S/Y New Dawn: Atlantic Crossing November 2013.

05.11.2013:

After a bit if topping up shopping yesterday, we said goodbye to our Norwegian neighbours and left Mindelo Marina at 10:15 and headed west at 278° M aiming for the south coast of Grenada, about 2.157 Nm away.

The weather forecast was for a NE Trade Wind of 15-20 kn and as soon as we were free of St Vincent island we received the steady wind, but up to 31 kn, as we approached Santo Antaeo Island. By noon as we were getting almost free from the island, the wind played around us from all directions and by 13:00 we had again the Trade Wind from NE. Our speed so far has topped 10.9 kn with an average of about 7 kn.

We have changed the watch system and each of us has delayed the “old” system by three hours, so that we each will have new hours for the coming week and by the end of that week, we will again change by three hours.

Everyone seems happy to be back out at sea and enjoy the warm weather, as well as the prospect of sailing to the Caribbean. Krijn, seems to start to suffer his usual seasickness and hopefully the pills he takes will help after a few days?

07.11.2013:

Until now the winds have treated us well and has been steady from NE around 60° and a strength of 15-22 kn. This has given us an excellent sailing condition and a nice speed. At noon today after 48 h of sailing we have covered about 309 Nm, which is satisfactorily.Our position at noon was: 16° 06.4 N and 030° 21.4 W and we had about 1.848 Nm to Grenada.

“Auto”, which failed during the trip to Cap Verde and repaired by us, seems to cope better now and it has not moved from where we fastened it. I have emailed the installer in Las Palmas, and he seems to be a honest chap and admitted that he might not have fastened it correctly and also that the hoses that are leaking (all four of them), will be replaced and hopefully send to Martinique, so that I can, hopefully, install them myself. Well will he do this, remains to be seen. He even would compensate me if I would engage another technician to do the job; is this too good to be through?

The weather, as I mentioned above, is nice for sailing and we have had no rain and the temperature has increased consistently as we are heading on our 278° course, giving a slight S of W course. So even during the night shifts, we can wear only T-Shirts and shorts, which is very pleasant indeed.

Krijn suffered still yesterday from seasickness, but today the pills seems to have a better effect on him. He usually needs some days to get his sea legs back, but still take the pills and wear the seasickness preventive bands, I had on board. He likes to cook and is often the one that take the initiative to remember to take out the food from the freezer well in advance. But each of us cook from time to time and Rutger is also a good cook. Knut’s speciality is to make fish pasta and have successfully cook this a few times. Rutger is trying to catch a Mahi-Mahi, but so far only a huge (likely) Blue Marlin got hooked, but it was so big that it, after having done a big jump, went away with “Barbie” and 100 m of fishing line in its mouth. Well Rutger is still trying to catch another fish. I did the cooking last night and it was “Boef Med Loeg and Mashed Potatoes” and they all seemed to like that, as everything was quickly eaten up.

08.11.2013:

I got up a bit early so I could run the generator and make water before my watch and also to have a chat with Rutger. I put out the lure, as we would be the two of us for about two hours. Usually we don’t launch the lure if we are alone, as it is almost impossible to slow down the boat and haul in the fish alone. Only after a few minutes we had a bite, but it got away. Three hours later, we got a good bite and everyone woke up, while I rolled in the sails to slow the boat. It proved to be a 15 kg Red Tuna and it was not going to give up all that easily. It managed to break my new wheel on the rod and Rutger and Krijn had a tough time getting it close to New Dawn, so that Knut could hook it and haul in on board.

Knut reparing the "new" wheel.

Knut showed Rutger how to clean the fish and cut it into steaks, which Rutger did well and it all went into the freezer. Knut however cooked four steaks and it was a treat.

The weather has been kind to us with steady winds from east, but large waves (3-4 metres). Thus, our progress has so far been fast with a daily average of 162 Nm and a total of 487 Nm sailed over ground during the last three days.

10.11.2013:

We are now 1/3 of the way to Grenada and have entered the zone where there are Squells. Last night we received a few and today there are more coming with winds, so far, up to 28 kn, which is OK, but in 2010 we had up to 45 kn wind and a lot of rain. More were to come our way.

At the moment the wind is steady from almost east and the f’cast state it should continue like that for a few days, at least. However, the wind tend to go more and more to east and I have asked that we take a maximum WSW course, so as to try to be below the "Hurricane WP" (50° W and 12.07 N), so as to be outside that area in case things starts to blow. It will also give us a better course for the last 7-800 Nm, depending if the f’cast will be correct. As we are still in the Hurricane timing (until 01 December), at home Nicolas has agreed to keep an eye out for us and is checking the Miami Hurricane centre to see if there are any Tropical Storms and Hurricane on the way. So far he has seen none of them and he email me regularly.

Life on board has settled down to the usual routine with watch system, sleeping, eating, reading and for my part, making sure the generator works well, batteries charged, making water, checking for problems, scarfing, cleaning, etc.. Everyone seems to enjoy the sail and are looking forwards to get a drink once we reach Grenada. We are a “dry” boat, meaning no alcohol while at sea. Krijn is still suffering from seasickness and continue to take his pills. He is nevertheless happy from time to time to cook the dinner, but at times he tend to be quired.

14.11.2013:

Today it is Nicolas’s 35th birthday and I called him on the Satellite phone to wish him a happy day and to give a mutual update.

