The Atlantic Crossing

We made it!  After 18 days and 15 minutes sailing 2310 nm from Mindelo, Cape Verde, we arrived at Blue Lagoon on St Vincent in the Caribbean.  We crossed the Atlantic Ocean in our 12m sail boat.  Good on ya, Songster!

The start of the second leg of the rally from Mindelo was a lot of fun.  The 20 boats in the fleet going to St Vincent went first followed a half hour later by the approximately 75 boats headed to Rodney Bay in St Lucia.  Nothing is prettier than seeing a fleet of boats heading out of a harbour under sail, and even better to be part of that fleet.

Next stop - St Vincents

Passing Illheu dos Passaros outside Mindelo harbour

The fleet going to St Lucia

The fleet spreading out - Songster in red

Did the crossing meet expectations?  Yes and no.  I am definitely glad we did it.  I didn’t feel bored or apprehensive or lonely but it was a test of endurance and patience.  I loved looking out at the vast expanse of ocean and sky.  The ocean was constantly changing and quite mesmerizing.  I liked the isolation – just us and the ocean. For most of the time, we determined that the closest human habitation was the International Space Station, in orbit 254 miles away.

Just us and the ocean

Spinnaker up for the light winds

Rainbow at sea after a squall

However I do wish we had seen more wild life.  In the entire 18 days I saw dolphins only once for about 5 minutes.  Phoebe saw a dolphin and a pilot whale each very briefly.  Other than those few sightings the only other signs of fauna were flying fish and the occasional lone sea bird.  There were no turtles or sail fish or big schools of fish that we could see.

The other disappointment was that we never really had any of the iconic ocean sunsets and sunrises.  There were always clouds on the horizon obscuring the sun as it went down or came up.  I began to think perhaps we really were in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld floating on the back of a giant turtle and for us, enclosed in a cloud fence.  Nevertheless the clouds often made for beautiful sunsets in their own right.

 

 

 

The cloud fence

On day 12 of the passage I wrote the following:  ‘Intellectually when I think that here we are, four people on a small 39 foot sail boat, who have been together in this small space 24/7 for 12 solid days at sea with sleep deprivation and interrupted sleep patterns, no one to talk to but ourselves or maybe occasionally someone on the radio every few days, nothing but the big blue of the waves and sky to look at, hardly any wildlife to distract us, just the occasional lone sea bird and some flying fish, no boats sighted for days on end, constant movement, always with one hand on the boat while being bumped and tossed around, absolutely no idea what is going on in the rest of the world – I wonder why we aren't all going crazy?  Yet I find I am quite content.  

The days roll by.  The ocean waves are constantly changing. The clouds move around the sky and there is the constant sound of Songster rushing through the water.  I think I like the night watches the best.  The boat is dark and quiet.  Everyone is asleep and the sounds of the ocean and wind are amplified.  The stars come out.  The moon casts a silvery glow over the waves.  The boat produces phosphorescence as it glides through the water.  I sit in the dark cockpit by myself listening to classical music while taking it all in.’  

A rare time seeing another yacht - Catweazle overtaking us

Early morning squall coming

We slept when we could and there were the occassional repairs at sea.  We read lots of books, chatted and got together for meals.

Lee clothes and snacks all ready

Repairs at sea:  fixing the hoop on the spinnaker sock

Checking the navigation lights for salt corrosion

But by day 15, I think we all had had enough rocking and rolling and we wanted to get to land.  We were fantasizing about rum punches and restaurant meals, long walks and most importantly, sleeping a full night in a bed that wasn't constantly moving!  We were incessantly calculating the VMG (velocity made good) miles, DTD (distance to destination) and counting how many more sleeps until we would arrive at St Vincent.

Reg and Phoebe making a video for their grandchildren

Although the last leg of the Atlantic crossing was 18 days of continuous sailing, the whole process took months.  We left La Linea in Spain the 4^th of October, had a day sail to Tangiers where we spent 2 nights, then a 5 day sail to Lanzarote in the Canaries where again we spent 2 nights, then an overnight sail to Las Palmas where we spent almost a month, which was probably 2 weeks longer than needed. Then the 6 day sail to Mindelo, spending 2 nights there and finally the 18 day sail to St Vincent, arriving on 9 December – 75 days in total and 3,947 nm or, for landlubbers, 7310 km.

So will we do another ocean crossing?  Probably not, but then again the vast vista of waves and sky can be very seductive.

New Rigging and on to Mindelo – the passage from hell!

Once we returned to the pontoon after our near catastrophic rigging failure following the start of the ARC+ Rally from Las Palmas, we got in touch with the Oyster crew for some advice about repairs.  Although it was a Sunday afternoon, Eddy and Andy were there within the hour.  They checked out the damage, were obviously quite concerned but incredibly professional.  They were extremely reassuring and I found my heart rate beginning to return to normal.  They promised to be back first thing Monday morning.

