Azores To Ibiza.

01.06.2012:

We left Horta at 10:00 UTC after William and Filip had made our excellent “Good Luck” drawing on the pier in front of us. But, before we could cast the lines, we had to wait for our neighbour, “The British Drunken Skipper”, to show up and although we had made firm arrangements with him the day before, he did not show up at the agreed time and a friend went to his hotel room to wake him up. He was from day one a pain and totally careless, as well as drinking by far too much. I believe he was delivering the Dutch Swan back to Europe.

William turned out to be a great painting artist. We discussed what "good will painting" to leave in  Horta and I came up with my old suggestion about the New Dawn sunraise. He liked that idea and he had another great idea, which was rather involved and required more colours and different brushes. He made 2 great draft drawings. In the end he settled for the New Dawn sunraise painting. He skilfully found some paint laying around and used just 2 of my paint brushes to create a great painting. He is a great artist, and he started the painting as he came back from Pertes Sports Cafe well past midnight, to complete it early morning just before we left Horta. I believe the end result was absolutely excellent and I was surprised he made it and so well. Thank you William and thank you Filip!! Great job.

At first we had little wind out of Horta, but it improved close to Pico island, and then dropped again. As we were clearing the E point of Pico we received a good WSW wind and at times we passed 10 kn SOG.

Pico Island.

It is about 1.120 Nm to Gibraltar where we plan a short stop to drop off Jay, as his girlfriend will be there for a few days. It will be sad to see him leave us as he is a great chap and a pleasure to have on board.

The days are getting longer and Horta is the furthest N we will get in the Atlantic as our COG is now 91° T. Not until we are rounding the SE corner of Spain will we start heading back N again.

As I am writing this, I am on my watch (14:00-16:00) UTC and I am testing Auto. For the moment it works well, but still seems to consume too much power. The weather is sunny, but cool.  

02.06.2012 at 07:30:

We have had a bit of a wobbly night with a big swell from WSW and variable wind. By 05:30 the wind dropped to 2 kn and Volvo was called into action. At 08:00 we are still motor sailing with no wind in sight, except that in front of us is a huge very dark cloud covering 180° of the horizon. I expect it might bring wind and almost for certain rain.

News as to the crew:

As I mentioned earlier, Jay’s girlfriend is flying to Malaga in a few days time and we will drop him off in Gibraltar, where they will spend a few days before he heads for Morocco and she for Tanzania to take up a 4 months job at Doctors Sans Frontieres.

Filip has to be in Sweden for tax reasons by 14 June, so it will be a rush to get to Palma or Ibiza in time.

William needs to be in St Andrews University for his brother’s graduation on 20 June, but might join his family before that in Croatia.  

03.06.2012 at 06:30 UTC:

As no wind came our way, we ended up exercising Volvo for 18 h. What a bore. By the end of my watch at 24:00, the wind had finally moved from NW to SW which I had expected since early evening and it started to pick up from 2 kn to 8 kn (T) and I finally rolled out the sails hoping that it was for real this time. It was indeed and we have had a pleasant 10-11 kn from SW since midnight and as the seas have not yet had time to build up, it is relatively flat with just the 1.5 m S swell, which mean that SOG is a satisfactorily 6.8-8.8 kn.

We have at present, sailed 262 Nm (GPS straight line) since leaving Horta and have about 850 Nm to Gibraltar.

Crew: William will unfortunately also get off in Gibraltar as he has desided, after all, to meet up with his family in Croatia, before he goes to St Andrews. Filip is likely to remain on-board until 12-13 June, but it will be very tight for us to reach Palma/Ibiza by then. Perhaps we should head for Ibiza, as it is a bit shorter to get there.

As I am writing this, we have a partly clear sky above us, but clouds further away. A magnificent sun raise again and thus a New Dawn is born, and we have kind seas, nice steady wind and good speed. What a pleasure. This is part of the good 10% of sailing. Remember that sailing is 90% hassle and 10% pleasure. Equally the sunset is very nice.

 Atlantic Sunset.

