakingly put a second reef in the mainsail and genoa.  Reefing the main involves going out on deck to the mast and it’s not easy when it’s rough!  Eventually it dropped to a steady 20 knots throughout the night, however was very very rolly, noisy and difficult to sleep.  The weather was cloudy, with occasional rain but warm.

Thursday 10 November – North Atlantic Ocean

The extremely well stocked fridge and freezer stopped working and I couldn’t start the generator initially (didn’t want to wake Ken), so not a brilliant start to my morning shift.  We had 24 knots of wind, big seas, very rolly, warm with intermittent sunshine and clouds, making 6.5 to 7.5 knots speed over the ground (a knot of that was tide), so we were very pleased to be romping along so nicely.  Gusts were regularly up to 30 knots, occasionally 38.5 knots – bit hairy but Lady Rebel coped nicely with reduced sail area.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the boat developed a very loud banging noise at the centre, under the hull, that shuddered the whole boat, and our bones, every few seconds. We hoped it was a buoy or fishing net we’d picked up around the keel, but realistically thought it might be the dagger-board dropped down.  The dagger-board is six feet long, made from fibreglass and sits inside the keel.  It pivots at one end enabling it to be lowered depending on the boats angle to the wind making her sail more efficiently.  However, the previous owner didn’t have use for it so had it permanently fixed up inside the keel with a steel plate underneath to hold it up.  He also had the lifting mechanism (a series of ropes and pulleys) removed as they were no longer required.  The more the juddering went on, the slamming from side to side with each wave, the more we believed it to be the dagger-board.  It was extremely scary as we didn’t know what damage it could do.  Unfortunately, when the lifting mechanism was removed, access to the dagger-board from inside the boat was fibre-glassed over so we couldn’t see exactly what was happening.

Ken used the satellite phone (thank goodness we had one – an expensive luxury provided by Ken and his business partners Paul and Anne) to phone Bill in America who refurbished Lady Rebel back in 2007.  He said it was possible the steel plate/bolts holding the dagger-board up had corroded over time allowing the dagger-board to drop.  He reassured us the boat should not take on water!  By this time it was dark which seemed to make the situation worse.  We tried to hove-to, to see if that would stop the banging – a means of stopping the boat by altering the sails.  This was unsuccessful due to the high winds and big seas. We then decided to gybe to see if the change in course and angle to the waves would reduce the banging.  We knew the new course would take us further South than our ideal South West course but figured it was worth a try – anything to stop the consistent banging and juddering.  Unfortunately it didn’t make any difference; the banging and shuddering was still as violent and scary, but we decided to stay on the Southerly course until daylight and then make a decision on course, sails etc.  We’d also suffered a pulley breakage so didn’t really want to go out on deck to be fixing that in the hours of darkness, still with strong winds and rough seas.  It was impossible to sleep due to the noise and feelings of concern!

Friday 11 November – North Atlantic Ocean

We were waiting for the wind to drop so we could get in the water to look under boat and potentially put a rope underneath to lift the dagger-board.  This had certainly taken the shine off the crossing as it was impossible to relax not knowing if any damage was occurring.  We reduced sail area to slow the boat as much as possible and tried to put a rope underneath, starting at the bow with one person walking back either side, but the force of water was so strong we couldn’t hold it.  We read up on Irwins (the design of Lady Rebel) that suggested the dagger-board could only be raised and lowered when the boat was stationary or at least head to wind.  The waves were still too high to go head to wind or to stop the boat.  It was now just a case of waiting for the wind and sea state to ease.

Ken used ‘The Bat Phone’, our newly nicknamed satellite phone, to speak to our very good friends and ex Harbury neighbours Ian and Jane McCluskey, Robbo and Nicky P, who were on their way to the airport for their Caribbean cruise.  Our goal was to meet up with them in Barbados for the day when their ship was visiting the island.  We thought it was a long shot but with fair winds and sea there was a possibility we could achieve it.  A very exciting prospect to look forward to!

Ken managed to do a temporary fix on the broken pulley so we were able to gybe back again onto our proper course.  We spoke to Peter from Stormbreaker who was still within VHF radio range.  They too had suffered damage and were concerned they were going to lose their rigging so had the angle grinder at the ready in case the mast came down and they had to cut it free.  So very scary for them.

