Transatlantic Sailing

November - December 2018
Sailing over the atlantic is still one of the big adventures of our time. And one I always read books about it, untill now. Now I did it. Together with 5 friends and a 47 foot sailboat. Read more
  • 27footprints
  • 3countries
  • 32days
  • 88photos
  • 30videos
  • 12.6kkilometers
  • 7.2kkilometers
  • Day 12

    10th day on the atlantic

    November 27, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Today is my 5th fish. This is awesome for the kitchen.

    We have grad man-talks about family, marriage, calling and life. But whats shared on the atlantic stays on the atlantic.

    The mood is great. Everybody has a serving attitude and we cover up each others shortcomings. The guys are really nice to me as I hardly do any kitchen duty - ok i provide the fish - but other than that. I try to do m share of steering and as i manage to eat and steer at the same time i take alot of eating time shifts.

    Rolf lost another lure to a fish :-(. But as the crew tried corned beef they long for fish. You can’t eat that meat - tastes like s....
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  • Day 13

    11th day in the middle of nowhere

    November 28, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Hansjörg cooks yesterdays catch. Enough fish for the next 2-3 days. The crew speaks a fishing embargo. I‘m too successfull with my fishing: my Penn roll and my Williamson dorado catcher lures. A blog and youtube made me such a successful fisherman😃

    Urs had the sails fixed in Monenegro. But the guy probably just washed them and only charged for the rennovation. The boat starts slightly to fall apart. The boom that held the sail out broke :-( - just a tiny but all important part of it. Urs is good in fixing stuff and now we use the main boom to hold out the genua sail (front).
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  • Day 14

    Halfway there and defects

    November 29, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    At 2 in the morning we‘ve passed our halfway point at 😃 1400 nautical miles. I‘m happy about that, but man, another 1400 to go. I have to keep ot together.

    3 days after last bucket shower. This is nice to be clean again.

    What a great sailing day. Average 6.8 knots. Toospeed over 7.4 for over an hour. The do it yourself rigging works like a charm. The the shock in the evening. the genua-fall - the rope who lifts rhe sail up to the top breaks. The sail is flapping in the wind and our ship looks like a person with its pants down. We need to take the sail down. It tears on th top and destroys something in the rolling mechanism. The sail completely falls to pieces. We‘re completely shocked. The food was still on the table as we had ro act. Lifevests on. Tie in the lifebelts and 3 go on the frontdeck of the ship. We have to ve careful that the beating sail doesn’t hit us with its heavy corners and carabiner hook. Thn a part dmfalls into the water and we need to make shure nothing is caught under the boat or in the propeller

    Our skipper Urs stays cool and we rigg the mainsail to go on.

    155nm is our best day. And to celebrate that we open a coconut.

    I cooked some awesome pasta and Hansjörg some rubbery gurken-salad.
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  • Day 15

    13 th day - more troubles

    November 30, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    1200 nautical miles to go - a nm is about 1.8km.

    More troubles during the night. A thunderstorm cell passes us. But as it is really dark you dont see it coming. The wind picks up - nice, more speed. The weind is too strong - sugar, we should have made the sails smaller while it wasn’t stormy. I was in bed sleeping when i heard the noise on deck. I just threw my lifevest on and ran up and got soaked right away in the horicontal rain. Hansjörg was just ahead if me and helped to reef the sails. The big noise i‘ve heard was when the boomm came loose and accidentally swang over and fell too hard into rmthe ropes.

    Next morning we saw the damage. The big hit tore some parts and the mainsail had a tiny rip on the backside.
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  • Day 16

    Day 14 - losing one sail after the other

    December 1, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We rigged the spare genua instead of the mainsail. Thats a lot of work in the rocking waves and with the constant wind fighting you. Two thirds up there seems to be a little problem with the sail.

    The little problem is a bigger one. A tear where tho rollreef got broken. We have to taking it down and go back to the reefed main. 1000 more miles to go and 2 ½ sails gone. We only have one spare one left. And gas for 400 miles.

