Across the Atlantic!!

Atlantic Crossing
22 Dec to 6 Jan, 15 Days 4 Hours.

Excerpts from various emails sent on route:


22 December

“Underway at last, left at 0900Z this morning in 20kts of NE and clear skies. Forecast is for 10-15 NE for the next three days so hopefully will have a pleasant day on the 25th!”

23 December

“Noon UTC 23 Dec 14.58N 28.01W 15kts NE mod sea, Clear skies, favorable current 3/4 knot. 164 miles last 24hrs, all well on board.”

(email to Karen and Boyd – owners of Pina Colada)
“Left yesterday and have around 1850 miles to go - yikes! current conditions and forecast models are excellent though for the first time in ages. 10 - 20 knots NE in our areas for the next week or so. Auto Pilot working well……… so lets not talk about it (don't want to jinx it!) Windvane is working well in over 18 knots or a bit lighter if the winds are forward of the beam (not that that’s happened yet really!) I am going to get a longer extension for the leg to try to give it more power.

24 December

“We are currently at 15 degrees north, thirty one minutes west which is about 1/8th of the way across the big old blue Atlantic ocean. Christmas day looks like its going to be the best it could possibly be without being near a mob of loved ones.

Christmas Day

“It is 0300Z on xmas morn, the remnants of the moon has just risen dead astern, Blue has just turned over the watch to me, there is a slight swell but the sea is flat, 6-8 knots from just aft of the beam and we have a full main and MPS up which gives us a nice steady heel and 5.5knots of boat speed. its very quiet just the occasional Auto Pilot clicking and a constant gurgle of the water going by. Sleep comes easily when off watch especially at night. Our current position is 15N 31.48W about 1600 miles to go I guess. the last 2 days I have caught a nice size mahi mahi just before lunch, yesterday Blue timed it and we had eaten half the fish 22 minutes after he struck. There are several radio nets we are taking part in and they all have a pretty festive spirit at the moment lots of chrissy references on the radio. Herb the Atlantic weather guru is promising 15 knots NE later today so it will be good to get the kite down and start getting the speed up again, the first day we did over 160 but the last two have been more like 130 as the wind died. There are very few birds in this ocean but huge flocks(?) of flying fish that bloom and fly away on our approach, they remind me of the big groups of locusts we sometimes got in the Kimberley.“




“You should taste the FMP's I made. They went through 2 stages of development .Mark one were a bit rough looking as the mince had oosed the little pasties open so I used the muffin tin next, added some icing sugar to the pastry and by golly, you should see and taste the result - Pies that would put Mr Kippling on the back foot. My shortbread and Rum balls are under strict control as well, otherwise they would have disappeared on the 23rd. Don't know what Ill do about a turkey, but for the last two days we have caught a mahi mahi at lunchtime that's been the perfect size for lunch and dinner. Nick has them filleted an in the pan in less than 25 minutes. Delectable. The sailing has been totally pleasant - light winds so a bit slow so far. The first day I wasnt able to go below much, preferring to keep my head up. The second day was the same but I could not resist so I got a bit sick, third day I'm good as gold.”




“well no fear of getting seasick for xmas its pretty much flat calm now! Drifting along at 3.5knots and its a bit warm as we are running square. Having a lovely time though, boat is decorated, Just fitted new jib sheets and they look smart! New xmas lure is trailing (rather limply) out the back. Just worked out its over 1200 miles to Africa and the same to South America so we are literally in the middle of the Atlantic!!

“disturbed a 4m Oceanic whitetip (shark) having sunfish for xmas dinner whilst we on deck opening prezzies, he was only about 20m away. There is a weather station buoy coming up in a couple of days 5 miles off our rum line and if we pass it in the daytime in weather like this we will stop and have a swim. Another yacht saw it and reported it was substantial and you wouldn’t want to hit it. Should be some cool stuff lurking under it eh? In the Verdes we dived often for the result of zero, saw several small trevaly; they were the only pelagic species.

Boxing Day