At 16:15:

My watch is over and we have had a great sail with max speed of 10.4 kn and the seas relatively kind from 150° on SB. As it is Sunday, we had eggs and bacon for breakfast, i.e. at 12:00, as with the watch system there is always someone a sleep, or coming out of, or going to bed. The weather is kind to us as the sky is now clear and the wind is almost steady from SW at 10-19 kn, which, with a COG of 93° T, is ideal for us. We all enjoy the fast ride and have had a good 24 h run.

04.06.2012 at 06:50 UTC:

Great sailing the last 24 h with a run of 168 Nm, which is good and caused by a relatively steady SW wind of 8-12 kn.

Last night was another “Starry, Starry Night...” and almost full moon, which is always nice to have while at sea, as we can see the horizon. Everyone are happy with New Dawn’s performance and enjoy fully the sailing here in the middle of the Atlantic.

05.06.2012 at 06:30 UTC:

Not much to write home about, except that after a great run the last days, the wind died away yesterday PM and has since been 4-10 kn from WSW (right aft) and our speed had dropped to 4.5-6.5 kn.

On a more positive side, it is sunny and getting warmer during the day, bur remain cold and humid at night. The sea temperature is now creeping back over 20° C. Our position is: 36°57.895N; 016°46.688W and we have 554 Nm to Gibraltar and has covered 571 Nm since leaving Horta, we are thus half way. The modes are fine.

My only complains are that New Dawn cleanliness leaves much to be desired. Both Chris and I cleaned New Dawn extensively and the yacht was spotless before we set out from St Martin – in my opinion. That has severally changed and everything is now greasy, the carpets full of spots, which for me is difficult to bear. I have repeatedly asked that we don’t make all this mess, but I seems to have failed. During the first part of the crossing, from St Martin to Horta, I generally cleaned the kitchen  and the walls/cupboards after my night watch, but that task is now so overwhelming, that I have given up this each night task. Will we be able to get New Dawn back to it previous spotless state, is a question, but loads of work will have to be done and I doubt it will be done before the crew leaves.  What a pity and waste of time.

The other complaint is that we seem to run out very quickly of the good food, snacks, etc., and no one respect the share principal. We are running out of many of the goodies, including the items I had stocked up on my own account and considered for the boat. This is a pity and I don’t see why some don’t understand that they can eat, say, 25% (as we are 4) and then leave the rest to others. No, some have to eat it all as quick as possible and nothing left for the others. I know from experience that this ends up giving frictions. In any case it is unfair and each time I mention it, it is obviously not that person.

One problem showed up, as the front WC was blocked. Jay did a great job with the help from Filip. They took the front cupboard apart and found a blockage of the exit pipe. Most of the afternoon they spend on it and it was a very messy job, with sewage in the bilges. But it was repaired by evening and we are all set again. I did remind us all not to put Kleenex, etc. in the WC as it seems to blog it. Well it was a scare and hopefully a lesson for us all to be more prudent with the WC.

07.06.2012 at 08:45:

A bit difficult sailing last night as the wind was right behind us. But the moon came up before midnight. By 05:15, I was getting up for my 06:00 watch, and we received a big squall with rain, strong wind and worth, a large and quick wind shift from SW to NW, which took Jay by surprise and he gybed accidentally. Good we have the Boom Break rigged, as otherwise these gybe usually will break something on this size yacht. Nothing broken this time and I quickly got up to give him a hand, where I reefed both sails, while Jay did his best to keep the course, which is not easy in these conditions. Then the plan was to get a cup of coffee and my b’fast, before I woke up Filip and William, so we could take off the spinnaker boom, which all three performed, by now, expertly, as they have now established a routine between them, while I steer to ease to motion of New Dawn and make them work on deck more safely and comfortably.

To celebrate the good work they did, Filip made Pancakes with Syrup. Extremely unhealthy, but great nevertheless......