Eight o’clock the next morning the team were there checking every bit of the rigging.  We wanted to replace all the Norseman fittings.  Essentially it was decided to replace all the rigging as it was over ten years old, except for the fore and back stays which had been replaced last year in Lefkas.  Oyster negotiated with Alisios, the rigging shop, for the work to be done.  They were brilliant.  In a day and one half they made up and replaced 7 new shrouds with swaged fittings.  Then the Oyster crew returned to tune the rigging and make the final adjustments.  By Tuesday afternoon the work was done and Songster was better than ever.

Will from Oyster and Reg watching the riggers

Andy up the mast

One of the men from Alisios

We could have left that afternoon and been only 2 days behind the fleet but we felt it was more prudent to get a good night’s sleep and have a full 12 hours of daylight to get into the groove of our 6 day passage to Mindelo.  At daybreak on Wednesday we once again dropped our mooring lines and left Las Palmas for Mindelo.

Leaving Las Palmas - take 2

There were about 3 other boats that did not start with the main rally.  They delayed their departure because they wanted a better weather window.  We had had a briefing from the meteorologist and the weather did look like it would be a bit less blustery on Wednesday than it was on Sunday when the rally started.  One of the boats, Catweazle left with us on Wednesday morning and we sailed in company for a few hours.

The passage to Mindelo was rough.  We headed south from Gran Canaria and went wide to avoid the notorious acceleration zone located southeast of the airport area.  About an hour into the passage the sea state became confused with 3-4 metre swells.  Suddenly I began to feel a bit queasy and then was hit by full on Mal de Mare.  I never had this before on Songster.  Fortunately it lasted for only 24 hours and then I had my sea legs.

Although I had gotten my sea legs back, the sea state never really improved for the whole passage; continuous confused seas with 3-4 metre swell and surface waves in different directions, winds gusting to 25 – 30 knots.  It was impossible to do anything below decks as we were being tossed about.  Everything had to be done by bracing ourselves against bulkheads and holding on with one hand.  Meal preparation which was just heating up our pre-prepared meals was still an ordeal.  

We had to wear full foul weather gear on night watches.  Songster, with its high freeboard, had never gotten more than a few drops of water in the cockpit during her sailing in the Mediterranean.  But the high freeboard was no match for the Atlantic conditions we were experiencing.  We were frequently getting waves splashing into the cockpit.  One night on my watch, a wave came right over the side of the cockpit, straight down the companionway and landed on top of Reg’s head as he lay sleeping in the lee berth.  Poor Reg got water in his ear and couldn’t hear for a few hours.  For the next 24 hours until conditions settled down a bit, we had to sail with the washboard in the companionway to keep things dry below.

For a video of the waves see: https://youtu.be/CWR2gry2lpE  

But the waves never look as big in the pictures.

On the approach to Mindelo the wind funnelled between the islands causing choppy seas and nasty gusts – just to end a bad passage with a final kick.  Finally after 6 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes we completed the 898 nm passage from the Canaries to Cape Verde.  It was a fast passage, averaging 5.9 knots, but a rough one!

Approaching Mindelo on Sao Vicente

 

898 nautical miles from Las Palmas to Mindelo

As we approached our berth in the marina, the crew from Wolo, Marco and Luci, were waiting to greet us with beers in hand.  Lots of people came up to us saying how they were so glad to see us and were worried about how we were doing after our rigging failure.  Everyone also admitted that they had had quite rough passages as well.  Some of us who had never sailed the Atlantic were a bit concerned that conditions would be like that all the way across to the Caribbean.

That night was the prize giving ceremony.  It was held in a lovely old fish factory cum event centre.  Everyone was in a jubilant mood having gotten through the rough passage to Mindelo.  A fantastic local rum punch was served and lots of Cape Verdean food specialities.  I took a fancy to the fried flying fish – delicious.  A local dance troupe gave a performance – could they move!  And of course Phoebe joined in too.

 For a video of the dance troupe see:  https://youtu.be/2lUcvH2vsI0

 

The dance troupe in Mindelo

Phoebe getting in on the action

The sailors listening to the presenters

The evening was a great introduction to Cape Verde.  Cape Verde is an archipelago of 10 islands located about 600 km off the Northwest coast of Africa.  These islands were uninhabited until the 15^th Century when the Portuguese colonized them.  The area became integral to the Atlantic slave trade and a haven for merchants, privateers and pirates.  The archipelago gained independence from Portugal in 1975.  Today Cape Verde is an important commercial centre on the trans-Atlantic shipping route.  The country is one of the healthiest in Africa and ranked as a medium developed nation on par with the development of Morocco.

I was really looking forward to exploring the town the next day.  Sadly we arrived too late for the complementary tour of the island that was provided by the ARC+ Rally. Mindelo is located on the island of São Vicente with an island population of 70,000 people.  We spent our one day on the island walking around the pretty town of Mindelo and taking in the atmosphere.  I found the people of Mindelo strikingly beautiful, friendly and proud of their island nation.

The streets of Mindelo

Art relief at the Markets

Reg relaxing on the minimalist bench at the markets

We were sad to leave the island so soon.  I would have dearly loved to further explore this appealing country and its beautiful people but the Atlantic Crossing was ahead for us.

