Boat and crew - and wind

Weather windows are a difficult subject among sailors. Do you need an entire period of safe sailing or are forecasts worthless after five days?



I've always tried to hang on to forecasts as long as possible. Even when the actual conditions weren't the way the forecast predicted, I've always used them to understand what was going on. It helps to study weather fenomena extensively, of course. I've been watching weather develop for ten years now, and I've got a decent idea where it's all coming from and what the effects are.

But the most difficult part of understanding weather is trying to get a grip on the medium term forecast three to five days on, and devising strategies to handle what it throws at you in the middle of the ocean.

Being without detailed forecasts for ten days in the middle of the Atlantic did my interpreting skills a lot of good. With just a general synopsis, limited to the hazards to shipping from Bermuda Navtex, I drew my own little maps and tried to devise what the wind would do next. The best I got from that were short term forecasts, and they couldn't account for everything we got in those days.

I realized the relativity of long term forecasts even better than I already had in the past. They depend heavily on up-to-date information, something we couldn't get without satellite phone. But at least it didn't get us into trouble, like when we evaded the Easterly gale with a three days out of date forecast.

So we come back to the weather window. Is it good up to three days into the future, or is only the next day forecast dependable? It of course depends on the area you are in. In the Western Europe waters, the weather is highly unpredictable. Today we're getting a forecast for a gale passing tomorrow, and its position has shifted by a couple hundred Miles in the past few days. When we leave tomorrow night, we'll get a second, smaller depression to provide us with good winds for the first three days. Or so the forecast says. But it could be more, less, or from a slightly different direction.

So does this help us make a good decision on when to leave - and where to?

Well it helps, but if it will turn out to be adequate for a good crossing, is something that remains to be seen. With good continuing weather updates, we will hopefully escape the worst and get the best wind for a fast crossing. But that gale that's still lurking on the East coast of the U.S., might get us in the end, just before we reach the Isles of Scilly. Because that is ten days on, and no forecast can predict the weather in a certain location that far into the future.

So for that gale we might come to depend on our fallback position, which is a very sturdy boat and a hardened crew.

The log entries

So, what happened?

Well, we set out all very happy and content, with a good weather forecast and in high spirits. The first few days were nice and quiet, a bit light on the wind side but making quite good progress otherwise.

From the log:

Saturday May 23 - We covered 111 Miles in the past 24 hours. Still 1790 to go. We got the tail of an active thunderstorm over us last night, without any serious consequence. The wind is now South East 8 to 10 knots.

Then a high established itself on our path, giving strong Easterlies. The log gives an impression:

Monday April 25 - We have had to sail North West yesterday in strong winds up to 30 knots - a tough nut to crack! We covered 140 Miles in 24 hours but only gained 7 Miles Eastward. Still 1731 Miles to go.

After the high passed, we got light winds once more, but from the South East, so we got some Easting done.

But then our luck ran out. From the log:

Friday April 29 - Where to start? We can't use the engine because the gearbox has jammed. We were lucky to replace the shroud chainplate connector after we found out it almost broke in half, but we've had to jury rig the baby stay as already 7 wires had parted. A couple of awkward moments passed while the mast was swaying around only supported with the top shroud whilst getting the baby stay connector in place of the broken one.
1460 Miles remain to be covered under jury rig.

We were still making relatively good progress, until a forecast depression forced us South:

Saturday April 30 - We have advanced beyond expectation - 101 Miles in the last 24 hours. Unfortunately a depression is going to pass us down to 34° North and in order to avoid strong Easterlies we will have to head South East again by at least 60 to a hundred Miles.

A few days later, our satellite contract got reset due to a miscommunication between the phone and the provider. We still had Navtex-forecasts from Bermuda, but we very much missed the detailed forecasts.

The next week, we got mainly light Easterly to South Easterly winds. Crackers were rationed on May 1st.

It took us until May 8th to get going in the right direction again:

Monday May 9 - First day of week 4, 899 Miles to go. We covered 93 Miles in the right direction yesterday. The bad news is that the barometer is rising, 1013 mb right now and the wind is already in the North East. If we don't get any closer in the next two days, I'll call a MAYDAY to get 2 crew off and new food supplies.

The high pressure blocked our way, we were becalmed for two days. Food and water were running low for 5 crew, we would run out of breakfast and lunch in 10 days.

The log account of May 10:

21:30 Eastern US Time (23:30 local). Mayday transmitted when a ship came into view to the South of us. GMC Fort St. George replied. Transfer succeeded of 2 crew at 1 a.m. Food supplies were received but we made contact a couple of times due to no propulsion available to us. Luckily we managed to fend off and no obvious damage to us or the freighter.

The day after, the wind picked up at 2 p.m. and we sailed straight for the Azores the next 6 days.

Then the high North of us started moving toward us and the wind went East again.

The log turns dramatic:

Wednesday May 18 - At 14:00hrs we were 222 Miles from Faial. We won't make it. We will try to get to Flores, at 132 Miles distance tonight at 18:00hrs.

We ran out of wind 5 Miles West of Flores harbour. After a panpan message Flores port authority organized a tow and at 21:10 local time we were secured in the new marina of Porto das Lajes.

Grenada

On Monday morning December 27th at 4 a.m. we arrived in Prickly Bay, Grenada. After 18 days and 17 hours, we have crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Mindelo, Sao Vicente to Prickly Bay Marina, Grenada.

