We have crossed the Equator!

It has taken us another two weeks before we could finally cross the Equator. The course we had laid out for the passage turned out not to be a good one.A short while after I wrote the last report we started to realise that we were being taken west by some quite strong currents. And the boat would hardly be moved by the wind! During our short swim in the Doldrums we had seen some nasty looking organisms clinging onto the hull. They were reddish and somewhat  jellyish, different from the ones we have had before. Could it be these that were dragging us this much? Anyway, we decided to try and scrape it off in order to gain some more speed. This time we used metal scrapes to be efficient. During a couple of hours we had done quite a lot and decided to see if things had changed. Well, it hadn’t changed much so we needed to do something drastic if we wanted to reach the destination we had chosen. After careful studies of the pilot charts, and an old map showing the routes of the sailing merchant ships we realised we needed to go East in order to reach Brazil! There we could catch some of the southgoing currents that could carry us out of the NW currents that were effectively hindering us where we were. So we made a 300 nm detour against Africa before heading south again. And alas! Here we are, south of Equator, heading straight towards Cabedelo in Brazil. Actually, we are now aware of the powers of the NW going currents, and try to keep as far south as we can to have some margin in case the wind dies or something changes unfavorably. There seems to be no problem to get back north again in these waters!

Ours is gonna be one of the very slow Atlantic crossings, but were fine! We have water and food, and yesterday we even catched our first dorado! A small one, 3,7 kilos, but perfect for the celebration of the Equator crossing! Miss Neptun even paid us a visit, so our crossing must havs been registered with the Master of the Ocean!

So long then, until Brazil!

 

Gjertrud

The Doldrums

A short report from us here in the Doldrums! We startet out from Cape Verde last Thursday, 9 days ago, after having given the hull a big scrub while at anchor off Santa Antao. We never visited this island, but were actually visited by some islanders who came swimming out! They were obviously curious about the newcomers, and what they might have been after was to make us come ashore the next day to be showed around. As we had cleared out of Cape Verde the day before, with the intention of leaving as soon as we had releaved the boat of some of the barnacles and whatever there was growing under the waterline, we didn’t want to take the chance of any trip ashore. To bad, probably, especially one of them seemed to be an ambitious young man who wanted to be able to make a living as a tourist guide. Anyway, the day after we left after some hard work with snorkel and mask and wooden scrapes. We had a good wind and headed south towards the island Brava, the most south-westernern of the Cape Verde islands. We never anchored there as we had sort of planned for, but decided to just continue towards Brasil.

After some good sailing, slowly, in light winds that is, we finally reached the Doldrums some days ago. But when is it that you have reached the Doldrums? What wind speed can it be and still be counted as the Doldrums? Of course we know there are squalls in the Doldrums that can have a considerable wind speed, but when the stable wnd from east comes well below 10 knot we regarded it as the start of the Doldrums. Then these last 24h we have had a stable wind below 5 knots, and that is really a lot less! The surface of the ocean is like a mirror, like we saw it in the film “Master and Commander”, when they were drifting in the flat seas south of Galapagos.Anyway, it doesn’t really matter what we call it. Until yesterday we chose to be purists, and did not start the engine once. But after some hours spent, drifting backwards at 0,5 knots due to the current (equatorial Counter Current?) we decided to spend some diesel. So now we have motored for the last 18 hours, and still there is not much wind to sail on. Eventually, however, we trust there will be wind again that will take us south-west towards Brasil.

On this passage we have so far seen lots of flying fish, a large group of dolphins and also a whale! The latter was of course the most fascinating, as none of us has seen one before! It even finalised the show with a flip with the tail before diving out of sight. It was really a grat view! We have also experienced the feeling of swimmimg in the see where the bottom is to be found 5000 meters below.. A bit thrilling, but hardly chilling as the temperature was above 30 deg in the water!

As I’m writing this the sun is rising and it looks as we are going to have another sunny day. No more squalls like the one two days ago, which gave us all a nice shower and also the ability to topping up the water tanks a bit. Next time we will improve the remedies for rain collection as it truly was a lot of valuable water hitting the boat!

Thats all for now, from position 9° 37N 26° 57 W.

 

Gjertrud

Update from Mindelo

We are very close to leave for the longest stretch towards Brazil now, and will give a short update from our stay in Mindelo before we go. The two weeks we have spend here has been relaxed, walking around the streets, looking in some of the numerous China-shops, watching football from South Africa, visiting the nearby tourist complex Point d'Agua for a dip in the pool or drink in the bar and so on.. We have really had a good time and have not felt the urge to continue towards Brazil too soon.
Before we came here we read mixed reports from other sailors about the conditions in this place. Theft and robbery, bad quality and expensive food, social problems, but also descriptions of a friendly people. We have found the people here to be most friendly and helpful, and we haven't heard about anyone being robbed in this period. We certainly see a lot of poor people, begging for money, but only very few seems to be really hungry. They might have overcharged us in the markets, but only once did we feel really fooled by this guy selling "jewellry".. However, the loss was not more than we can take. Most of the food that we have bought has been of good quality, and not much more expensive than in Spain. It depends a lot on what you're after, but what is produced locally is not expensive. The locally grown fruits we have found are bananas, mango and papaya. We have realised that we are now probably south of the oranges!.. A very strange feeling for someone coming from Norway! However, the diversity is not like in a Spanish supermarket of course, so you'll have to take what they have..
The marina has probably been upgraded since the last reports were written, as now they have employees taking your lines and no boat boy has tried to sell his services to us during our stay. The sanitary facilities are quite OK. And there are guards watching over the marina at all times it seems, some times they are even police officers.
Last Monday on the 5th they celebrated the Independence Day with a big party in the streets on the night before. On the day the military troops marched in the streets and received a big applause from the crowds. We know this country spend very little on their forces, only 0,5% of the BNP, so they are actually not very aggressive! Then two days later the president of Portugal paid a visit to Mindelo, showing us that there are very good relations between the former colony masters and the liberated people. This day was also rounded off with another consert and big party in the night. We didn't have to leave the boat to listen to the music! Anyway, we went up to the concert area for a while also, to have a taste of the real party..
As I am writing this it is actually a little rain in the air. It is the rainy season, but the rain they get here is scarse. The last days have been very hot and humid, and hardly any wind at all. We drink a lot to avoid dehydration, and feel quite OK. We have become better at dealing with it now.
The forecasts predict very little wind in the coming period too, so the leg to Brazil might take some time. Anyway, we are stocked up now and are ready to go. Next report will probably be from Brazil!

