Josie Maria: MIndelo, Cape Verdes and ARC+ Leg 2 (Atlantic Crossing from Mindelo to St Lucia)

Mindelo, Cape Verdes – 17^th November to 20^th November

Sat 17^th November

We spent the day doing washing and housekeeping. In the evening we attended the ARC+ welcome dinner at the Cultural Centre in Mindelo. We were able to catch up with crews from other yachts and taste some traditional dishes. After the event we then caught a taxi to a restaurant for dinner, as not all our crew had eaten!

Sunday 18^th November – Day trip to Sao Antao

We caught a ferry in the morning to Sao Antao – When we arrived in Sao Antao we boarded a mini bus and were taken on a day trip of the Island.

Vicki and Kathryn (La Rochelle)- about to board the ferry!

Mindelo

First stop was up to volcano crater! We were privy to spectacular views of ragged mountains, with sheer drops into lush green valleys on the west side in contrast to the dry lunar-scape on the East side.

Cloud-fall in the volcano crater!

Those spectacular Views

It was a lot of fun talking to fellow ARC participants and meeting some of the Cape Verdean locals.

Monday 19^th November

We went to the local supermarket and purchased 3 trolleys of food as part of our provisioning for the final leg of the Atlantic crossing. It took sometime to find where to stow everything on Josie Maria, but we managed. We couldn’t find any bread or potatoes – so will need to try and source these in the morning.

The marina in Mindelo had a lot of surging, which caused some discomfort, and banging of rigging as the boats and floating pontoons moved in the swell. The movement and noise mean’t that it difficult to sleep and caused damage.

Just before the crew dinner and one of our neighbours “Solo” lost their bow line as the rope attaching the buoy to the sea floor broke. Fortunately everyone was on board and we were able to tie their yacht Solo securely to us and their other neighbor, while the marina personnel fixed the problem. We also lost the lettering on our tender due to friction lines necessary to stop the yacht Ninfea from surging backwards and forwards in the swell. Other yachts had more serious damage. This marina is not protected and large swells occur. They really need to do something about it at some point.

In the evening we attended the ARC+ farewell dinner – this was delicious local fare and we were fortunate enough to met Peter, Hans and Kurt from “Annamaria” (the other “Maria” yacht in the fleet!!) who sat at the same table. We are looking forward to seeing them the other side of the Atlantic!! We had heard other yachts hailing “Annamaria” on the VHF several times, during the first leg, and had done a double take….thinking we were being hailed - so it was nice to put some faces to the yacht name!! At this dinner prizes were given to the first three yachts in each division – congratulations to those winners!!

Leg 2 ARC+ 20^th November to 2^nd December

20^th November

The morning was spent finishing last minute preparations. John managed to pick up a fishing reels from Zac the local fishing legend in Mindelo. He was able then to set-up the lines and Alan and Vance managed to find some potatoes and bread!! Nothing like last minute preparations. John and Vicki also managed a quick tour of Ninfea!

We left the Marina Mindelo at 11.30am, with all the other boats tied up on our floating pontoon.

Vicki entered the waypoints for the next leg into the chart plotter and MaxSea program! There were only 4!!

The rally-start was a real spectacle with 50 yachts at the start line. The start was bought forward by 10 minutes because a cruise liner was casting it’s lines at 1pm. So we not only had the start guns but the horns of the Ocean Passenger Liner too!! What a blast!! All these fantastic yachts sailing together as a fleet across the start line on to Saint Lucia !

The Rally starts at 12.50pm in winds 20-55knots – we were off to a good start!

Vicki at the helm!

On way to St Lucia!!

Vance - chilling with Mindelo in the background.

