April 12, day 8.
Golden sunrise with big clouds. Don’t want to go under this clouds, better to avoid them. Slowed down, let them pass.
At the end of the watch saw a bridge house of a huge bulker. It passed 4 miles ahead us. Second vessel in a week, not much traffic 🙂
Finished Heyerdahl, started Fitzgerald.
Pea soup with summer sausage for lunch/dinner. Decided not to drink rum, but the fate changed our mind.
After the meal the wind and waves calmed down a little bit, and we set more sails. And after that the autopilot failed and didn’t want to work again. Skip discovered that the bolt connecting autopilot to the rudder broke. No problem, we have more 🙂 Sails down, half an hour without steering – and here we go again! Now we had no excuse not to drink some rum 🙂
After a week at sea the additional duties (except for the watch keeping) were eventually distributed. Skip is also a technician, Sergey – cook and I play with sails configurations 🙂 (by the way, triceps already ache because of this exercises, nice feeling!)
After the sunset the wind veered to broadreach, the waves calmed down, but the swell from the other direction came, so had to play with sails so they don’t flop. The only event during the night watch – saved a beautiful blue flying fish. Out!
April 13, day 9.
Still following the border between two weather systems. Lazy broadreach, full sails, beautiful!
Started to use the TV for movie nights. The screen is bigger, but the location is not super comfortable.
Skip broke something, then repaired it. Common sailor’s entertainment:)
Water temperature 23 degree. Cccccolllldddd!
Potatoes with sausages for dinner. Ran out of ketchup. Tried rum with coke again, and again failed: this rum is so poisonous that it can dissolve anything you mix with it except for coke, because coke is poisonous itself 🙂 Dream of Vinho Verde I will drink at Azores.
Still no fish. Tried all the lures.
At sunset realized that finally we are in the anticyclone. The sails are flopping, 4 knots on the stern, time to turn on the engine and go more north. We wonder how long will it take to find the wind. According to the forecast, not less than a day.
The night is pitch black, and it seems like the boat is not going anywhere – just sways in the dark.
Some not nice noise in the rudder bearing area, will deal with it tomorrow. Out!
April 14, day 10.
While I was sleeping we entered some shitty weather. Grey, rain, no wind, swell from 3 different directions. The new forecast says that we will spend some half a day in this conditions, then one more day of calm. Will see. For now sitting inside watching movies.
Fixed noise in the rudder bearing.
Caucasian mutton soup (kind of) for dinner. The challenge is not to let it run away from the bowl with this rolling.
At sunset the wind and waves died, I left the guys watching “The wind” and went to sleep.
PS no fish!
April 15, day 11.
For half an hour the horizon was bright-pink, and then the huge sun jumped out from the ocean, so huge, that I felt like it is very close and I can touch it. Ocean sunrises – always a magic moment.
And here comes the calm. No waves, only the Ocean breathing, blue skies, no wind.
Skip saw something green in the water. Fished out a six-pack of 7Up. It was funny that the cans were sealed, but empty! At least we cleaned the Ocean a little. Saw a beautiful blue fish in the water, don’t know what type it was. Set the fishing line just in case.
Calm weather – time for cooking experiments. Made traditional potato dumplings. Kind of meditative activity 🙂
While eating saw something big and black in the water. Could be orca or pilot whale. Showed its back fin 30 meters from the boat and disappeared. A lot of life today in the Ocean!
Our movie club was showing “Turning tide” this night. Surprisingly I had it in Russian.
Smelled something dead in my cabin. Investigation showed that one of the eggs in my locker died. Will check all of them tomorrow, for now just moved them all into salon.
The water was glowing more this night. It’s getting colder, water temperature is 22 and a bit chilly to wear bikini 🙂 Actually it’s not so bad, it’s just me spoiled by Caribbean weather.
It was a beautiful day. My watch is over, can sleep till the morning, and that’s what I gonna do 🙂
April 16, day 12.
Woke up in the morning – and we have wind! Almost enough to sail. While we were having breakfast, the wind became more strong, and we can switch off the engine! The waves are 3-4 meters high on the beam, but long, and we we beautifully sail between them heading to Azores, 60 degrees AWA. The forecast promises us some wind on the bow and then back to closereach.
Finished the video about my Caribbean winter. Have to take more videos, and not with the phone – the quality is terrible.
Cold, wearing shorts and fleece jacket. No more saltwater showers. But we use not much of fresh water, so when we motor, we can afford to take a quick hot freshwater shower sometimes.
Were playing cards with Skip. This time I was not lucky at all. In Russia we have saying “If you are not lucky in card games, you’re lucky in love. So we had a lot of jokes about it 🙂
The rest of yesterday dumplings for dinner. We are celebrating the middle of the Ocean – 900 nm to Bermuda, 900 nm to Azores. The most far distance to the dry land in my life!
Decided to reef a little before the night, and picked the right time – the wind picked up a little. We do everything in time!
Woke up for my watch feeling not normal heeling. Went out, adjusted autopilot. The wind changed as it was on a forecast. Now we are heading to Canaries. Hope not for long 🙂
Sergey saw a ship during his watch. This one is third.
I found a lot of books on the laptop, copied them to my IPad, hooray!
April 17, day 13.
In the morning we were heading to Cape Verde 🙂 Not good at all. But the wind is nice, the waves are long and comfortable, so no point in using the engine. Waiting for the wind to back.
Our international Ukrainian/Russian crew decided to listen to national music. Russian underground rock and Ukrainian rockabilly became a good background for preparing the food. Today I made pasta with everything 🙂
After the meal tried to tack, but the wind was not strong enough to go against the waves. So we finally furled genoa, turned on the engine and headed to Azores. Immediately after that the dolphins came, different – I haven’t seen this type before, marbled grey! They were jumping around for couple of minutes and then disappeared. Nice!
Added an hour to the boat time. Now we have sunset at 18-45, sunrise at 05-45. Night watches are from 7 to 7. Mine one today is the sunrise one, so off to sleep!
April 18, day 14.
Two weeks in the Ocean.
Golden sunrise with some small clouds to make it more beautiful. After changing time it’s easier to wake up for night watch.
We are in the middle of anticyclone. The pressure is high. Forecasted six meters high waves came, but they are very long and the boat doesn’t roll at all. Impressive! Like the dunes in the blue desert. But no wind. To be true, there is some five knots straight to the bow 🙂 So – engine on.
The fuel tank is empty, refueled from the jerrycans. Have fuel for three more days, and there is 700 more miles to Azores! We need wind. Preferably comfortable:)
Anyway, the sun is shining, the skies are blue, nice feeling after couple of cloudy days. And it’s warm! But the water is getting colder every day. 20 degrees for now.
Found GarageBand application on iPads, spent couple of hours “composing” the music 🙂 I have a real guitar with me, but sometimes the game is more interesting 🙂
Fried potatoes (yes, we still have it!) with dosages for dinner.
After the sunset the wind veered and became stronger, but the waves became more short, the boat is rolling, and this wind is still not enough to sail. Set the mainsail to help the engine, at least have one more knot of speed.
And the night is magnificent! Low endless skies merge with endless ocean, stars from the skies merge with the stars, scattering from our bow, and three roads are stretching from me till the invisible horizon: one from the orange Moon, one from Procyon and one from Jupiter. And then the upside-down moon lays down the dark waves like the boat and slowly disappears, leaving Betelgeuse as a stern light, and this light disappears as well: the boat sailed away to round the Earth and come back tomorrow.
And it’s time for me to sleep as well 🙂