Atlantic Crossing – Take #2

Mindelo to Bridgetown Barbados, 2069 nm

Well I think my last post about the first attempt to cross the Atlantic frightened a few people. Sorry about that. We had already made it to Barbados safely when I posted it. The actual crossing was nowhere near as bad, but as they say, it's all relative. Perhaps I was desensitised! 

It was a very rapid turn around to find our crew and ramp up our mental preparation again, probably better to get straight back on the horse though. But we made it!

In summary:
We sailed 2069 nm from Mindelo, Cape Verde to Bridgetown, Barbados. During the 11.5 day crossing, from 11th to 22nd of December 2021 inclusive, ITIKI averaged 7.55kts and saw windspeeds mainly between 18-24kts true, with occasional gusts of up to 30kts. Maximum boatspeed was 14.8kts surfing one of the many waves that followed us accross. Sail configurations varied from Genoa alone, Genoa and main (broad reach and goose-winged), Parasailor® (winged-spinnaker) and goose-wing of 2 headsails. 
 
With a crew of three for the crossing we maintained a watch system consisting of 3 hours on / 6 hours off per person, until the last 24hrs, when the autopilot failed and the vessel had to be hand steered. In the last 5 hours, from 6pm, Alana and Keith maintained a 30 minutes on / 30 minutes off watch, hand-steering alternatively. The sea conditions were rough and confused and it was challenging to hold a proper course in darkness.

Read on for a blow by blow description.

On their way to Brazil as part of a circumnavigation...

​Day 1 Saturday 11 Dec 2021
Well the morning has arrived. Woke with a bit of a headache after not drinking enough water yesterday and well a cosmo and wine and a late dinner. Anyway we can not stall this any longer... We checked out with the port police yesterday and put Alana on the crew list. We had our Covid test at 8:30am yesterday but can’t get the result until 6pm tonight so hopefully the plan to have it emailed to us (and Pam as a back up) works well! We called home and watched the crazy Russians leave in their “floating” tent. We pull up the anchor which is no mean feat having dug into mud in 40kts! Oh and the starboard engine MDI is officially dead. No amount of fiddling and spraying and harsh words can bring it back to life. Thank goodness for the bypass switch. Finally it’s up and we head over to the fuel dock and have to hang around for a bit waiting for another boat but finally get in and top up our tanks. We head out into the bay and put up the main and unfurl the genoa. The acceleration zone lives up to its name. We have up to 30kts behind us but its steady and manageable as is the swell. Once we passed the end of Sao Antao we got the confused seas that earlier departing sailors had reported but still good pressures in the mid 20s. Found a light patch with swirling winds which we were in for a while with TWD clocking to 320! and our speeds dropping right down to 1.5kts VMG. We have pushed north to climb just above course and are now on a beam reach with winds in the low 20s, but the beam on swell is not very nice. Alana is quite seasick and can’t stand watch so we leave her to sleep and get her sea legs. Keith and I share watches through the night and we have left over pie for dinner.

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Sunset Day 2

Day 2 Sunday 12 December
Morning comes and we are keeping the same sail configuration with 2 reefs in main and genoa initially reaching and then Goosewinging. Apparently the Dutch call this “milk maiden” after those white hats they wear. Alana is up and about and recovered her appetite. We changed to 1 reef in the main and full genoa goosewinged and breeze was holding in the high teens. We are sailing fairly conservatively. Keith has just removed this mornings’ catch of flying fish from the deck and the lazy bag. That’s going to get really smelly as there are scales all over the main! Shook out the reef in the afternoon and kept the Goosewing overnight, but it was challenging to fill the headsail when the breeze kicked around to TWD90s as it forced us up into the swell.
Distance from departure at midday: 178nm

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Day 3 Monday 13 December
Had a great sleep after coming off watch at 3am. Had been up briefly when the auto pilot switched off by itself and Alana called out for Keith. About 7:30am Keith and I decided to take the main and genoa down and put the kite up as we have true wind in the low 20s. Well that wasn’t easy, tried initially to furl the genoa close hauled but had to pull away to do it. Then tried to drop the main on one engine (the starboard MDI has finally failed) but that was not possible either. Finally put both on and got it down. Launched the kite after much checking and double checking and found it was inside out! That is a first. It went up and opened out beautifully but we were both left staring and wondering why the wing was not flying out the front. It did get a bit wet, but…. Then I looked at the tapes and realised the green one was on the left! It had to come down which was difficult in itself, and be rotated sheets and braces re-tied, but launched again pretty well. Thought we were in for a wine glass for sure but 20kts quickly opened it up. It’s been up all day and we are making some great VMGs but the swell is pretty big and we are moving around a lot, making daily living activities quite difficult and very noisy. Still I managed to make bread. Oh and Keith found a flying fish in the drain gutter for the anchor locker. We had a pod of dolphins come by for a while and Alana clipped on and went to the front but they did not stay long. Alana hasn’t sailed with a kite before so this is a first.
Distance from departure at midday: 361nm