Marina Mindelo!

We arrived in Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands this morning. It took more than the week we anticipated, but then we have not motored at all. There was a steady wind from NNE, which meant we had to gybe some times. The boat was rolling in the waves, so the activities onboard were limited to reading, some games, cooking, eating, sleeping. But every day seemed to be so short we seldom felt like arranging more than two meals a day..
Today is Bank Holiday and the Immigration and Customs are closed. So we will have to wait till tomorrow for the bureaucracy. Now we'll test the showers in this quite new marina. Then we'll have a look at the surroundings. Might be football from South Africa on the big screens here, too? It's Brazil against Portugal today. Wonder which is the favourite in an old Portuguese colony?

Gjertrud

Thorsteins blog's from last week

Blog 1
The first days towards Cape Verde
Now we've been out at sea for 36 hours, so I guess it's time for the first report. I must say things have been very nice so far, with decent wind (at least until lately) and not too bad waves (they are quite tall, but they aren't steep, so it's just a continuous roll). Everything seems to work the way it should. We are testing the wind rudder for the first time, and so far it works very well. I've named it HAL (not the official name yet, because of resistance from my sister <.<), as it's reliable like the original as long as you don't feed him lies :p It has steered the boat steadily, almost without a sound. And all the power it needs, it gets from the wind! We've also tried the towed generator, but the wind dropped, so our speed isn't sufficient for it to spin fast enough. The solar panels work pretty well though ^^ We're currently powered 100% through renewable resources!

Blog 2
Hello, time for a new update! I'll start a few hours after I left off last time. I was sitting inside reading when I suddenly hear my sister shout that she sees a large fish! Everyone go up, and there it was, a sizable dorado, looking almost fluorescent in the evening light. It swam lazily beside and behind the boat. It was a very nice fish, and we'd heard it was also very nice tablefare, so we got the fishing rod outside. Sadly, it didn't seem all too interested in either the "squid" or "wobbler" we tried, and dinner was ready, so we packed up the fishing rod for the day. The next day it was gone. Better luck next time I hope :p

In other news, the 100% renewable energy run we had resulted in the battery decharging far enough for the voltage to fall too low for our electrical systems to keep going. The diesel beast was the only sensible option. After a while we noticed the charge regulator that the solar panels were connected to had partly melted. Disconnecting it, and connecting our renewable energy sources straight to the battery, we saw a large increase in charging capacity. Now we just need to make sure the voltage doesn't get too high.

Finally, we've gotten some wind again! It started yesterday, and apparently the combination of 2-2.5m high waves and 20-30 knots of wind was a bit hard for HAL to handle. We've managed to tweak things a little, so now HAL steers quite well again. We're going at a steady 5-6 knots, sometimes more. Cape Verde islands on Wednesday?

Blog 3
Hello again! Here's a blog from 20*17.5 N 23*21.5 W :) We've now been at sea for a week, and HAL is stearing better than ever! We hardly do anything to steer the oat at the moment, so we get a lot of time to read, think and just look at the sea. Yesterday we were visited by a large group of dolphins that played around the boat for the good part of an hour, surfing on the waves. It's hard to get tired of watching their acrobatics!
This morning we also found flying fish on the foredeck. We'd heard everyone talk about them, but we hadn't really checked until now. Most seemed pretty stiff, probably had been there for some time, but a few still seemed edible, so in the pan they went. They did taste pretty nice! We've also seen more and more flying fish around the boat, jumping out of waves, sometimes in lare schools. They really do seem to fly, although they only float on the wind. But when you see them do bird-like manouevres it's hard to believe that's all they do.
If we're to determine a time of arrival based on our average speed until now, we'll get to the Cape Verde islands on Thursday. We're planning to stop at Sao Vicente for a couple of days. Will keep in touch!

We are leaving Las Palmas!

Tomorrow we are leaving Gran Canaria, Spain and Europe. We are heading for Cape Verde Islands where we plan a short stop before continuing our journey to Brazil. Whether we end up in Fortaleza or Cabedelo in Brazil depends on the weather and currents. This morning another boat came in to our pontoon, and they are heading towards Cape Verde and then Trinidad in a couple of days. This means we might have some company on our way over. The bad news this week was the spotting of a cockroach in the pentry.. We hope for the best, that it was a lonesome fellow with no ability to lay eggs...

Film from Dia de Canarias!