I slept, or should I say tried to sleep, in the cockpit again as the noise and shuddering continued to be horrific and my anxiety levels were still extremely high.  By this time I had added my phone, jewellery, purse, the spare VHF radio and other bits and pieces to the grab bag as I was convinced we would eventually take on water and have to abandon ship to the life-raft.

We did have a period of light relief when a pod of dolphins (50+) swam with us for a good hour – absolutely fantastic.  They were amazing to watch as they jumped and dived in graceful synchronisation. 

Saturday 12 November – North Atlantic Ocean

I dozed in the cockpit until 0630 hrs when it was just getting light, Don was on watch until 0800 hrs.  The wind had dropped a little so we put the mizzen sail up and took the reef out of the mainsail.  We chatted on the radio to Stormbreaker who were just 8 miles away.  They were still extremely concerned about their rigging.  Our banging and juddering was still happening every 3 or so seconds.

Diesel had started leaking again from the fuel sender on the top of the tank – the device that tells us how much fuel there is.  This had happened before (seems to be when the boat is rolling heavily).  Ken had previously fixed it but we guessed the thread had gone again.  The generator didn’t seem to be charging the batteries efficiently and there was a leak in the generator water cooling inlet pipe, possibly due to the vibration caused by the dagger-board.  Bloody boats!

We dropped the mizzen sail and reefed the mainsail and genoa ready for the night time.  We figured it was safer to reduce sail area in daylight in anticipation of the wind increasing throughout the night.  I really struggled to stay awake for my nightshift, 8.00pm to midnight and then typically couldn’t sleep off watch due to the still persistent loud banging and shuddering.  It literally did shake our bones.

Our meals were easy due to advanced preparation.  For the first week or so we had cereals for breakfast, snacked on fresh fruit and cereal bars, ham/chicken salad for lunch then meat, potatoes and fresh veg for dinner or a casserole, curry, pasta or rice dish that I’d made prior to the trip and were in the freezer (which was now, thankfully, working intermittently – enough to keep the food from going off anyway!).  We’d preserved as much food as possible with our vacuum packer, including Mum’s Christmas cake which didn’t actually need preserving and shrank it from 8” diameter to approximately 4” when I sucked all the air out of it.  Whoops!  After the fresh milk, salad, bread and vegetables had gone we went on to long life milk, tinned fish/meat, wraps, white cabbage and freezer meals for dinner.  We’d purchased 24 x 5 litre containers of water to ensure we had enough water to drink should our water tanks become contaminated.  We ended up using the bottled water for drinking and water in the tanks for washing the dishes and ourselves!  Showering was infrequent as it’s quite tricky when the boat is rolling, even if just slightly!  Luckily we had enough space in the bilges (the area in the bottom of the hull below the floor boards) to stow this vast amount of bottled water!

Sunday 13 November – North Atlantic Ocean

The wind had dropped slightly and was now coming from directly behind us.  We tried to goosewing (mainsail out one side and genoa out the other) but we struggled to keep the sails full due the wind being fluky both in direction and strength – it was going from 6 to 12 knots.  Lady Rebel doesn’t sail well in wind under 10 knots so our speed had reduced but we persevered until Ken got up mid morning.  We were then able to drop the mainsail and put our twin headsails up which are perfect for downwind sailing i.e when the wind is coming from directly behind.  They are poled out either side and the sail area can be reduced quickly and easily should the wind suddenly increase.  It did however take us 4 miles in the wrong direction (a good couple of hours) to hoist these twin headsails, as was tricky even with 3 people, but we got there in the end without too many bruises and not too much swearing!  Back on course the sails worked well and although we were moving along at a reasonable speed we were rolling from side to side which meant the dreaded dagger-board was still doing its crashing and banging.  We weren’t sure we’d ever get used to it and the worry of potential damage would ever go away.

The weather by now was hot and sunny, the sea state calm with a gentle breeze of 7 to 10 knots of wind.  We were travelling at 5 knots so reasonable for light winds.  We work on 6 knots being a good average speed and anything above that is relatively fast for a sailing yacht like Lady Rebel.

We tried again to put a rope under the boat but couldn’t tell if we’d got it anywhere near the dagger- board so had to abandon.

The wind dropped through the night so we managed to get some sleep as the banging was slightly less violent and less frequent.

