Downhill to Flying Fish Country

X-ing File #3_ Canaries to Cape Verdes

The Kiwi’s near us on the same dock were leaving Saturday (30th December 2017).  We decided to take the plunge too.  The first day was a fine trip (read – we initially motored as the wind was slight!).  As they say, all good things must end – and so it did!  Had we just enjoyed downwind sailing conditions offered by constant trade winds, things might have been ok.  However, nature did what nature does best, so we had an accompanying swell from recent (and probably far away) Atlantic storms on one quarter and to even the odds, more swell from the east.  When all three met, we rocked and rolled in variable 25+ knot winds, making life rather unpleasant.  At least we moved with some speed, even maxing out at 8kn as we surfed the swell.  Just as well the Cap’n had earned his surfing stripes in the Faro canal earlier this year.

Somehow, we punched on through, winds abated and we settled into more manageable conditions.  That’s not to say that the rocking and rolling stopped.  Still, we were kept amused.  A pod of dolphins, numbering in the hundreds, visited over two days, showing off with an impressive and daring display of acrobatics and speed surfing.  They can spin on a dime…  We also saw, rather closely, a pilot whale and later, a turtle who looked as if he was planning to swim to the Canaries overarm.  On the seventh and final day of this leg, we were escorted into Mindelo Harbour (and wonderful, calm waters, woohoo!) by a family of birds.  It seems our wake disrupts their favourite snack - tasty flying fish; we certainly had accumulated quite the collection on WJ3's deck over the week.

So, just what do sailors do over these days at sea.  The Cap’n tells me he thinks of maintaining Windjammer’s forward momentum, weather and food.  Obviously, safety is an issue as is sleep.  We normally do 2 hour “shifts” at night (from dusk to dawn) and doze during the day to recover any lost sleep.  Shifts are filled in with checking the horizon for shipping (at 10 minute intervals), there’s sails to adjust, routes to plot & record (write our log), books to read, music to listen to and if conditions allow, a little deck dancing for exercise.  Meals are simple and very plain (mostly prepared by the Cap’n if it’s rough).  Bert Hydrovane (our self-steering gear) does an outstanding job as the third “man” and best of all, he’s cheap to keep and doesn’t complain.

The best thing on passage is seeing land, hopefully, our destination.  We still remember the sweet smell of mother earth wafting off Flores (Azores, 2011) after 20 days at sea…. 

(We're about to head off and take the long plunge across to Barbados, leaving any internet connections behind - for now at least!  It should take about 20 days or so, and as we will not be posting on route, the best place to follow our track is from the "map & tracker" tab above.  Don't worry if you see us drop to the latitudes of Brazil, it's probably GS entering numbers into our satellite coms system in the wrong order - again! Once in the Caribbean, it will be back to catch-as-catch-can cafe internet connections, so things could slow down for a while.  Wish us luck!!)