THIRD ATLANTIC CROSSING 28th March 2019

Taipans Track across the Atlantic in March 2019

Not as many as some but more than most! 2850nm in 19 days.  

On balance it was a fairly slow trip from Las Palma Grand Canaria ES with winds not much above 25knots at any time during the passage.

We were four aboard this trip so with the cooking job looking like a whopper I made the decision to keep to the lighter winds. 

Las Palma disappeared astern in very light wind on the 6th of March.  What follows are the Facebook posts I was able to post on passage using the Iridium Go and Opera Mini Web browser.

March 6th

We've moved into some wind now. It’s still chilly but Taipan enjoying the rock n roll. Barnacles seem to have fled and speed is improving with some nice favourable current. Crew settling into watch routine. 

March 7th

2365nm to Grenada. Winds overnight up around 25+ over starboard aft quarter. Polled out headsail n main. Roller coaster. Quite a lot of cloud. One dunny on the blink! All good otherwise.

March 9th

2247 nm to Grenada. Dunny running. Watermaker running. Running downwind. Still!!. 15 to 25+knots. It’s bumpy out here! I can’t remember ever having a reef in the main for so long on any previous passage. Oh yes! Southern Indian Ocean! Great crew though! All well 

March 10th

2064 to go. 770 done. Genoa poled our starboard 1 reef in main port, staysail sheeted into port. Eating some miles now the seas have dropped a little. Still heading west. Probably jibe in a day or so. All well. Cheers

March 11th

1961 nm to Grenada. Nothing’s changed except wind and sea down a little. Slowly going in the wrong direction. Might change sails in a day or two to relieve the boredom. It’s warmer. That’s a good sign I think. The crew all well. Taipan trundling along.

James takes a sight.

March 12th

Haven’t touched the sails for 6 days but will have to turn left soon or we’ll run into Florida!! Martinique?? Maybe? 1700 odd miles away. Had avidity from a little bird. Stayed the afternoon. Popped below for a look around. Ate a few crumbs and was dead on deck this morning. Poor wee thing. Exhausted.

March 13th

700am Gybed! Heading to Martinique. 1690nm

Trucking! Reaching in 12 to 15 knots. Could be flatter but overall very pleasant. Dead squid on deck and 3 Tropic Birds did a bit of a flypast today. 1564 to Martinique. Fridge settling down. Having fun

March 14th

1380nm gone. 1425 to go to Martinique. 8 and a half days gone. Wind may lighten up but Hey! No problem. motor on. Washing, deck scrubbing, cleaning and we’ll be off again.

March 15th

I’m on watch. Sitting under a blazing half moon with 1256nm to Martinique. Today the wind dropped and we started motoring over beautiful cobalt blue seas with just the occasional snowy white caps. The wind dropped to just 7 knots from behind. A couple of Fin Whales passed during lunch, showing off their white bellies, in a spectacular breaching display. Our first flying fish was sighted. Afternoon tea was a team event, taken in the laundrette! (Cockpit full of hanging washing). Life goes on!

March 16th

Still motoring. 1140nm to Martinique

March 17th

Sailing by the light of the moon. Beautiful day here. A short shower late in the afternoon. Now 10 to 15 kn on the beam. Bit variable but making progress and enjoying the journey. Been out 11 days. Probably 7 to go to Martinique looking at the weather. 979nm 1799 done

March 18th

By the light of the silvery moon La la la. Another beautiful day. Motor off an on. Fickle wind. Nice beam reaching motor sailing. Seas building so wind coming. All fed and clean and enjoying the ride. 860nm to Martinique

March 19th

Still waiting for more wind but it’s warm, foods good, company’s good And we are sailing slowly in the right direction more or less so who's counting. 717nm to Martinique.

March 19th

The Iridium Go Satelite tracker communication thingo lost signal today for an hour. Glitch! So if we disappear.... don’t panic!