During the crossing we have, so far, only seen two sailing yachts and I guess four cargo/container ships/tankers. But as we are getting closer to Gibraltar the commercial ships are more apparent. This night we were on a CPA (Closest Point of Approach) of 0 Nm within 7 min of a big tanker and I was preparing the VHF to take contact with it to ensure they knew of our existence. As I was ready to call them, they changed course 16° to the N and we passed each other at about one Nm distance. In general the commercial ships prefer to pass other ships, including yachts, with a distance of 1-2 Nm.

We are now 277 Nm to my WP W of Tarifa, which is about 10 Nm from the Gibraltar Rock. Horta is 835 Nm away and Marigot Bay is 2.936 Nm away (all at GPS straight line). 

08.06.2012 at 06:15 UTC:

The wind changed yesterday PM within seconds from SW to NW. The change was so sudden that Jay accidentally Gybed, but without any damage. Then the wind changed further to N and increased to 19 kn. I reefed the mainsail with 2 reefs and left the Genoa full, to balance New Dawn better in the swell of 2.5 m from NW. Speed increased satisfactorily.

The nights are cold, but this night we had a great fast sail averaging around 8.6 kn (range of 7.4-10.2 kn). Highest speed so far on this Atlantic crossing was 12.2 kn on Jay’s watch. But this is too fast for me as it tends to cause wild movements of the yacht and I usually reef sails, before we break anything, as this speed is over the design hull speed.

The Moon is up each night before midnight and it is great to be able to see the horizon and the swell. The sun is now up and we have hardly any clouds, which might promise a good warm day ahead. But the sun is right in front as we are heading almost E, so I guess we will need some suncream on the nose tips.

We are getting closer to the Gibraltar Straight (132 Nm ahead of us) and the commercial ships has increased considerably during the last 40 h with cargo ships all around us. I just had one “OPPS Hamburg” that was coming from aft Port and ended up getting a bit too close as the CPA stood at first at almost 0 Nm at 23:00 last night. Again, I was preparing to call him on CH 16, as any ship getting within 1 Nm, is dangerous, in my opinion. He did change his course 1° and increased his speed a bit, but this only made the situation worth. Fortunately we received a nice increase in wind strength and in the end he passed 0.6 Nm aft of us. A silly captain.

We have still not seen many yachts. In fact we have only seen two. One close to Pico Island and the second out here a few days ago. Bbut we have heard two French yachts calling on the VHF, so they must have been withing 20-40 Nm. But they did not show up on the radar, nor on the AIS.

Believe it or not. Out here are two shallow areas, namely the “Monte” Gettysburg.” at position: 36°31N; 011°33W, with only 20 m over it and the other “Gettysburg (Gorringen)” at position: 36°42N; 011°08W, with 34 m of water over it. I had no idea that, so far out in the Atlantic, were such shallow areas. The “Monte Gettysburg” is marked with a navigation light over it and the current increases around them as they raise from 4.000/5.000 m to only 20/34 m within a short distance. Interesting though and we learn each day, even out here. Is this where the Atlantic was located? Tell the Turks, the Greeks, the Bermudans, the Virgin Islands, and many other nations that claim Atlantic was in their territory.

Our distance to Gibraltar is now 140 Nm and Horta and Marigot Bay are respectively 978 Nm and 3.079 Nm away (GPS straight line). The Trip Log shows that I have sailed 9.390 Nm since summer 2010. 

The swell and waves have moderated a little bit as we have the Portugal and Spain mainland (Faro) at 90% on Port side. The Fetch (distance from land to a point; in this case New Dawn) where the wind and waves can increase and build up, is now only 55 Nm, meaning that the wind and waves are less important than if the Fetch would be larger. 

09.06.2012:

We arrived at my usual anchorage at La Ligne De Conception, Spain, next to Gibraltar at 08:00. The night before was very unpleasant with strong current and wind conflicting and giving a confused sea. For 3 hours it was almost impossible to steer and at the end I started Volvo as it became unbearable to sail. Well we arrived well and it was sad to say farewell to Jay and William. We have been together for 32 days and they were good company and a pleasure to have on-board New Dawn.