Monday 14 November – North Atlantic Ocean

0800 hrs – day 6, hot and sunny, light winds of 5 to 9 knots, boat speed only 4 knots. Tide assistance gave us an extra knot so we were travelling at 5 knots over the ground.  Not too bad considering the light wind strength.  The extra knot (1 nautical mile an hour) of speed made all the difference.  We had 1305 miles to go.  At 5 knots it would take 261 hrs (10.8 days).  At 6 knots it would take 217 hrs (9 days).  Trimming sails regularly to get maximum boat speed was therefore vital in order to arrive at our destination asap, which were keen to do in order to meet the Maccas and Robbos in Barbados on their cruise ship. 

The batteries were running low as we’d used the auto-pilot (automatically steers the boat to a set course) and radar through the night.  Both take a lot of power but essential pieces of equipment.  The radar was particularly useful as it identified wind/rain squalls coming in so we were able to reduce our sail area in good time enabling the boat to handle the storms without damage to the sails or rigging or us!  As the wind had dropped further we decided to furl away the headsails and motor thus keeping our speed up and charging the batteries at the same time.

We decided the conditions were gentle enough now for one of us to go in the water and assess the dagger-board situation from under the boat. Ken drew the short straw!  We put the motor in neutral – the last thing we needed was to have Ken or the rope he was attached to the boat with, damaged by a spinning propeller.  The water, amazingly, was warm enough for him to just wear swimming shorts.  It was so clear it took him literally seconds to confirm the dagger-board was fully down.

Ken immediately telephoned Bill, the guy in America who did Lady Rebel’s refit, for advice on how we could lift it.  Not only did we need to stop the horrendous vibration and reduce the risk of damage, but we also needed to raise it for mooring purposes.  We were aware that the second of the two marinas we were going to in Barbados wasn’t deep enough for this extra 6.5 feet we had under the keel!

Whilst waiting for Bill to get back to us I gave Ken a haircut on deck.  He couldn’t stand the heat of his bouffant any longer!  I thought I did an OK job – not sure his hairdresser would agree!  We also finished off the Christmas cake mum had given us.  We didn’t see the point of keeping it for Christmas once we’d made the decision to fly back to the UK for the festive season!  Any excuse to eat cake!  We also caught a Bonito (tuna like fish) that replaced the pork chops we were going to have for dinner.  They got turned into a casserole for the following day!

It was a stunning full moon that lit the whole sky and made night watch so much more enjoyable.  It was dark from 6pm to 6am.  Even the sea twinkled with the reflection of the moon and stars.  Apparently the next time the moon would be as bright and full would be in 2034.  Hopefully we’ll have reached our destination by then!!

Tuesday 15 November – North Atlantic Ocean

Once again a lovely clear, warm, sunny morning but too little wind to sail so we were gently motoring along.  I decided to occupy my time by cleaning the windows.  They had developed a thick salt layer making visibility poor. At midday we saw another vessel.  This was very exciting as we’d not seen any other boats for days and days.  We increased our speed to 6.8 knots to avoid a collision with this very enormous cargo ship.  It actually came within 0.4 nautical miles of us!  Our navigation equipment picked up its signal and informed us it was travelling from the USA to Indonesia.

Once the ship had passed we decided to try again with the dagger-board; this time with me in the water directing Don and Ken where to put the rope under the boat and when to winch it up.  We tried for 3 hours.  We tried with a rope with chain to make it sink lower down the dagger-board; we tried different lifting angles; we tried different tensions.  Every time it got close to being lifted the rope or chain would slide off and the dagger-board would drop down again.  The frustration lead to lots of swearing and shouting (and tears in my case); it was awful.  To make matters worse I was stung several times, very painfully, by jelly fish.  I’d started with a sleeveless wet suit (not being brave enough to go in with just a costume; I admit it was more a fear of being attacked by a shark than the water temperature) and ended up getting out and putting on a full wetsuit including gloves and boots, to avoid every bit of bare flesh being stung.  I was already covered in red stripes on my arms, hands and feet where the creatures had got me initially! Thank goodness they didn’t go for my face; that would have really freaked me out!

We had to give up in the end as were wasting valuable sailing time plus Don and Ken were getting sun burned and physically worn out!  We were concerned Don would be exhausted, not only through the heat and lack of sleep but he hardly ate anything at mealtimes and nothing in-between meals and as much as we nagged him to up his water intake he didn’t seem to get into the habit.  We were so angry and disappointed at our once again failed attempt to lift the damn board, it was certainly making for a miserable trip and we weren’t even half way there.

