Becalmed in the middle of the Atlantic

Amaris Sails the World

11/25/13

16.26.04N

38.34.85W

 

Becalmed in the middle of the Atlantic

 

It is horribly difficult to believe we are sitting in the middle of the Atlantic with a mere 4 knots of wind.  Of course we are doing everything possible to sail the boat - but lack of wind, waves, and a lot of sun seems to give us a little time to get a few chores or to do items completed.

 

For example...  while bobbing here in the Atlantic

I reorganized our trash - which has now been sitting in the 80 degree weather for a week

made a batch of yogurt - who would have known it would be so easy

 

Shawn scrubbed the shower and watched 18 episodes of "How I met your mother."  Seriously.

 

Ross knitted.  And we then sat around for an hour trying to determine what it was that he knitted...  Initially, it was to be a case for his sunglasses.  It ended up being either a yamaka, a puppet, a hot pad, a very large coaster, or (as we used it) a cover for the throttle knobs on the boat.

 

Jill baked a gluten free cake - which was then eaten by Ross who unlike me is NOT a glutard!

In addition, she spent 4 hours working on her tan - she should have used a bit more sunblock - but I think she will live.

 

Bryn read a book (Not to brag, but I was able to read one as well)

 

Antonio whipped the ends of about 1/2 the lines on the boat.  When finished he took a nap on the trampoline at the front of the boat.  Ross was kind enough to pick up Antonio's video recorder and record a nice message to Antonio's wife whilst taking a video of Antonio sleeping.  Lovely friends eh?

 

Eventually Ross took to "whistling" which is a no no.  Tradition has it that one should never whistle on a boat as you may "whistle up a storm."  When the bobbing wouldn't stop - we started requesting tunes... 

 

 

The Plague

Amaris sails the world

November 26, 2013

16.25.06N

38.55.14 W

Atlantic Ocean

The Plague

We were somehow exposed to the plague just before we left - All our produce yesterday was covered with mold!  I blame this on the pineapples - they get around.  I mean honestly - do you know of a Thai dish without pineapple?  Chinese?  they are on Hawaiian Pizza - so I think that throws in Italy, and the Pacific Islands - how do they do all this without contracting something.  Then sure enough, put them in the dark with some other fruits/vegetables and they pass their disease all around.  Imagine flaccid carrots covered in green powder.  Certainly not natural in any way.  Sweet potatoes with the same in their crevices...  and the cabbage - how did they get involved - honestly!

After re-scrubbing and drying everything - we hope to be back on the mend.  Although we are realizing the end is near for all the produce.  I think we are one coleslaw away from the end of the cabbage.  We have had a good talking to with the potatoes and expect better of them.  Mangoes are done today as are the lemons.  We may get a few days from the apples.  Honestly a sad state without a produce stand in our future...  for at least 10 days anyway. 

On a brighter note, our spinnaker is still up after our 4th patch job.  We were able to leave it up over the night with a firm watch cycle that involved doubling up on our watches and running a flashlight over the entire surface every 10 minutes.  This boat handles well under spinnaker alone.  Although we are not to our noon sighting yet - we may have had a 175 mile day yesterday.  (I suppose it may help that yesterday was one of our "set your clocks back" days.  We are now on the same time zone as Eastern Brazil!  I suppose we should have Brazilian food tonight for dinner...  just not sure what that is...   

Down Spinnaker

Amaris sails the world

16.25.42N

34.23.23 W

Atlantic Ocean

 

 

Down Spinnaker

 

With light winds all day yesterday and predicted overnight, we decided to fly the spinnaker all night due down wind - conveniently the direction of St Lucia.  When I came out from my slumber, grabbed a coffee, and walked out onto the back of the boat I was eager to look up at our beautifully flying spinnaker. Quickly, the smile "turned upside down" as I saw a 15 inch tear on the side of the sail.  "Down Spinnaker!" I said.  Soon, everyone on the boat saw the same tear and helped me get the spinnaker down.

 

The day was spent trying twice to tape the sail back together using specialized sail tape.  Unfortunately the tear, which is along the edge of the sail, is in an area that develops a lot of strain.  After the second try, I broke out the old sewing kit, disassembled a flag for it's edging material, and spent 2 hours hand stitching the edge of the spinnaker.  I finished just before dinner - phew. 

 

We are gybing throughout the night-running downwind with the main and code zero.  We are all hoping that the spinnaker holds tomorrow.  We will fly it at first light, that is assuming the wind is again blowing from the East - between 10-20 knots and that the seas are less than 3 feet...  Is that all too much to hope for? 

 

 

Eating at Sea

Amaris sails the world

16.30.10 N

31.27.25 W

Eating at sea

While traveling around the Med, we have routinely been surprised on how food is presented to a buyer.  We were routinely shown entire carcases from which to choose our cut of beef, pork, lamb, or horse.  Well, we never saw the carcass of a horse, but the meat was certainly available in several countries. 

