Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 12

DIST SAILED: 1742 nm
DIST TO GO: 518 nm

The last day has, like many before, been a bit hectic. We have been making around eight knots with nothing but a reefed mainsail up. That is a tremendous speed! You can only imagine how strongly the wind must be blowing. Most of the hectic stuff during the last day happened while Peter and Sebastian where on watch between seven in the evening and one in the morning.
First, the mainsail had to be re-reefed, because the previous reefing was unsatisfactory. In order to do this one has to go by motor against the wind. When it is blowing around 25 knots, the difference of facing upwinds and downwind is huge. Any sailor can comfirm this. Additionally, we were moving against waves the size of houses. All in all a bit of a scary experience, but a relatively straight-forward and normal thing to do.
Second, one of the fastening points of the mainsail came loose. The mainsail runs on a rail up along the mast and is attached by small cars. One of these cars coming loose is not a very alarming situation in itself, but it needs to be fixed. Luckily, it was one of the lower ones. Peter resolutely climbed the mast with some wrenches and solved the problem. An interesting experience in the middle of the night, in 25 knots of wind and with waves the size of houses.
Thirdly, our “kick” gave out on us (we call it a kick in Norwegian, and I assume that the name is the same in English, but I am not sure. I am not talking of a Norwegian “sparkstøtte”). A kick, in our case, is a hydraulic arm fastened between the lower point of the mast and the boom. Its function is to keep the boom down as a sail filled with wind will try to pull the boom upwards. We have jury-rigged ourselves a new kick out of some straps and the gennaker sheet. For the time being this seems to be working well, but we are hoping to make proper repairs when we reach the Azores.
Apart from the above-mentioned incidents, all is well abord!
Postitive Spirit.

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 11

DIST SAILED: 1592 nm
DIST TO GO: 669 nm

The last 24 hours has been exciting to say the least. After relieving Jon and Henrik yesterday morning, Peter and Sebastian immedeately raised the gennaker. The wind was blowing at a moderate strength of 14 knots from starboard and CoCo was going fast. After flying the gennaker for almost ten hours, the winds were coming at us 20 knots. Jon and Henrik were once again on watch duty and had the gennaker taken down before raising the genoa. CoCo was still making great speed.
After Peter and Sebastian took over the winds were even stronger, touching 25 knots now and then. The situation was deemed safe as the we were going downwind. After nightfall, a rain shower like you have never even heard of before came pouring down. Sebastian swears to Krishna that he could see a fish swimming by in mid-air. That is how thick the rain was.
With the rain came more wind. The wind gauge was showing as much as 34 knots at times, which is near gale. Some relatively hectic and hard work was ensue on deck. Henrik was roused from deep sleep to join Peter and Sebastian. After some minutes of struggling, the main sail was reefed and the genoa was rolled in. The time was probably ten in the evening now.
Henrik, thoroughly soaked, went back to bed while Peter and Sebastian sailed until one in the morning. From there, Jon and Henrik took over again, and the rest of the night transgressed relatively uneventful.
As a result of the strong winds we were able to cover a distance of 190 nm the last day. A tremendous feat! Right now we are not moving quite as fast, but the captain is considering to book a table at a nice restaurant in Horta for saturday evening. We of course hope to see all of you there in Horta when we arrive, waving Norwegian flags.
Positive spirit!
S/Y CoCo

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 10

DIST SAILED: 1381 nm
DIST TO GO: 879 nm

We are enclosed in a light fog which blurs out the moon and sun. Spooky stuff.
During the night we had to take the sails down and start the motor due to a lack of wind. Because the Autopilot has been making unpleasant clacking noises we have developed a new steering technique. Simply lock a foot in the wheel!
The part of the crew that crossed the Atlantic on the ARC can back me up when I say that this is a much more relaxing crossing the the previous one. This is probably because of a lack of competition. As a result, the iPad of the crew members are running hot from watching films and series’, and the library aboard is getting worn down from extensive reading. Sebastian even spent an hour yesterday shining his shoes. Nobody will believe that he has sailed across an ocean with shoes that nice!
As you can probably tell, there is not really much to tell. I have to go now, because there is a rather tempting smell of freshly baked bread coming from the galley…

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 9

DIST SAILED: 1246 nm
DIST TO GO: 1015 nm

Sorry for not posting an update yesterday. Life at sea can be a bit repetitive and it is sometimes difficult to find inspiration for these blog updates. Regardless, we are receiving feedback from home (and abroad) that they are somewhat enjoyable. Who knew!? Anyway, here goes..
HALFWAY!! Yesterday we were as far from land as we will ever be on this crossing. A mixed sense of awe and accomplishment was felt by the crew. An interesting incident occured just about the same time as we reached the halfway mark. A gigantic cargo ship appeared out of the fog, from nowhere. It held the same course and speed as us for a while, before hailing us on the VHF radio. Appearently, the people on the bridge of the cargo vessel found it interesting to find such a tiny vessel (compared to themselves) like CoCo in the middle of the ocean. They just wanted to hear if we were allright. A nice gesture.
For the last couple of days it has continued to rain. Not until yesterday afternoon did the clouds disperse, and we saw blue sky for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. The following night watches proved more enjoyable, because of a magnificent night sky. Moreover, Sebastian prepared a magnificent meal before mightfall – Alaskan salmon with vegetables, slow roasted in the oven. For Jon, fish for supper proved somewhat unnecessary, as a flying fish flew almost straight into his mouth during the night.
That is all from us aboard S/Y CoCo for now! Hope you are well and in positive spirit.