Wednesday 16 November – North Atlantic Ocean

The wind picked up briefly to 10 to 14 knots so we were able to sail with the twin headsails (twizzle rig).  It was nice not to have the drone of the engine for a while.  When trying to lift the dagger-board the day before, a rope had been cut by the rope cutter on the propeller shaft.  It was good to know the rope cutter works to stop ropes being tangled around the propeller, however it wasn’t so good that one of our long lines had been cut in half.  I decided to spend some time whipping the cut ends to tidy them up and stop them fraying further so at least the ropes could still be used; if somewhat shorter!  The wind dropped so we decided to put the motor back on, however, disaster, it wouldn’t start. 

By this point, early afternoon, we had reached half way, 1010 nautical miles.  We didn’t feel much like celebrating although were secretly pleased to be on the down hill run so to speak.  We tried to jump start the engine from the generator battery, no joy and spent the rest of the day and night bobbing and rolling along at a mere 3 knots.  Another big disappointment.  We needed to somehow fix the engine otherwise it would take forever to reach our destination if the wind didn’t pick plus it would be a nightmare to moor the boat with no manoeuvrability.  Yet another dreadful night’s sleep with something else to worry about.

Thursday 17 November – North Atlantic Ocean

Hot and sunny once again with very little wind, just 5 knots, we were barely moving at speed 2.9 knots.  We were cheering if we went over 3 knots boat speed!  We moved our watches back 1 hour to start to adjust to Barbados time.  We would do this every few days until we’d gone back 4 hrs.  No sleep meant we were all pretty shattered.  Ken spoke to Bill in America for engine advice.  He suggested we try to manually crank the engine as the shaft from the gearbox to the engine wouldn’t turn. 

Luckily by 1430 hrs the wind had risen to 13 knots so our boat speed was up to 5.5 knots.  We still had 916 miles to go. There were 11 boats ahead of us, 21 behind.  We had daily position updates e-mailed to us by the rally organisers.  Twice a day we had to transmit a signal giving our position so the website could be updated with our progress. 

In trying to crank the engine, whilst in the depths of the engine bay, we discovered the exhaust pipe had been leaking, dripping water onto the starter motor rusting the cables and terminals connecting to it.  Ken tried to remove one of the cables but the stud sheared off.  He couldn’t do anything more until speaking to Bill again in America and downloading the starter motor wiring diagram.

Friday 18 November – North Atlantic Ocean

The weather was sunny with intermittent rain showers and mini squalls.  In daylight the squalls were easy to spot – the clouds joined the sea in a mushroom shape - so sail alteration could be done well in advance.

In between squalls the wind was very light so we decided to try once more raising the dagger-board using two ropes this time and different, scientifically calculated, lifting angles.  Ken went in the water, but after getting his leg caught between the ladder and boat and nearly breaking it (his leg not the ladder), he decided enough was enough and the dagger-board would just have to stay down until we were safely moored in Barbados and could address it then.

There were some big squalls during the night but Lady Rebel, with reduced sail, handled them well.  By the morning the wind was a steady 12 knots and we had 700 miles to go.

Saturday 19 November – North Atlantic Ocean

Sailing along nicely, I phoned Dad at 0830 hrs UTC (0630 hrs ships time) to wish him a Happy Birthday.  It was great to talk to both him and Mum.  I didn’t mention our dagger-board and engine issues as didn’t want to worry them.  I did however mention going for a swim in the beautiful warm blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean, so they assumed we were having a wonderful time!!

Following the wiring diagram instructions and tips from Bill in America, Ken managed to clean up the starter motor terminals and put the leads back on.  The engine started, woo-hoo; my goodness what a relief that was.  We quickly had to turn it off as the exhaust was still leaking but with a bit of sealant and duct tape Ken managed to temporarily fix it.  There was still a good breeze so we didn’t need the engine at this time but it was great to know it was working again.  There were a couple of big squalls through the night with torrential rain and big gusts of wind up to 30 knots but nothing the boat couldn’t handle and we were speeding along at 6.7 to 7 knots.

Sunday 20 November – North Atlantic Ocean

532 miles to go.  Still sleeping in the cockpit (well, trying to) as it was still too noisy to sleep below decks in our cabin, even with ear plugs.  Don and Ken tried sleeping in their cabins, the saloon, in the cockpit, but nowhere was conducive to sleeping.  The wind generator, situated above our aft cabin, seemed to be vibrating more than usual, thus creating extra noise so that along with the dagger-board made it impossible to sleep.  Ken did try to tighten the bolts to reduce the vibration but it really needed some anti-vibration material adding – another job to go on the list.