Ship not in shape!! Shortly after the start we had incoming water in the aft cabin as an aft cabin (not to opened while at sea) hatch was left open - as a result we lost the Iridium phone a mini ipad, a kindle and other electronic gear. While this was being fixed, John’s camera fell into the saloon from the cockpit hitting Amit and Vicki’s computer flew across the saloon making dents in cupboards, floor panels and Amit! When one thing goes wrong on a yacht things seem to escalate. While dealing with one issue, others happen…. This heightened tension on the boat and we had a heated discussion…and some irrational behaviour…

A yacht is a very small environment and crew morale is very important to maintain. We have a really great crew and were able to work things through over the next 24 hours or so. Vicki is really missing the fact that Dai was not able be on the voyage and this as well as overtired, overwrought and unwell crew, led to some misunderstanding. Fortunately we were able to forgive each other for some heated words and moved on….but this is something best to avoid!!

We saw some pilot whales! We also hear on the VHF that La Rochelle has broken their gooseneck and heading back to Mindelo for repairs…. At the time we think that like Fernando and Daniela from Nefeli that we would not see them in St Lucia…..

21^st November

In the first 24 hours we covered 191.9 nautical Miles in last 24 hours. We can see Karma Wins, Oda and Amaris on our AIS (Automatic Identification System).

After an initial 24 hours of strong to gale force winds the wind reduces to 15-20 knots and we settle into our system of sailing wing on wing with genoa poled out, staysail (to stabilise us) and the main out, with preventer. As the wind drops and goes N we need to drop the pole and head bear away.

At 1330 we gybe – John, Amit and David do this!! Well done guys!!

22^nd November

Winds 15-20 knots and fluky E-NE – we can see Amaris. We continue sailing wing and wing, although a bit slower than yesterday covering 176.2 nautical miles in last 24 hours.

At 0600 we gybe again, as the angle is better for our course.

We note on the yellowbrick race tracker that La Rochelle is chasing the fleet and then receive a BGAN call from Col (La Rochelle)- they are back on track and taking on one yacht at a time! We give Col what weather information we can – but discover that we are now unable to receive emails and are not receiving the ARC+ weather info. The guys on La Rochelle have a big task on their hands and we are inspired by their tenacity!

We finished one of our two bottles of gas this evening. This was much quicker than the last one (either due to butane rather than propane or additional burner for vege alternative of our dinners, so Vance was well fed too!!). We are mindful to conserve what we have left, although we do have an electrical alternative!! On Josie Maria, we have a plan B and C for most incidents!!

23^rd November

Winds 10-20knots NE-E, we covered 183.6 nautical miles in last 24 hours and are sailing wing and wing.

Early in the morning – at 0400 - Vance notices that the cockpit fridge and freezer had been turned off. We do not know how this came to be….either accidently, or an electrical fault could have tripped them. They could have been accidently turned off by someone’s head hitting the electric wall containing the bank of fuses, (which is unlikely because you would know if this happened and no-one thinks they did this) or the fuse switches tripped on their own and this could be a problem….

Our internet is down, neither VSAT nor BGAN Fleet Broadband is working. Our BGAN is not working because we haven’t signed up for a plan with more data as yet and have used so much data that it has triggered our cut-off and the service is on hold. This is now a real pain when we are trying to download weather information and get our emails so that we can work en-route!!

John was quite excited when he hooked a fish that started taking lots of 110 pound line on his Tiagra reel. He then found it nearly impossible to stop the reel from spooling all the line out despite what he did. Everyone thought we had a monster fish on and wondering how we were going to bring it in. Fortunately it all suddenly stopped and he was able to wind up some 600m of line taken out. In the end he found out that he had hooked a large potato bag, made from strong material, which acted like a sea anchor filling up full of water but finally ripped open releasing the fishing line. So much for a monster fish!

Smoke in the Galley!! After dinner , at 2130, we had white acrid smoke, with an electrical type smell, pouring out through the vent underneath the fridge in the galley. Vance and Vicki grabbed fire extinguishers, Amit the fire blanket and we all searched for the source but found none. Fortunately the smoke dissipated within 15 minutes. This was really frightening as a boat fire in the middle of the Atlantic can lead to abandoning ship!! We still do not know what has caused this electrical fire. John suspects it has something to do with the tripping of the two fuses much earlier this morning. We will need to report this to Oyster as its quite serious. We wish we had more data than white acrid smoke and had identified the actual cause.