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The seas are always bigger in reality than photos

Day 4 Tuesday 14 December
We have kept the kite up all night. A couple of times for both Alana and me the boat has rounded up and lost the kite. Initially we thought it was the autopilot but probably just a round  up and the autopilot could not correct quickly enough. Keith has one episode during the day as well. Today’s catch was only 1 flying fish, lodged between the jack stay and port aft bathroom hatch. Keith launched “Flying fish crash investigation” which concluded, based on physical evidence (ie slime and scale trail) that the fish had landed on the port bow and flapped his way back along the deck until running out of steam in his final resting place, wedged on Alana’s bathroom hatch. Of course a sea burial was in order. We raised the spinnaker halyard about 5cm to avoid chafe. It’s still not all the way up (it came down a fair bit after the hoist as I took it off the winch not realising it was not cleated at the mast, so we have a fair bit of scope to keep doing this.) Keith made water and also rocked the soft shackle on the brace pulley. Otherwise not much to report as the routine of eat, sleep, watch and repeat continues. Excellent conditions continue through the day. The swell has settled into a nice rhythm, and my 3pm watch is almost hypnotic. A gentle follow sea and nothing else around. Makes me suspicious of what might be in store for us…
Distance from departure at midday: 561nm
09h06 day 3 to 09h05 day 4 a 201nm run, yeeha a new 24hr distance record for ITIKI

Fresh bread underway

Day 5 Wednesday 15 December
Good progress overnight however still a few wind shifts to deal with. Through the night we have a little rain, not enough to wash the boat or clear away the grey clouds. Keith gets some unsettled winds as we parallel a rain squall. By morning the breeze is shifting through 50 degrees! TWD of 130! Seriously Hughey?! Bring back the trade winds please! I am now hand steering with the auto pilot buttons to keep the kite full. We seem to be sitting under our own personal dirty black cloud that is supplying this odd weather pattern.
It is sucking our breeze away. Not only has it dropped in strength it has changed direction , shifting through 50 degrees! Not your typical trades. We finally broke away from that pattern as Alana came on watch at 9am and we have gone back on course. We have sun through the clouds and getting 5-800W from the solar. We had soup and a glass of wine for lunch and then gave the boat a wash, retrieving another flying fish in the process.
The afternoon continued much the same with lighter breezes. Keith prepared a BBQ and just as it was time to serve the boat rounded up and he had to hand steer to settle the kite so dinner was not quite as smooth as planned. The boat settled but after a few more hiccups we decided to restart the instruments. It seems after a big wind shift we need to take a little more time to steady the kite before the autopilot can take over again.
Distance from departure at midday: 735nm

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So many beautiful sunsets

Day 6 16 December 2021
Lighter airs continue as do relatively small seas. About 0245 I heard an unusual twang and decided to shine the torch down the side of the boat to check on it. Noticed that the soft shackle that holds the turning block for the starboard brace had broken (we rocked it yesterday) and the princess seat was acting as the turning point. Fortunately not a huge amount of pressure in it. Keith was up quickly and able to replace it with a spare so no huge drama. We think these soft shackles are the ones that Mr Messo made when he was on board a few years ago. We have a warm but partly cloudy day and shifty breeze throughout the day. We are not breaking any speed records and falling below our course again. If we want to keep the kite up we need to stay high so Keith trims on and we once again challenge ITIKI and learn how she performs. Sailing a bit shy-er to the breeze also gives us a bit better speed too. Fortunately the swell is still manageable despite the occasional slap under the bum. We are well into the rhythm of the journey and getting close to halfway.
Distance from departure at midday: 900nm