March 20th

Here’s the tracker link again

Wondering why we are wobbling all over the Atlantic? Well, we’re using the Predict Wind Router. We decided to stick to its recommendations this trip and see what happens. So we put in Taipan s parameters and set up a few preferences and away we go. It’s been mostly reaching which is a nice point of sail but we are kind of wandering around out here. Forecasts keep promising more wind. We keep waiting! One of the parameter choices was comfort or speed. I chose comfort. It’s certainly been comfortable but not really speedy!!

March 21st

Really slow day. Very pleasant though. 600nm to Martinique

March 22nd

Ship! There was also one a couple of nights ago. Sheep transport. Flukey winds. Some sailing, some motor sailing. Some squalls. Yes, we’re in the tropics again. Yeah!!! No fish. Too much weed. Counting down now. 433nm to Martinique. 2381 gone under the keel.

March 23rd

260 to Martinique. 5.00am. 12 to 15kn. Slightly aft of the beam. Short swell.

March 24th

Sea state crap. Wind gusty to occasional 30kn and variable direction. Two reefs in main still polled out furled Genoa. Speed reduced after a quite good run for the day. 130 nm to go at 2.30am local time. Looks like a midnight arrival onto St ANNE. Martinique

Later on the 24th

Sea state still crap. Current forcing us north. Will round the northern end of Martinique. 47nm away

March 25th

Howdy! A few unexpected issues. WX crap but now finally motor sailing south down the west coast of Martinique

We arrived in the anchorage at Le Marin on the southern end of Martinique on the 25th of March. The only issue we had was the departure of the top three feet of the mast track for the spinnaker pole. The captain accidentally put the pole too high on the track and the 20 or so rivets parted company. This part of the track is only for carrying the pole and was not meant to be loaded. Oops. The mainsail sustained an 8-inch tear from the flying piece of the track but no one was hurt, it happened in broad daylight during the dogwatch so everyone was up and the offending piece of the track did not go overboard so all in all it was OK.

We had a fantastic crew. All aboard a small boat for a month together and all rubbed along well. Thank you for your great contribution to our last Atlantic crossing and for all you help at the Dock in Las Palma!!!.

James Robinson

James Tomlinson.

ONWARD TO GRENADA SAIL FISH Monday 13 th Jan

Making like big game fishermen!

Caught a small 1.5M Sailfish this afternoon. 

Dosnt look very edible. Took a long time to bring him on board.

Nothing much else doing here thought so a relief in the monotony. Today was a beautiful day to be sailing. 10+ KN and fairly flat. Had the MPS up most of the afternoon. Fabulous sunset. Jigsaw about 100 NM closer to the destination having crossed the equator today. Weather looks like becoming a little boisterous in a day or two. Hope not too busy. 

We've seen half a dozen ships in the past 24 hours.

168 NM in past 24 hrs

1455 to Grenada at 2150 UTC

00 59.91S

041 08.38W

Update. the fish was delicious. Beautiful firm, very white meat without any strong fish smell or flavor. Highly Recommended.

We had a slow lazy day yesterday, not playing with spinnaker did 160NM. Last night line squalls marching up on us from behind and dumping lots of rain. Wind quite manageable. Saw it coming an put in a reef and furled head sail. Max gust 27. Now its 12 to 15 on the beam and we have reef and small headsail. Doing high 7s on the rum an coca cola line... but healed over so a bit of a pain! 

We have 1216 to go so tomorrow we should be half way from Fernando de Narohna to Grenada

Today we will be about 200Nm off shore from the mouth of the mighty Amazon! 

Sailfish is pale pink meat and very white when cooked. Tasty and not strong flavor, Was good in green Thai curry last pm, doesn't fall apart. I will vacuum bag some. We didn't stop to pull it in... its too difficult with the pole out. It was about 20kg to get aboard with gaff. Jumped a lot! 

Jigsaw take about 5 to 10 miles off us each day. They left 5 hours before us. They are 110 NM ahead now

Position

01 18N

044 24W 

670 to Grenada at 1100UTC

201NM in past 24hrs

Rough! To rough to wax lyrical

Cheers 


19th January

We were told it was a Tropical Wave. Its a bit like a Mexican wave only wet and not as much fun. They form when a low pressure system forms off the African Coast. During the hurricane season this may be a precursor to a Tropical Storm or Hurricane. During the non hurricane season its just a curse. 