Vicki’s 3 major “nightmares” are 1. Man overboard, 2. Fire and 3. Sinking

24^th November

Wind 10-20 knots – covered 177.4 nautical miles in last 24 hours. Sailing wing and wing.

John spent much of the day trying to fix the satellite-internet issues, and was on the phone to Gavin using the emergency Iridium handheld satellite phone. Gavin increased the data limit of the BGAN account and the BGAN Immarsat was up and running. Nothing was actually wrong with it as such. However the VSAT was another story. The engineers at the VSAT company are working hard to figure out what is going on, but it looks like there is substantial error data loss on the line.

In the evening we can see another ARC+ yacht, Oda, about 4 miles behind us. Will they overtake us? The competitive spirit fires up!

25th November

Wind 12-25knots - we cover 200.9 nautical miles in last 25 hours (25 hours because we put the clock back an hour –so the sun rises at about the same time as we head further west!).

John determined that the VSAT was simply not reliable enough as we have experienced a lot of unreliability with VSAT. BGAN is very reliable but it’s a much slower and older system, as well as probably more expensive. John has decided to go with the slower Sailor 150 go with a BGAN plan because ultimately its not the speed but the ability to rely on a stable solution – looking forward to getting on the net again!!

When we can log in we see that Josie Maria is in 11^th place!

We notice that some of the metal thread of the screws that screw the gooseneck (the section which holds the boom to the mast) in place have lost thread and become loose as the washers have probably degraded in the heat. For the entire trip the weather has been warm, t-shirts and shorts all that is needed both day and night!!

26^th November

Winds 5-18knots, we cover 173.9 nautical miles in 24 hours. Seas settled and wind more NE.

At 0400 we pass another ARC+ yacht , Ninfea, our Italian friends skippered by Roberto!

0600 we poled out genoa .

We also got our first real squall and shower – although not much wind associated with it. There is no moon, so the night is very dark and the stars bright!!

27^th November

Winds 10-17 knots, we cover 154.1nautical miles in 24 hours and finally receive weather forecasts because we have the BGAN internet. We realise that we have no wind to the east of us and this area of light wind is going to be nipping at our heals the entire way if we don’t move west in a hurry. VSAT is still not working and our main phone is linked to it which means no more cheap phone calls coming in. We will have to use our ridiculously expensive $5/minute BGAN phone to make calls. Ouch !

Vicki decides to motor for 24 hours, in an attempt to motor sail into an area with wind above 5-15 knots. In less than 10 knots of wind Josie Maria doesn’t move very far….and the movement of the sea flaps the sails about potentially causing damage and definitely causing discomfort for those on board. Everyone is happy that we are moving along at around 8 knots again!!

We have our second plotter Master data error. It basically crashes, and looses our data.

We also finish our first log book!!

28^th November

We cover 202.6 miles in 24 hours wind is 9-17 knots.

John bakes bread – yum!! The issue is that the oven does not seem hot enough. We are not sure if it’s the butane gas we are using, as we were using propane before.

We start sailing again at 2030 as the wind picks up!

29^th November

Wind 15-25knots overnight, we cover 189.1 nautical miles in last 24 hours.

0400 starboard gybe, with genoa poled out.

We have a total power outage when the generator is turned off. They call this a Dark Ship – you have no power, are dead in the water and nothing works. It’s quite dangerous as you loose autopilot and could accidently gibe. The most important thing in this situation is to quickly hand steer and call for help so that power can be restored. The power was switched to inverter prior to generator being turned off – we also had a data lost on GPS error (still a few electrical gremlins lingering!!).

At midday John manages to hook and haul in a beautiful blue marlin measuring around 20 pounds. David, Amit and John take turns in bringing it in.

John then cooked fresh fish fingers!! Delicious!! We also put some marlin steaks away for cooking later tonight and some for tomorrow. Nothing is going into the freezer.