Clipped on for cocktails

Day 7 17 December 2021
As we were falling too far below course with the kite and were concerned about ending up in Trinidad and Tobago! We have changed to a 2 sail reach to climb up so we can re-hoist the kite and run away with the conditions we expect closer to Barbados. Getting the kite down was a challenge in these conditions and she fought back! We unfurled the genoa to 2nd reef to blanket the kite but this did not really help until it was down a fair way. Keith really struggled to control it and lost control of the down-haul. In hindsight a bigger ease of the sheet at the same time as the brace could have helped in the strongish wind. Also a full genoa would probably have helped as well. Coming head to wind to hoist the main was also fun with the swell and we dived down some pretty big waves, but we were able to hoist it quickly to 2nd reef point and at with this combination the rest of the day and through the night. Just as dinner was about to be served the auto-pilot had its now increasingly familiar glitch and would not steer our course. Had to hand steer for a while before she came back and cooperated again. This happened a couple of times through the night watches. Alana is very good hand steering, all of that time in dinghies has clearly paid off! I need more practice!
Distance from departure at midday: 1089nm

We have company

Day 8 18 December 2021
Saw a cargo ship this morning, first vessel of any kind. As we have the scale set very wide on the chart plotter so I first saw it on the horizon, rather than the plotter. It came within 1nm which is ironic as we have not even seen a single boat since day 1. This morning we had some pretty rough and confused seas at it was quite uncomfortable. Also strongish winds of 22-26. After our quest to gain height was successful we are sailing the rhumb line again. This morning we evaluated whether to relaunch the kite, using the 15 minute rule, plus GST… it’s no mean feat changing configuration in these conditions. We are 3 crew and hoisting the kite means dropping the Main head to wind etc. in 3m seas.  Wind has been consistently more than forecast so we decide to play it safe and keep the reefs in the main and goosewing the headsail to try and come onto course. We are still a little bit below it and of course as soon as you put in a conservative configuration the breeze backs off. It’s not really fast but it is still more comfortable with the not inconsiderable swell. It has been hard work playing the angles with the shifty breeze, which is where the kite would have been more flexible. Still a bit below course as well, so if the conditions remain consistent we may need to reconsider the kite. It was Nick’s surprise 80th birthday party today and we gave him a call during the proceedings, it was about 9pm local time. He was 3 sheets to the wind and reckons it was a complete surprise! Sounds like a great party and too bad we missed it.
Distance from departure at midday: 1269nm

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Dutch pancakes for brunch, how good is this?!

Day 9 19 December 2021
We carried the goose wing through the night with a few challenges keeping it trimmed in shifty breeze and a 3 way cross sea. There were a few unintended gybes and we all had some moments of hand steering as the auto pilot can’t always keep up with the shifts and waves knocking the boat off course and then not wanting to re-engage. At times the waves lift us slowly and gently out of the water, turn us one way or the other and deposit us down into the trough. It seems like a slow gentle force but leaves you in no doubt who is in charge. We had some short, sharp and intense rain squalls through the night with moments in the 30kts. Fortunately short lived, but some work to do to recover onto course. Radar stayed on most of the night but they appear out of nowhere so quickly. At least the boat is nice and clean now! This morning we have re-launched the kite which will be much easier to manage in the shifty winds.

At 10:20 we have 628nm to go, if I am not mistaken this is the start of the Sydney to Hobart. Our aim is to beat Rani’s time. First 6 hour sked , in the short handed (3 crew) short legged (2 crew are only 5’2”) division we are equivalent to just off Kiama and doing well in the cruising multihull apartment division. Kite’s up and doing 9 kts, skipper just woken up to sit down to apple crepes whipped up by the other off watch crew. I guess just like any other ‘Hobart’ race crews…
 
Well we were getting along quite famously there for a while but the sustained strong winds combined with one too many shifty gusts and we have torn the Parasailor (kite) quite badly this evening. Thankfully she came down quickly and cleanly and is now safely stowed until we can get her repaired. For the evening and overnight we are reaching with the Genoa, still seeing gusts of 27 kts. Our VMGs are quite respectable with this configuration and it’s a comfortable ride, with standing up to 27kts gusts. We enter a period of mourning for the kite.
Distance from departure at midday: 1441nm

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Our trusty "Milkmaid" or goosewing

Day 10 20 December 2021
By mid-morning the breeze has settled into the high teens, low 20s and the strong gusts have stopped, or should I say “paused”. Our genoa-only configuration is a bit limiting and our speeds are falling. The sail is strapped out as far as possible to the side so it is almost like it is poled out. In the early afternoon we try a new combination of goosewing, with the gennaker out to port and genoa to starboard. This was a bit challenging to configure as we had to gybe the genoa, then discover some problems with the gennaker sheets which meant furling to sort those out and then hoisting it behind the genoa. This configuration gives us increased flexibility of wind angle and also increased our speed by 1-2kts. Conditions are now perfect for the Parasailor of course…
We keep this configuration for the rest of the day, still very confused seas and at times some larger waves coming through that throw us off course. We all have our fair share of hand steering moments, at least its good practice!
 
