Surfing the Atlantic

The anticipation of crossing the Atlantic had been building for over a year, so by the time we were ready to go we were fully wired......as was everyone else waiting for a break in the weather. I don't think any of us could have fitted more water, food and and the very last minute rather a lot of avocados!

We left on Saturday 14th December 2013 (Ruby's 1st birthday) and arrived in Grenada 20 days later a distance of just shy of 3,000miles.

Did I enjoy it?    Mostly........we had an amazing journey. Just after we left the winds increased, the seas increased and  'Dexter'  our serial self steering gear 'just couldn't cope' and  ejected his blade into the Atlantic, then the blocks broke, the connecting mechanism to the wheel  and the stainless stem fractured.

 We spent the first two days two hour on two hours off steering through the mountainous seas. Tristan's suggestion of make sure you look behind you was not a good idea. If I looked at a mountainous sea wall heading towards me I would have been traumatised for life. I 'got the feel' of the waves arguing that I would need to do that at night anyway.  

The seas calmed down eventually, well marginally, and Tristan was able to work through solving the mechanical issues that had manifested themselves in protest to the roly atlantic swells. The steering vein was one that was relatively easy to fix, with a little help from insulating tape!

 The genoa had jammed the furler so we were down to storm sails and a staysail.......we still averaged 6 knots for the trip. 

We took several breaking waves  mainly over whoever was helming at the time and some water through the companionway, which managed to drip onto the regulator to one of the alternators. That put it out of action so Tristan had to do some creative wiring so we could use the engine to top up the batteries. 

The winds eventually settled down and although the seas were high, it was very pleasant for most of the trip. You get into a routine......remove the flying fish off the deck in the morning....

Catch fish! Now this has been a bone of contention since we left Falmouth in 2012.  We have decided that Meriva is such a witch and her movement is rather brutal (we both have bruises to prove it), she sails fast and  we suspect that the fish wonder 'WTF ?'.

Well....we must have gone slow enough one morning  because Tristan caught breakfast, dinner and tea for several days in the form of a tuna!

I was really surprised with how long the fresh food lasted......even though we had a fridge, I was still told off as two pork chops and a sandwich steak  were used  to chum for sharks!     We never saw any! Christophines were brilliant and we had fresh vegetables most days, although the ripening of 3 kgs of avaocados at the same time resitricted our cuisine for a few days......they were delicious!

We had  a pod of minke whales visit us one particularly rough day.......it made being flung about the boat  all worth while, although seeing several tons of whale surfing in bigs seas behind you does sharpen your senses. 

Christmas day was an interesting one......I was in trouble insisting of cooking roast chicken, roast potatoes and cabbage with cranberry sauce, followed by fried christmas pudding and brandy sauce.

It was a bit too much of a challenge when the cooker swung 45 degrees backwards and forwards.

We ended up eating out of a mixing bowl as it was the only pot which would hold food without it slopping out!

Psychologically I found this a challenge. You can't just get off when the going gets tough, and we had constant bashing and being flung from one side to the other.  Also  it was the first time that we had been so far from land and out of communication with everyone. For most of the trip there were no ships on AIS and we got quite excited when one appeared.

The smell of approaching land was fantastic......fragrant flowers and cut grass. It was bliss after the smell of the ocean for so long. We arrived in Grenada  early morning on the 3rd January 2014. We had trouble slowing the boat down to arrive in daylight and had been doing 6 knows virtually under bare poles.  As we arrived in Prickly Bay we had torrential rain (liquid sunshine) .....just at a time when we had put on clean clothes and unable to take a well needed shower.