Ken and Don fixing the wind-generator!

It was an uneventful day and night; there were a couple of big squalls and we had to run the engine occasionally to top up the batteries but other than that we were sailing well.

Monday 21 November – North Atlantic Ocean

At 0900 hrs we had 380 miles left to go; the countdown was on!  The wind was good at 9-13 knots, boat speed 6 knots.  We were hoping to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday.  We were all very tired with not a lot of enthusiasm, not even to sunbath, so I spent the day reading.  We did briefly see a French boat also on the rally, called Balanec, 2 miles away from us but they were doing a different course and we soon lost sight of them.

Tuesday 22 November – North Atlantic Ocean

1100 hrs (Barbados/ships time) we had 194 miles to go.  Our hearts sank when we tried to start the engine to recharge the batteries and nothing happened.  After further investigation we realised the vibration from the dagger-board had caused the solenoid relay wire to come of its terminal.  This was easy to fix, just meant that before starting the engine each time we had to lift the floor boards into the engine bay and pop the wire back onto its terminal.  Obviously we would get this permanently fixed once moored.  Another job for the ever increasing list!

For most of the day it was raining and the wind kept changing direction which was most bizarre as we’d been used to the trade winds coming consistently from behind.  Secretly we were all happy to motor as just wanted to arrive at our destination. 

Ken called Stormbreaker who were just 15 miles ahead and in range on the VHF radio.  Peter informed us that yacht Oyster Bar had lost their autopilot and their chain link steering had broken.  They’d been communicating by SSB radio and e-mails.  They were having to steer manually with the emergency tiller which is not easy at the best of times.  There were only two of them on board (Karin and Holger) and they were having to swap every 1.5 hrs as it was such exhausting work to steer.  They still had 400 miles to go.  Tim and Sarah from yacht Gloria had four crew members and as they were relatively close by to Oyster Bar they sailed across to her and leant them one of their crew who transferred boats by means of swimming and a rope.  Very brave and very much appreciated by Oyster Bar as they were really struggling.  I decided after hearing this news, I wasn’t going to moan about our dagger-board again.  After all, we hadn’t taken on water so far so we assumed/hoped we probably wouldn’t do so at this late stage.

Wednesday 23 November – North Atlantic Ocean

We took it in turns to remove flying fish and the odd squid that landed regularly on the deck.  We found most of them in the mornings, stiff and smelly and certainly not edible!

We had a massive squall at 0530 hrs on Don’s shift.  I assisted getting the sails in as, surprise surprise, was struggling to sleep.  We were intermittently sailing then motor-sailing depending on wind strength and direction.  Sunrise was pretty impressive most mornings and always a welcome sight.

At 1000 hrs we were hit by a massive squall and torrential rain.  We were only 23 miles from Barbados, just over 3 hrs at 7.2 knots.  Stormbreaker were just 6.2 miles ahead of us and Thetis, a German catamaran 8.5 miles ahead.  It was amazing we were so close after doing over 2000 miles!  We didn’t have a hope of seeing land clearly, visibility was so poor.

At 1530 hrs, still in torrential rain, we arrived at Barbados, safe and sound and very relieved. We confess it was a bit of an anti-climax as no-one was around to meet us, presumably due to the rain.  Welcome to Barbados!

Once we’d moored up, before we’d even had a celebratory drink, we had to go to immigration and do the necessary paperwork.  We took champagne to boat Thetis and had a drink with them and Stormbreaker, both arriving just before us.

At 1800 hrs we got a taxi to Independence Square, next to the Careenage where some of the yachts who’d arrived before us had moved to, in the centre of Bridgetown.   The celebrations started here, to mark 50 years of independence for Barbados.  We and several others piled onto La Mischief, moored next to the bandstand, for drinks; it was so good to see friendly faces.  Later we went for a meal with Thetis and eventually crashed out on Lady Rebel absolutely shattered.  The first good night’s sleep in two weeks!

What an achievement.  We did it.  Lady Rebel did it.  Despite everything that went wrong, Lady Rebel held together and looked after us brilliantly.

Sadly, however, we missed The Maccas and Robbos on their cruise ship by just one day!