Now that's a fish!!

We sail until 1700hours, when the wind drops again 9-15 knots and start motor sailing again…..still trying to keep that easterly lull well behind us!!

30^th November

Wind picks up at 0300 (17-25 knots) and we start sailing again! We cover 185.9 in 25 hours – another one of those days where we put the clock back an hour so the sun rises at about the same time (0700)!!

0330 gybed to Port tack.

Its John and Vicki’s wedding anniversary, so celebrate at sunset with Mumm Champagne - great setting!!

That sunset!!

Happy Couple!!

1^st December

Still Sailing! Winds 12-27knots and we have headed north of the rhumb –line so we have better angels to sail into St Lucia, which means that we go faster. We cover 180.9 nautical miles in 24 hours.

John catches a great barracuda in the morning, unfortunately these fish are linked to toxins, so we throw it back in the sea.

Vicki books family and crew accommodation in a resort hotel in the Caribbean!! We will need a break and some solid ground, fast internet is also important so we can catch up on our work requirements!!

The wind drops again around 1800 so we start motor sailing again. We put the pole down as the wind is very light and the apparent wind (that generated by the motor) is too high for it! We really want to arrive in St Lucia while it is light, and in time for dinner if possible!! The end is in sight and everyone is looking forward to landfall in the Caribbean!

2^nd December

Wind is very light overnight 7-9 knots so we are motor sailing again – at this point we have sailed over two thirds of the way, so will still be in the Cruising Division, regardless of how long we run our motor for. The last thing we wanted was to be using our engine for more than one third (an ARC+ rule) and find ourselves in the Motor Sailing Division!!

Everyone on board wanted to arrive sooner rather than later so Vicki decided that once the boat speed dropped below 6 knots we would motor sail! Yeh!!

In the morning we can see lights, a fishing boat, and birds – we must be close to land. Alan has seen birds throughout the trip on his morning watch, but it is the first one Vicki has seen since leaving Mindelo!

By midday we can see the coast of Martinique, and later St Lucia. As we approach the land there are dark clouds with rain under them. They are all too far away from us to rain on us, but some of them do produce an increase in wind speed and we are able to maintain boat speed and sail again!

Land Ahoy!! The east coast of St Lucia.

As we come into the lee of the island (the side where there is no wind) we decide to motor sail again, Amit and David prepare the fenders while Vance puts up the St Lucia courtesy flag.

As we approach Pigeon Island, ARC rally control radio’s us (as Vicki is trying to radio them, on the VHF channel 72). We are expected to call 5 miles away from the finish, then 2 miles……we didn’t fully understand why until we saw Suzanna and Paul from ARC+ in a tender marking the southern end of the finishing line!!

As we rounded Pigeon Island we had to beat (sail as close into the wind as we could) to sail between the buoy and tender that marked the finishing line! We didn’t want to have to tack (turn the boat through the wind)….so finished very close to the tender! I think that Paul and Suzanna were getting ready to release more anchor line!! Our official finishing time was 15h 39m 32s St Lucia time (-4UTC).

Vicki and John - crossing the finish line!

It was a relief to have made it across the Atlantic (although only a quarter of the way home!!) and we are looking forward to a more leisurely schedule going forwards. There was also a professional photographer in a tender who was taking lots of shots as we finished! Alan was anxious as the photographer passed very close to our bow in a tiny tender…. fortunately all OK!

As we tied up to the dock we were assisted by the ARC+ team, and given a friendly island welcome with two local women bearing gifts of a rum punch for all the crew and fruit and rum platter! We were also greeted by a local reporter who interviewed us for feature on the local news!

A recap on the Atlantic crossing.

What did we do each day?

For Entertainment….

In down time we read, played computer games and watched movies! The boys watched movies and played Grand theft Auto on the Playstation3 that we bought in Las Palmas. Vicki tried to play Candy crush – but didn’t have much success, so started playing Plants Vs Zombies game that Rhiannon had downloaded on her ipad! Thanks Rhiannon!!