 Filip's shopping done and awaiting to be picked up, while Jay and Crystal wait.

 The Moroccan side of the Straight of Gibraltar.

 At anchor in La Ligne De Conception with the Gibraltar Rock in the background.

 Gibraltar Rock as we sail E.

 Sunrise.

 Total Nm sailed since July 2010 was 11.119 Nm and Trip log stood at over 9.999 Nm..

Last night I crossed my departure line of summer 2010 and have thus done what is generally called "An Atlantic Circuit” and my mileage logged was 11.119 Nm. 

It might be interesting to compare the above electronic chart showing the trip from France to the Caribbean and return, with the below manually produced route on the paper chart, where, at noon each day, I plot our position.

 This shows my Atlantic Circuit route and dates.

Filip went for a quick shopping and as Jay’s girlfriend had hired a car, his tasks were quickly done. In the meantime, I tidied up New Dawn and started to prepare her for the trip E and N, as well as digging out the charts and pilots we needed.

Maximum speed logged was 10.4 kn today, but Jay logged 12.2 kn the other days.

After picking up Filip and the shopping, I hoisted the tender and by 12:00 we headed out to sea, receiving 36 kn wind close hauled (Gale), which was handled by reefing a lot and once turning E, the strong wind became manageable and we speeded Eastwards.

10.06.2012 at 00:10:
Had to start the engine, as the strong wind finally abated. But we had a good and fast sail after leaving Gibraltar Rock with a good 32-37 kn from W. The f’cast mentioned a “Special Gala warning”, a term that is new to me, so we waited to see what that would bring us. OK we had strong wind aft and the fast sail until evening, but the the wind died slowly. Is that a “Special Gale”? We had to Gybe many times as the wind moved from side to side. So Volvo was asked to consume some fuel, as I wished to round the Caop De Gata (SE point of Spain), before a new weather system would arrive and hopefully take advantage of the Westerly winds f’cast. However none of that was to come as the f’cast was completely wrong. So we have wobbled with little wind and we have had strong winds, all day. But the sun shines and it is nice warm in the sun. The temperature of the sea is now 20 °C.

The commercial traffic S of us is enormous, with commercial ships in both the W and E going TSS (Trafic Separation Scheme), like on Pearl strings. I am amazed that the AIS can pick up these ships 157 Nm E of us and 85 Nm to the W. I use a VHF antennae which in general has a range of “line of sight”, i.e. about 30 Nm. Still learning....

As we are just the two of us, we use a watch system of two h on and two h off. But it does not allow us to recuperate enough as we have so many other tasks to take care of like, Emails, cooking, dish washing, charging batteries, make water, hand steer, navigate, etc, etc.. So this morning I suggested we change the watch system to three h on and three h off. Hopefully it should allow more and better sleep, and the first signs are positive.

Distance to Horta: 1.223 Nm; to Marigot Bay: 3.337 Nm and Gib: 113 Nm (GPS straight line).

11.06.2012 at 09:15 UTC:

The wind is unsteady and dropped during the night to almost nothing. Welcome to the Med. By 09:00 SOG was 1.8 kn so Volvo went into action.

One positive thing is that we got a great sunrise.

More shipping.

We are now 145 Nm from Ibiza’s Airport where Filip will fly home to Sweden. Water temperature is now 22° C and raising.

The f’cast is confusing and I am preparing New Dawn for a blow tonight.

12.06.2012 at 12:00 UTC:

This time the f'cast was, unfortunately correct as we went through a Gale last night with adverse wind (on the nose) and big waves. Not funny at all.... This morning the wind is still on the nose and we are tacking the last 45 Nm; s.... 

In the end we managed tracking most of the day and arrived in Ibiza at 16:00 and anchored to the E of Ibiza harbour in a nice bay. We now need to get the plane reservation for Filip, something to eat (Pasta al Pesto done by me??) and some well deserved sleep. But not much sleep as Filip reserved a flight departing at 06:00 and I woke him up at 04:30 so I could dinghy him to the shore.

The blisters on an office boy's hand after a months at the wheel.