Since yesterday we have had a lot of Squalls and some with rain and up to 31 kn wind, which is manageable and, so far, less than the 45 kn we had during the 2010 crossing in this area. The water temperature is now 28.5° C and the Barometer has unfortunately dropped from 1019 to 1015, which is less favourable and I don’t like, as I can’t see why this drop from the weather forecast I have received. It might be caused by a Low coming and that should pass south of us during the coming 36 hours which should also bring sharp wind changes as it turns anticlockwise according to the GRIB files I received last night.

As I am writing this, a Squall is approaching and it has rain in it and, I assume, will be windy, so it is time to reef the sails again. Well it turned out to give us a lot of rain and 28 kn wind lasting about an hour.

15.11.2013:

Last night was one of our first of the more difficult nights as we had many Squalls giving us a lot of rain, and to some extend winds of up to 28 kn. Most of the watches got its showers, but this morning the sun came up and we could dry out again. The water temperature is nearing 29° C. We now have about 550 Nm to go to Grenada, but as the weather f’cast has shown that the wind will decrease as of today to 11 kn and the next days it should drop to as low as 5 kn, this will seriously effect our daily distance, which until now has been 161 Nm average, which is a nice average for this kind of trip. The crew is thus engaged in a continued calculation on when we should arrive Grenada and has again established a bet for the one that can guess most precisely the time we will drop anchor. Knut bets we will arrive 22.11 at 11:00 AM. Rutger is betting 21.11 at 12:30 PM. And Krijn on 23.11 at 12:00. The stake is that the winner gets a drink from the two others.

17.11.2013:

Yesterday we caught a small fish. It turned out to be a slim and ugly looking one and the hock must have taken one of its eyes off. It had large ugly teeth and soon it was put back to the sea, as there were no way we would consider keeping or eating it.

Yesterday was a good day, but the wind started to play up even more and at times we had a nice wind and other times it disappeared. Last night it became worth. Although my watch received a good portion of wind from the right direction and New Dawn sailed up to 7.2 kn, it started to fluctuate and after my watch ended at midnight, the wind almost disappeared progressing. At one time Rutger rolled in the sails and just drifted for a while. But today by the end of my watch at noon, we got a nice little wind, but almost on the nose, meaning that we are now close hauled, but maintain a speed of about 5 kn. Imagine being close hauled while sailing west in the Trade Wind zone?

All in all the weather has improved today from the rainy and Squally conditions the last days. It is now nice warm at 31° C and the water is still 29° C. At noon time we had 390 Nm to go to Gredana. Our average has decreased from 161 Nm/day to 147 Nm/day, since the wind disappeared. The crew continue to calculate the time to get our ETA in Grenada. However it is not easy as the weather f’cast states little wind ahead and coming from many different directions, so I guess the progress the coming days will be very slow. But we have the time and we all agree not to start Volvo, but only use the wind to reach Grenada.

But, although the Barometer is now only at 1013 and falling, I understand from Nicolas that there is nothing brewing ahead of us, although I don’t like the Barometer to fall like this in this area. We are still in the danger zone and time.

A bit later on in the day, to my surprise, the wind changed to about 5-10 kn and the direction was a favourable SSW and we could sail close hauled almost all the day at speed up to 8 kn. What a wonderful sailing it was, as there were hardly any waves, although we have a 2.5-3.5 m swell from the north (caused by a Tropical Storm in the middle Atlantic), or opposite direction to the wind. We all enjoy this kind of sailing and this evenings weather forecast foresee this condition to remain with us at least tomorrow, but then the wind should increase again and turn to east, as is the usual Trade Wind direction. I am skeptical.

19.11.2013:

Well after some difficult sailing during the night of 17.11.2013 where we nearly had a mishap during Krijn's watch, the wind went to almost nothing and we are wobbling along for almost two days now. The last 24 h we only covered 62 Nm and the average daily run has dropped dramatically to 140 Nm, down from 161 Nm/day. This evening we have 160 Nm to go.

But the weather continues to be warm and pleasant. Today we all went for a swim and it was wonderfully refreshing.

We are still waiting for the wind to return and come from east. Patience.

Eventually we received 10-13 kn wind from east and we could start enjoying sailing again. By evening we had only 40 Nm left and I reduced the sails a lot to slow us down to about 4 kn, to avoid us arriving in Grenada and having to enter the narrow channel for Clarkes Court Bay, by night. I now hope that we will arrive around 07:00-08:00, by which time it should be light.

Knut and Krijn has bought two cigars that they plan to smoke as soon as they see land. Rutger is awaiting his permission to wear red pants, as that seems to be a Dutch tradition reserved only for those that has crossed the Atlantic. For my part and as this is my fourth Atlantic crossing in New Dawn, I have put a bottle of Champagne in the fridge and plan to put some beers in that same place, so we can celebrate in good manners a successfully achieved crossing.

By end of my watch at midnight, we had Barbados about 55 Nm on starboard and Tobago at about 85 Nm to Port. We can of course not see these islands as they are too far away, but we could see the lights of Barbados reflecting high in the sky.

21.11.2013:

We arrived well early morning after about 16 days at sea and as mentioned we had slowed New dawn to ensure we would arrive as the day started. Everyone were happy to see land and we opened the Champagne and had Knut's Linie Snaps.... Well ate 08:00 in the morning......

Celebration for a well achieved Atlantic Crossing. Well done to the crew.

The day after our arrival, the sail (Genoa) went to the sail-maker for repair and Rutger and Knut serviced the winches, which is a big job and they did extremely well. Krijn started cleaning the kitchen, which was in a desperate state and we also got the laundry done at Lr Fare Blue resort and marina.