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 7

DIST SAILED: 960 nm
DIST TO GO: 1300 nm

It has been raining constantly for almost two full days. Just when we thought we had become so wet that we would never dry up again, it stopped this morning. The good thing about the rain we have been having is that with it came fairly strong winds. It is safe to say that we have had some exhilirating sailing lately.
Just before sunset we turned our watches and clocks an hour forward. We are getting closer and closer to Europe, it seems. Additionally, we switched our watch teams before nightfall yesterday. It is nice to have the same watch for the entirity of an ocean passage to get into a good routine, but the drawback is that you do not get to see the persons on the other watch team much (“Hey! That guy looks familiar. Where Have I seen him before. Oh yeah… He was on the other watch team during the Atlantic crossing…”). Having someone new to talk to when you are staring at numbers in a red hue that are supposed to represent wind angles while it is dark like in a sack is always nice.
Here are some quotes from the logbook about the experiences with the new watch teams:
“Nice to get away from Jon and how he always goes on at length about his tiny, tiny dinghy of a sailboat. He is sleeping now. Trying to steer a good course and keep her steady.” (Peter)
“First night watch with Henrik. Apart from his need to pass water quite frequently it has been tremendously enjoyable. He seemed to genuinely enjoy my stories about my own sailboat.” (Jon)
Positive Spirit!
The crew on CoCo.

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 6

DIST SAILED: 835 nm
DIST TO GO: 1425 nm

Before departing Tortola we mounted a smoke detector in the saloon. This one goes completely crazy everytime someone is preparing supper. Thus, Sebastian has given it the very fitting name of “the-almost-supper-alarm”. Incidently, supper last night was breast of duck prepared in an asian manner by Captain Peter himself. A nice treat!
Throughout the night the wind has been blowing in between 15 and 25 knots and we have been making our way swiftly towards the Azores. This was when applying just the mainsail, as it was deemed to dark to be able to pay attention to a foresail as well. The waves where bouncing about all over the place at a height of more than two metres.
This morning we boomed out the genoa with an ensuing burst of speed! For those that though we would arrive late to Europe: Think again.

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 5

DIST SAILED: 724 nm
DIST TO GO: 1537 nm

We have wind againg! Not very much, mind. We are far from home, but we are so happy as we are making our way to the Azores, slow and steady.
On the down side, we thought that the compressor for our refrigerator and freezer had completely broken down this morning. Luckily, it turned out that it had just overheated. The motor we have aboard CoCo has never before been running for three days straight. The heat in the motor compartment was higher than normal, to say the least. Now we have cold cokes and beer again!
Hoping everyone are well, from all of us aboard CoCo.

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 4

DIST SAILED: 592 nm
DIST TO GO: 1668 nm

Dead. Calm.
That is what we are in. We were able to fly our gennaker for round about one hour before the calm hit us (see previous blog post from two days ago). The forecasts show that the calm may last yet another day. This kind of calm this far south was called “horse latitudes” back in the old days before the magic of fossile fuels. The reason was that one would usually throw the horses overboard to save water.
While we wait for better winds, let me entertain you with some of the best entries in the logbook over the last couple of days:
“An easy morning for Peter alone on watch. Jon is sleeping in a bit today. Special treat from the captain. He accepted without even opening his eyes.”
“It is hot.”
“All seamen should be a bit superstitious. Our superstition is, for the time being, that eggs and bacon will fill our sails with strong winds. Sebastian is therefore doing his duty in the galley. The crew eats as if they were praying in unison. Wind is sure to come soon..”
“We stopped for a swin in the ocean. A wonderfully refreshing experience!”

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 2

DIST SAILED: 327nm
DIST TO GO: 1937nm
Avg.speed (24h): 6,7kt

We are still crusing relatively swiftly in a north-eastern direction. The wind is still blowing, but is receeding. As a response we changed to a larger genoa early this morning. As a result we have been able to mantain a reasonable velocity.

Later in the morning the wind was receeding even more and we decided to get the gennaker up. After we blew our spinnaker on the previous crossing, the gennaker is our largest sail. The gennaker help us keep some momentum for just about fiteen minutes before crashing into the sea. “Damn!” cried the skipper. The sail was quickly salvaged and after a quick assessment we could conclude that the sail was all in one piece. It turned out that the shackle that connects the gennaker to the halyard had broken. Probably this was because of a production error. The shackle is supposed to be solid steel and is the last thing you would expect to break. Henrik and Sebastian cut of the remainding pieces with an angle grinder and we hope to have the gennaker up in no time.

Spirits are high and all is well aboard CoCo. What is more, Jon has just levelled up as a boat ninja. He was seen carrying two bowls of soup up the ladder last night.

Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 1

DIST SAILED: 166nm
DIST TO GO: 2100nm
Avg.speed (23h): 7,2kt

Day one is already over and it has been a good one. We started out from the British Virgin Islands, with great speed between eight and nine knots. The wind was blowing between 11 and 16 knots at the beginning of the afternoon. In the evening the wind picked up a bit, before decreasing to somewhere between 10 and 14 knots come night. In the wee hours this morning, Henrik and Sebastian managed to find a completely windless spot. Ten minutes of motoring brought us back to fair winds.

Around the time of this mornings changing of the watch, it was discovered that our cucumbers had spoiled. Every single one of them had to be dumped in the ocean. Spacial thanks to Henrik for bothering to clean the rest of the fruit nearby, after coming off a six hour watch.

So far we have been sailing upwind. Consequently, we have been walking on the walls as CoCo is heeling slightly. Nevertheless, we are moving swiftly across the ocean surface and spirits are high! We expect this crossing to be more interesting than the previous one, as the situation can change relatively rapidly. The weather for the next couple of days is expected to be calmer than what we are experiencing at the moment. The winds will drop and shift to a more westerly direction. Maybe we will be forced to start our engine. We are strong in fate and hope for fair winds!