Three weeks on the open ocean. Dolfins, wales, seabirds and squalls. Sailing and living on board. And a rowing boat in the middle of the Atlantic.
Reefing at Night
When sailing in the night, reducing the area of the sails (reefing) as a safety precaution in rough weather can be challenging. In the darkness, with a black sky and a black sea, there is little orientation. Video from the February transatlantic crossing by Ivan.
TOBAGO KEYS 2
At the inner reef, turtles and sting rays are quite abundant. At the outer reef, you occasionally may see a shark… even if only a nursing shark (Ammenhai). At dinner time, fish and lobster is grilled for more than one hundred sailors.
Tobago Keys 1
Some say it’s the most beautifull corall atoll in the Caribbean Islands for sailors, with it’s reefs… and Leguans.
Happy Island Kite Surfer
Happy Island: A bar on a reef, only to be reached by boat. And a world class kite surfing show. Clifton, Union Island, St.Vincent and the Grenadines
Another Transatlantic Rowing Boat
Another rowing boat arrived in Barbedos yesterday after six weeks of crossing the Atlantic Ocean and made landfall next to Orinoco at the St. Charles yachting club. The “Odyssey” of Riaan Manser and his friend is unrelated to the rowing journey of Dawn of sailingaurora.co.uk, the English lady we met a few hundred miles before Barbedos. She has not yet reached Barbedos. And there seems to be another guy crossing the ocean: a French adventurer in a barrel (Tonne) on his way to Brasil.
See riaanmanser.com
Repairs again
After three weeks of hard sailing 24 hours a day, some repairs had to be made. Our windgenerator now has new cables and our mainsail has a newly fixed main halyard (Großfall). One crew member even enjoyed climbing seventeen meters high to do do repairs and shoot selfies. Our dinnertable should be repaired tomorrow and our mainsail traveller next week (hopefully).
Day 22: Barbedos
Barbedos is a destination for many transatlantic sailors, as it is the first of the Caribbean Islands you can reach when crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We arrived at twelve in the night and are now moored opposite of a Russian Super Mega yacht. It’s strange that our ship is quite now, after we had to live with waves and wind every day, and that we now can drink a glass of wine without spilling half of it.
Day 21: Brown Booby
Only one hundred miles from Barbedos, more and more birds are visiting Orinoco. Two of them, seemingly exhausted, spend the whole night on our solar panel and left with the rising sun. Others catch fish around our sailing yacht in daytime. Yesterday and today after sunrise, a group of three Brown Boobies (Weißbauchtölpel) was following us for an hour, supposedly diving for flying fish that is abundant in this part of the Atlantic Ocean.
Day 20: Squall
We did have some trouble with squalls the last evenings and nights. Squalls are local and small (a few miles wide) depressions that bring clouds, gusty winds and rain and that are fueled by the energy of warm water (now 28 degrees). Of course, we try to reef our sails before a squall hits our yacht, and not during the hit. Therefore, we closely observe them with the help of the full moon and radar. Sometimes we feel surrounded by squalls that appear out of thin air and have unpredictable courses. Moreover, they always seem to hit when dinner is served…