So Victor Too and its crew have crossed an ocean, it took us 2291 Nautical Miles at an average of 5.1 knots.

We celebrated Christmas eve by taking a dip in the ocean, but the New Year will probably see a bit more festivities as we will stay here until then.

Ice cream and cappucino were part of the early arrival celebrations, some good food and drinks are high on the to-do list. Today, the boat was cleaned on the inside, tomorrow the outside needs a scrubbing.

I will post some of the log entries in the next few days, but let me first thank everyone who has supported my plans in the last ten years, we made it to the Caribbean! Thank you!

South, always South.

It's been a roller coaster ride up till now. Our departure was delayed due to bad weather, but on Monday evening we finally left.



Lots of family and some friends made it to wave us goodbye, for which my thanks!

We set off with 6 crew, Troy and Helen from China, Ines and Tony from Belgium and Ingrid and me, obviously. Our first evening and night was uneventful, we sailed and motored and soon we were past Calais and getting some distance between us and the traffic system. Helen, unfortunately, was never without sea sickness. She managed to get some sleep in between of her exhausting dizziness, but could hardly eat or drink. After a rough night on the third day, on which we stopped over at Omonville-la-Rogue, just past Cherbourg, a decision was made.

Troy and Helen would get off the boat at St. Helier, on Jersey. This would put me two crew short for the Biscay crossing. Since this was already the 8th of July, it would be difficult to find new crew for the next part. So once we made it to St. Helier, I got busy with internet connections, e-mail and contacts I made earlier while looking for crew.

After a nice day at St. Helier, we left the following morning - or so we thought. Upon starting the engine, nothing happened. This was a first, and with only 30 minutes before the tidal gate shut, a tough decision was made to get a mechanic in order to make it for the next tide.

An hour later, a robust man showed up, said hi and jumped into the engine room. After a minute or so, he said to start the engine, got into the other side and said start her now. And at the first turn of the switch, she started! It turned out a wire had come loose from the starter motor. 10 Euros later, we were a happy crew again and the rest of the morning was spent in laziness.

Getting to St. Malo in Brittany was easy enough, although now we had to make the approach in the dark, as we couldn't start in Jersey until 4 p.m. But with the help of our trusted chart plotter, we got in alright and at 4 a.m. the next morning, tied on to the last available berth. We got around the Cherbourg promontory alright, although with 2 crew members less than planned.

Day One: crew arrival

It's still a big mess to sort out, but we're getting closer. Six people loaded 360 bottles of mineral water onto a 36 foot yacht. There are some nice mathematical remarks to be made about that. There is now some less space on the boat, especially in the lazarette. But that was always too big and easy to lose stuff in. A lot of the stuff that resided in it, is now sitting in the cockpit, so a nice challenge there to get rid of it all - or at least a lot of it.

And we still have some more equipment coming today, sails and a generator and diving gear. But everything will fit in there at some time so today I'll do some sorting out of all that's not where it should be.

Also today, two people of our departing crew are arriving. They will be staying until Portugal, so it's nice to meet Helen and Troy face to face at last. The other two crew we've already met, tomorrow everybody will be together and we'll see what happens.

Last week, I got all the odd ends sorted so the boat is ready to go and so am I. There still will be the usual pre-departure stowing and cleaning, but today, a good year has already begun!

Finding crew is fun

At a party I threw last Saturday, I announced the trip and got a lot of crew in return. I had displayed the trip dates and some graphic representations of the route and invited people to put their names down. I was surprised to get as many interested folk to sail along for a short (1 week) or longer (up to 3 months!) period. Of course, there is still a lot of explaining, checking and organizing to do, but getting this kind of encouragement is fantastic.

For those interested in the exact route, these are the legs:

Ostend to Brittany: July 3rd to 15th 2010
Brittany to Porto: July 18th to August 1st 2010
Porto to Faro: August 15th to 31st 2010
Faro to Madeira: September 1st to 9th 2010
Madeira to Tenerife (Canaries): October 1st to 7th 2010
Tenerife to Boavista (Cape Verde): October 26th to November 1st 2010
Boavista to Grenada: December 5th to 28th 2010 (First crossing)
Then we island-hop along the Caribbean
Martinique: January 15th 2011
Dominica: January 29th 2011
Guadeloupe: February 6th 2011
Antigua: February 19th 2011
St Kitts: March 5th 2011
Anguilla: March 26th 2011
Tortola to Faial: April 21st 2011 (Second crossing)
Visiting Azores: May 8th to May 29th 2011
Faial to Scilly's: May 30th to June 5th 2011
Scilly's to Boulogne: June 24th to 29th 2011
Boulogne to Ostend: June 30th to July second 2011

I feel I've taken enough time to be able to reach every stop along the way and still be able to organize crew for the longer legs. Starting days are generally in a weekend, so relatives and friends joining us along the way, can arrange flights and so on.

I'm not entirely certain if the conditions for the second crossing will turn out to be good enough, but there is some spare time for that trip. I've read several pages of advice, and none are conclusive as to when to start and which route to take. There is the Azores High to contend with, so taking plenty of fuel seems paramount for this leg.

At the moment, I'm very pleased with all the excellent feedback I've gotten.