    But despite that a good sailing day. We take what we get

    Will we make it???
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  • Day 17

    Day 15 - fondue on the ocean

    December 2, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We‘ve spilled about 20 coffeepots and other drinks. Don‘t freak out - stay calm. This is normal with 3-4 meter waves.

    The waves are sneaking up from behind. And every 2 minutes there is a big one from a slightly different angle. And boom - we need another roll of household paper to clean up. As i am sitting sideways while i‘m steering i can see the waves coming. I try hard, but still every other off wave rocks the boat uncomfortably.

    I‘m the only sideways steerer of thhe crew, the others standbehind the wheel - which takes alot more work as you have to keep the balance all the time. But it has also to do with the compas positions - which is too high to actually see while seated. I often take one or to pillows. And i only see the compass needle when the boat rocks to the other side or when i lean forward.

    While the body got used to the waves the mind is still sometimes fighting.

    The good talks on board don‘t cease. We find new topics or go deeper. Talk about our leadership, our struggles. How we experience God in everyday life.

    Iwan baket the first bread on board. Awesome, as we finallyran out of bread and are stuck on Wasa and doublebake. Today we enjoyed the fondue we brought from Switzerland. It was awesome 😎

    Despite the big waves and the reduced sail we still make good time with 5.5 knots speed. We should arrive in under 21 days and before our food runs out.
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  • Day 18

    Day 16 - it gets messy & 2000nm done

    December 3, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Yes with just men on board it surely gets more messy. But within limited boundaries. As you can see our boundry is the cetral table. What a mess. The rest, kitchen & cabins are mostly well organized. This is important as you often have to find your stuff in the dark and fast.

    Strong winds chase us. We‘ve passed the 2000 mile mark. Yeah. A few waves sneak in from behind. I need to make sure my windows are closed. Everything is covered with a salty layer - even my glasses.

    The good talks don’t cease. We‘ve changed the watch scedule so that we have shifts with the other guys.

    Wow 😮 another happy group of dolphins playing with the waves

    Routine and monotony gets us sometimes. 800 miles to go.
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  • Day 19

    17th day on board- most amazing nightsky

    December 4, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Wow the moon is now gone most of the night. And you can see the milky way with its starclouds and billions of stars in a 360 degree undistracted dome of glory. I feel small. But priviledged. What a marvellous creation.Read more

  • Day 20

    18th day - sail no 3 gone

    December 5, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We see another sailboat on the horizon. Must be number 4. it is so lonely out here.

    The wind lets us down. So we decide we need a larger sail. So not to destroy the damaged mainsail more, we take it down and replace it with sail number 4. a really old but hopefully more robust sail. Should be easy peasy in the light 💡 winds. Just as we try to put the new sail up - which is quite a job with this rollreef constiction - a rainfront hits us out of nowhere and with some windgusts that make the sail shatter like a Harley without exaust. A simple job moves into a sweatdripping fight as the wind tries to steal away the sail. Me and Urs on the mast. I need to keep the sail in line. The rest on the winches trying tonwinch the sail up and also trying to hear our commands in the noise. Finally its up and running.

    Will it get us to martinique or wirhin the 400 mile range where we can use the engine.

    Usually we woud run the engine for an hour a day to cool the fridge and for extra elictricity. But we‘ve stopped doing that in case we lose our last sail too. The fridge is actually warmer than the outside.
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  • Day 21

    Day 19 - santa is here and 2 fish

    December 6, 2018, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    A shaky night and finally morning. Windspeed picks up to a 7 with tunderstorms. A steering mistake leads to more damage on the boat.

    Just in my surfshorts and lifevest i run on deck to help and within seconds i‘m completely soaked. These tradewindrains are wet!!!!!

    I catch my fish 6 and 7. my 10 second fishes. there are these green carpets on the water that get caught in my fishing line all the time. I take off the weight and use only thhe lure. I just let it slip back into the water and let the line go for about 10-15 meter when i see a fish biting. Yeah, dinner is saved. But with 40cm its a bit small for 5 men. Thekitchen wants to start to cook now. I let the fishingline out again and after 10 seconds no 2 bites. Dinner is safes and we don‘t need to eat canned meat. The crew is really really happy.
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