The Rally Start and a Big Bang!

The week before the official start of the ARC+ Rally, Phoebe and I spent 3 days cooking, freezing and vacuum packing meals for the passage.  A large Canadian catamaran on our pontoon, Two Canoes, kindly loaned us their portable freezer while they were off for a few days sightseeing.  The freezer on Songster will keep things frozen but only if they are already frozen solid.  By the end of the marathon cooking session our freezer was absolutely stuffed with nearly 20 main meals just ready to be thawed and heated while on passage.  Plus we had lockers full of tinned and dried food for more meals.

Prepping the veggies

Last minute extra provisions

Then on the first of November the official activities of the ARC+ Rally started.  The next 10 days was a whirlwind of safety inspections, seminars and lots of social activities.  The benefits of joining a rally rather than crossing independently really came to the fore over this time.  The seminars were very good and informative.  We went to talks on Weather and Routing, Provisioning, Management of Emergencies, Downwind Sailing Tips, Communications, First Aid at Sea and an interactive Liferaft Demo.

All the emergencies we could be facing

Checking out the grib files

Life raft demo

Every night was a social activity.  There was the welcome party, daily sundowners, crew dinners, a costume party (we didn’t go to this) and on Friday the big Farewell party – given two nights before the start to ensure people had clear heads on the Sunday of the rally start.  There are nearly 100 boats participating in the ARC+ Rally which includes 450 people, 80 are children sailing with their families.

Celebrating with new friends from Wolo and Xerric

Some of the children going on the ARC+ Rally

The welcoming party

Crew dinner

 One of the added benefits for us was that Oyster Yachts, the manufacturer of Songster, provides a whole team of very professional, knowledgeable and friendly staff to inspect all the Oyster yachts in the fleet.  The ARC+ Rally had about 8 Oysters and the larger ARC rally starting two weeks later had about double that number or more.  

Now our little Oyster 39, built in 1979, is definitely the very poor cousin to the modern Oyster Yachts that are mostly over 60 feet long, very luxurious and cost ten times more than our little boat.  But the team of Eddie, Gavin, Paul, Will and Andy from Oyster were fantastic – thoroughly nice guys that were really fun to talk to.  They were genuinely interested in our boat and seemed impressed with the characteristics of this ‘classic’ Oyster.  They offered lots of helpful suggestions about the various systems.  A thorough check of all the major systems; steering, deck fittings, sea cocks, generator, engine was done and they spent nearly 2 hours with us.  When they left on Thursday afternoon they said a rigger would be by to check the rig and apologised that this was delayed but their normal rigger was ill and they had to fly another in from England.

On Friday night Oyster had a cocktail party at the very pretty hotel, Hotel Santa Catalina, for all the Oyster crews.  It was a very pleasant get together with great canapés and plenty of wine.  From there we went to the ARC+ Farewell Party, a much bigger do with a live band and even more wine and beer flowing.  I was beginning to feel like we were going from one booze-up to another all week!  Anyway it was a great time and Reg and Phoebe danced the light fantastic.

Live band at the Farewell Party

Reg and Phoebe enjoying the music

The next afternoon Andy, the rigger from Oyster, came to check our rig.  He found that the baby stay had some broken strands and needed to be replaced.  The local rigging shop, Alisios, was fantastic and quickly made up a new swaged shroud for us and Andy installed it by nightfall.  The team returned the next morning, a few hours before the start of the rally, for a quick tuning of the shroud and apologised that they ran out of time to check the rest of the rigging.  As all this work was gratis and an added bonus for us, we were just grateful these great guys came along to check what they did.  Ultimately the responsibility for our boat is ours alone.  However the rigging proved to be our Achilles heel. 

The big start of the rally was at 1 pm Sunday 10 November.  We dropped the mooring lines a bit after midday to head out to the starting line.  There was lots of good energy in the air.  Everyone was excited, wishing each other all the best.  It was a great sight to see 94 boats lining up ready to start the ocean rally.  It is not a race but there is a saying that whenever there are two or more sailboats on the same body of water then it is a race.  The conditions were blustery and waves quite high.  Everyone was anticipating a fast first leg of the rally.

Heading out to the start

Approaching the start line

Waves blocking out the hulls of the boats

Some more of the fleet

Songster zooming along

We were zooming along with a mizzen and the genoa when there was a loud BANG and the port (left) intermediate stay on the main mast had detached.  The Norseman fitting which fastens the metal shroud to the deck had just cracked in two.  The main mast was swaying dangerously.  The crew all did what needed to be done and no one panicked.  We quickly got the sails in and tightened the running back stay to give some support to the swaying mast and limped back to port.  We were all safe but with very increased heart rates and, of course, we were feeling rather sad and disappointed.  We were just grateful that this major rigging failure happened only a few miles out of port and not 1000 miles into the Atlantic.

The shroud on the far left was the culprit that failed

The cracked Norseman fitting