Atlantic Crossing Day 2 – Tuesday 28^th February 2023.

Last night started with a dismal dinner, as neither of us could be bothered to go and cook anything. I managed some spaghetti with sardines in the end, but I don’t think the mate was too impressed. Still with very short seas running at 3m with a cross swell I thought I’d done quite well.

The wind actually calmed down a bit during the night and enabled us to get some much needed sleep. Probably 5 hours each in two batches, so we’ve still been trying to snooze today. The seas today are pretty confused , although not quite as bad as I thought the grib files suggested. Speaking of weather, we had a lovely text from our friend John Kretschmer giving very good weather data – not many people can say that they’ve had John offering them info along the way. We are truly fortunate indeed! We are promised calming conditions over the next few days. This is good,  because the number 4 jib still lays strapped to the foredeck (seas too big for a tired short-handed crew to go onto the foredeck, except in an emergency and given we are doing 6 knots anyway – this isn’t an emergency!)

This morning, as I was reaching over to the side deck, my hand grasped something rather slippery – a flying fish! These beautiful little creatures keep landing on the deck and they can’t get off. Silly things. Still, they may provide some good photos for my friend’s daughter who might share some of our adventures with her class at school (she’s the teacher by the way). I’ll try to get some next time…

Today, the sun is hot - at last! I’ve been waiting since the summer of 1976 to see some real sun again – I’m pleased to report that it’s here. To a Brit, the sun is, as JK would say, “not lost, just hard to find”.

Our main issue at the moment is that our delightful duogen is covered in Sargasso weed. This weed is all over the place. The last time I was sailing this way (2013) I saw none of it. This time, the Atlantic is covered with it. The duogen seems to be spinning properly and our batteries are fully charged, so given the sea state (and the fact that the duogen is a pig to retrieve) we’ll leave it until tomorrow.

As I write (1600 GMT) we are two full days into the crossing and have covered approximately 260NM, maybe more – I haven’t measured it yet. These aren’t remarkable distances, but pretty good with only the reefed main genoa doing the work and given the seas we’ve had. What I’m looking forward to is calmer sea and the twin headsails up – these should pull us along at a nice pace under full control. Which is great, because I’m already dreaming of palm trees, coconuts, rum punch and all other things Caribbean…

The mate is pleased with herself as she may have discovered that Iridium text messages to John Kretschner are possibly free. Mmm, I’m not sure I believe that, I’ll let you know.

What’s for tea the mate wants to know; no idea is my reply. Anyway  it’s the mate’s turn, the trouble is I always do the meals early in a passage whilst the mate finds her sea legs. So, as she’s a veggie, I can’t just fry up a couple of sausages or open a tin of corned beef – pasta again then I ask? Yum, yum…