Virtual Syd2Hba Sked #2: Well we are 32 hrs into our “Sydney to Hobart” race and 6nm south of Gabo Is. Checked in and all good. Still with the goosewing of genoa and gennaker. VMGs steady at 8.2kts and the wind forecast is finally delivering on predictions, well at least for wind strength if not quite direction. Wild Oats would have probably finished the race by now as leader of the demi-catamaran division, and Ricko and the boys would be having a few at Customs House, having moved out of their 3 star (pipe cot) accommodation. Meanwhile on ITIKI dinner was spaghetti bolognaise, served with freshy grated parmesan and a glass of Spanish Verdejo. The off watch crew are now retiring to their queen sized cabins after a nice hot shower in their own ensuites…
Distance from departure at midday: 1613nm

Chilling between watches

​Day 11 21 December 2021
With 3 crew and 3 hour watches, 3 hrs on and 6hrs off, we are rotating our actual watch times on a daily basis. Yesterday the clocks changed back 1 hour, we think to Barbados time but not sure. Keith and Alana split the extra hour so I did dinner. I have just started the 6am watch.
We have carried our goosewing through the night. It was a beautiful clear night, so many stars and a full moon. Thankfully also a night without strong gusts or squalls. We have our autopilot on “Apparent wind hold” to keep the sails full despite the 15 degree wind shifts. The most challenging thing is the confused seas. A big wave can quickly push us off course and the autopilot needs some help to recover quickly. We have just ticked over to 299 nm to go and still making good speed.
Distance from departure at midday: 1793nm

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Final checks before nightfall

Day 12 22 December 2021
Overnight the autopilot was switching off with increasing frequency and in the morning Keith hand steered for over 1.5hrs before a brief 20min reprieve when the autopilot made a comeback. This proved temporary though and it seems that with 120nm to go we are going to have to hand-steer the rest of the way. We re-evaluate the shifts to shorten them and ensure we share the load. My hand steering experience is limited and despite a rapid improvement I am not good enough to hold a course in the 23kts wind in the pitch black so Keith and Alana share the last few watches, exchanging after 30 mins. At least we can see a glow on the horizon of the lights of Barbados which helps, until the moon comes up. We keep good speeds up (8.5s), however it’s really hard work and the wind direction is in the 90s-100s so not helping us come down to the bottom of the island. With about 4nm to our waypoint we drop the sails and start motoring on two engines. Thank goodness we have detailed charts this time as the southern end of the island is fringed with reefs. We have to head around to Carlisle bay on the SW corner. Those last few miles seem to take forever. We anchor a fair way out and after a calming nightcap to unwind we collapse into bed. We will tackle the check in process tomorrow when we are fresh.
Distance from departure at midnight: 2069nm

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​So how does it feel to be a trans-Atlantic sailor? Was it what we expected?
 
From the skipper: Initially a great sense of satisfaction ‘having made it’, as the adrenalin wears off exhaustion quickly fills the void as you collapse into a deep and restful sleep. I guess like most ‘firsts’ you first ocean crossing is very significant and memorable. Whilst having clocked up 10’s of thousands of nm along the coasts of NSW, Qld, Vic, Tassie and SA nothing quite compares with a crossing of one of the world’s major waterways. With coastal there is always a ‘run to’ not to far away if needed. Whilst one never stops learning when at sea, an ocean crossing opens up a whole new world of experiences.
 

First mate: Despite numerous overnight passages, including a 5 day passage from Gibralter to Canaries, our trip down from Tenerife to Cape Verde was the best preparation possible for the eventual Atlantic Crossing. We could really experience how ITIKI performed in adverse conditions – we looked after her and she kept us safe. We had a few problems but we stayed calm when things went wrong, made good decisions and were able to solve issues underway. My own confidence has grown enormously but I remain conscious of my limitations and will never be complacent about the sea and the weather. Keith and I are a good counter-balance to each other, we complement each other’s styles and work well as a team.