John put the fishing lines in every morning and took them in in the evening – the boys (David, Amit and Vance also helped) Occasionally the lines would start running (you could hear the whirr of them from the saloon) and he would bring the lines in!! There were a couple of false starts but the big success of our crossing was the marlin!! A couple of times the lines were caught on each other, a sign that there were fish out there – this took time to sort out too!!John was also into Plant vs Zombies . He is also spending a lot of time cataloging a life time of digital photographs and movies, trying to sort it all out.

While John was on watch he would shine a high power torch on the water and flying fish would jump and be gobbled by bigger fish – so we knew there was a lot out there! We often had flying fish jump on the boat – we put them back in the water!

To keep the boat moving….

For the entire voyage we needed to ensure that our sails were set for optimum speed and we were on the optimum course. These both depend on the wind direction at both the present and future with the aim that the yacht is in the best position for the quickest trip to the final destination – in our case St Lucia! Alan was invaluable with this.

An important part of “keeping the boat moving” is to ensure that the rigging is OK – when things go wrong they escalate quickly so you need to be vigilant and find a minor change before it becomes a problem. We undertook twice daily deck checks – morning and evening to assess any changes. The loose screw and melted washers on the gooseneck fitting were one of these. Once highlighted as a problem they were checked every watch. Catherine and Colin on “la Rochelle” had had to turn back to Mindelo, after their gooseneck (fitting of boom to mast) broke….so we were mindful of this! Fortunately these guys were able to fix their gooseneck and started chasing the fleet down with a 30 hour handicap. They did an amazing job and my hat goes off to them – well done guys!!

The smoke we had in the galley mid-trip could have been a show stopper….fortunately it dissipated and nothing seems to be wrong, and could be related to the faulty ice maker, but we still don’t know the cause. We really need to sort this before we leave St Lucia.

We also had to ensure that the motor and generator were well oiled and the fan belts OK regularly. You tend to spend a lot of your time lifting up cushions and grab tools or food stored inside the seats, or even dealing with equipment like the VSAT and BGAN hidden away in dark places underneath the boat. We also check hoses and seals occasionally to see if there is any chaffing but this is hard to do all the time. There are so many little things that break or fall off while at sea that you are not far away from a screwdriver. Maintenance is ongoing, and while at first it was unwelcome, now its just part of daily life.

Another activity we did religiously was to keep a logbook. This is very important because if we were to loose all power and not be able to reset we would need to navigate from our last known position. The logbook has also proved to be an invaluable resource in writing the blog as the days merge into one another when at sea! Its so easy to forget what day of the week it is.

Activities of daily living….

Doing anything on a boat en-route take 2 to 3 times longer than on land because you constantly have to fight the movement of the boat. Doing any sort of work on the boat is quite tough.

Personal hygiene….

We had to run the generator and water maker daily for a couple of hours to replenish our water. As such we had plenty of water for everyone onboard to have a daily shower. Having a shower involved propping yourself against the shower walls and turning the water on and off after soaping/shampooing up. It was also necessary to hand wash some clothing and drying-up clothes on a regular basis as well. It was easiest to wash clothes in the shower!! We were able to hang these to dry on the heated towel rails!!

Eating…

Cooking and washing-up was also a challenge – Vicki wore food twice as it flung around the galley. She also had the ditch a pot of pasta after a handful of weevils ended up in the pot too!! Food goes off far more quickly at sea – I guess the storage conditions are not optimum, with the heat and bouncing around!!

John did the majority of the cooking, as his watch was 9pm to 12pm, he was creative in cooking both meat and vegetarian alternatives every night but we went through gas a lot faster. John had little prior experience in cooking a variety of vegetarian meals – but Vance enjoyed them so it was worthwhile. We had delicious evening meals every night!!

Celebrations…

We also celebrated David’s birthday! We managed to bake a cake of sorts and celebrated with champagne and good food. That night we had an amazing roast dinner. Yum. Happy Birthday David!!