In preparing for our crossing we visited several meat markets, produce markets, fish mongers, etc.  In many cases it seemed that we were getting food direct from the growers - which of course we like.  Now that we are 400 miles however from shore, we are finding our food is - well passing the ripe stage quickly.  The oranges never really looked like oranges (mostly missing the varnish that we are so familiar with in the US), and we have bets as to each lemon...  or lime as we are not really sure what it is until we cut into it.  Our papayas and mangos have been delicious - and are all ready TODAY.   The pineapples that we purchased however two days ago are now beyond very ripe.  I fear we are living the pesticide free life with produce that will all be bad in another two days.  My mother will be somewhat proud.  So much however for balanced meals next week however as we dive into the canned food stores.

Today we were lucky enough to catch a Dorado.  Dorado is a stunningly beautiful fish - one I always hope is too small when we get it on deck.  Sadly, today's was of edible size.  Dorado aka Mahi Mahi have bright colors of green, yellow, and blue which fade to an ashen grey as they die.  It is very sad to watch.

After "killing" it by filling it's gills with our cheapest hard alcohol (most people use vodka - but we forgot to get any), Shawn and I looked the other way while the crew butchered the fish.  Well, I first questioned Jill who was holding my bottle of Glenmore a 12 year old Scotch.  Not sure what she was going to do with that - but certainly not poor it down the throat of any fish...

Sailing has been slow today and we finally had to break out the spinnaker.  We were expecting the wind to fill in from the East (away from the NE) and gybed the wrong direction for a chunk of the night yesterday - taking us down from 5th place to 10th with this poor decision made by yours truly.  Spinnaker sailing is anything but fast for us as a catamaran.  We do much better sailing off the wind and gybing back and forth every 8-10 hours, although this adds a lot of distance for us to cover daily.  This type of sailing takes away all our speed advantage and makes errors like last nights difficult to make up for.  At least for those of you watching through the ARC website, we will appear to be going in a more or less straight line towards the finish - still 1750 miles to the West.

Oh well, fish for dinner I suppose!

Cape Verde Islands

Cape Verde Islands

Amaris sails the globe

November 15-20

Like skinning cats, there are multiple ways of crossing the Atlantic.  We chose to cross with a "rally" of other boats that would all cross together.  Whereas we thought this would create a group of boats that "safely transit together" we have learned that you may or may not see another boat each day.  There is truth however that if something goes terribly wrong - there are others within a hundred miles that could re-route to help you.  Certainly there is no hope of help if you run out of mayonnaise...  (Fortunately - this is not the case for us...  yet)

The rally we joined left from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands (750 miles south of Gibraltar) and finishes in St Lucia in the Caribbean.  Whereas the "direct route" may take 15-20 days, there is an option to sail down the coast of Africa for 850 miles and have a quick little "stopover" in the Cape Verdes.  After catching up on sleep, having a nice long shower, re-provisioning, and fixing everything that needs fixing after 5 days of sailing (and more than one beer) this route leaves you refreshed to sail the remaining 2100 miles to the Caribbean.  Of course this run is mainly "downwind" which isn't our fastest point of sail - but the direct route was sold out.  So plan B wins again. 

Cape Verde was amazing - and sadly likely a place we will never have the option to sail to again.  We spent time on both Santo Antao and in the town of Mindelo on Sao Vicente.  I was truly amazed in the beauty of Santo Antao.  The island groups are remnants of volcanic activity and our tour of Antoa took us from the beach (which looked like Phoenix) to an elevation of 2500 meters and a volcanic crater that reminded me of Kaui - just without all the waterfalls.  The people of both islands were incredibly kind and helpful.  One individual spent 1/2 hour with me getting a sim card to work in my phone.  I didn't have the language down at that point (Portuguese). 

None of the following paragraph should ever be quoted or conceived as fact - but it seems to follow my basic understanding of sailing, trade routes, history, and well things that just make sense.  Cape Verde became an independent nation from Portugal in the 1970's.  It is along the trade routes from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean (or more importantly from Portugal to Brazil).  So, I reckin' that if I were a Portuguese sailor, sailing between Portugal and the new colony in Brazil - a good stopover for some rum drinks would fit in nicely about half way there.  Cape Verde is roughly 1500 miles along the trade routes from Portugal and 2000 miles from Brazil.  AND - the weather is wonderful year round.  Not sure if it was introduced by the Portuguese - but I would bet it was... They grow sugar cane in Cape Verde - an important ingredient for molasses among other things (rum).  So, by process of deduction, Cape Verde was an important discovery and colony of Portugal as a stopover for traders who had just spent 15 or so days on a boat without a good bath and desperate for some rum before continuing their sail to Brazil.  To solidify this - they call their rum drinks "grog."  Humm...

And there you have another history lesson from Steven.