Now we have dirty grey clouds hunched sulkily on the horizon and blue sky above. Periodically malicious gusts come clawing and roaring through the rig sending Taipan into a frenzy of weaving, rolling and diving before shaking and straightening to resume the course. The hunkered big green, sloppy, frothy topped white things also take the opportunity of Taipan's inattention to endeavor to unload a hundred liters of water into the cockpit. These are mostly thwarted by the good clear covers from the bimini and dodger to the deck. However an occasional 20 odd liters sometime makes its way into the cockpit via the inevitable rope holes. 

The cockpit is therefore somewhat salty although until this morning when David dispatched an entire mug of hot tea onto the leeward cushions, we had dry seating on the lee side. Aft of the wheel the mess of ropes looks like a cat got loose in the knitting. There are about 8 lines in from forward on each side....ever ready! 

On our best leg the only consolation was that we managed 217NM in a 24 hr period and came within 35NM of Jigsaw.

In the 24 hrs to 1100UTC today we did 194NM and we have 486Nm to Grenada. 

We sailed into Prickly Bay  on Tuesday the 21st at 7.30 pm. Thats over  6000NM from Cape Town on the log. The last two days were not so bad, we made good miles and were even able to launch the MPS again after using it as a sea anchor for a while. It got a bit out of control during launching and ended up in the water for a while. Interesting time recovering it and a few choice words were exchanged and blame apportioned!. Anyway no damage done and we now know it stops the boat dead in the water when we drag it!!

First impressions are that there are a heck of a lot of people here and we know a few of them. The internet is very 4th world and very first world prices so I won't be posting photos for a while yet. Prices generally are high. The highest prices we have encountered anywhere. Weather is cooler than Asia, about 27 deg but also some rain squalls. Anchorages are very full. There would be about 100 boats here on anchor. Shore facilities seem good.

Silver Fern, good ol' mates from the Sail Indo Rally 2006 and adventures in Asia just crossed the North Atlantic and came from Barbados to meet us here. That has been fun. Contrails, with whom we crossed the Indian Ocean last year, also arrived a couple of days ago and we have had fun catching up with them. Keith Tanner from Sadiqui,  a Perth boat, and who we did the Splash 2002 from Freo to Darwin with, rocked by and we had a beer or two together.

Australia Day plans went all round in circles but we ended up aboard Taipan with two American couples from Harmonie and Contrails and Keith to support the Ausie cause. It was a great day with BBQ lunch then lots of refreshments well into the evening. Another memorable Australia Day on Taipan in another non Australian location.

FERNANDO DE NARHONA Thursday 9th Jan

Sunset from the anchorage.

We arrived at the island anchorage at about 600pm yesterday afternoon and almost immediately Phil from Jigsaw came over all prepared with tools and between David and he, they had the pole cut down and re riveted ready for action within an hour. Phil is a very experienced boat builder having built 19 boats and Phil and Fay are on their 3rd circumnavigation. We were extremely appreciative of their generosity in staying to wait for us in this abysmal place. The anchorage has a 3M+ swell running across it and its alarming to watch the waves develop into huge greenbacks which throw themselves 50 M up the cliffs about half a mile ashore of us.

After fixing our pole we were invited aboard their lovely boat for an amazing dinner complete with ice cream!!. Another great night was had together. 

David and Phil fixing the pole

This morning Phil again arrived with a dive tank and hoses to blow out the dust which seems to build up in the condenser plates of the fridge and freezer. The warmer weather forces them to work hard. 

We are about to leave again. 

The rumors about check in price are true! Two of the crew on a small Cat near us went ashore without clearing in and the whole crew were immediately visited by the police and requested to come in and clear in with the authorities.

Jigwaw was here longer and were not approached. We haven't been approached either. It would seem its ok to anchor but do not go ashore unless you intend to clear in.

One of the worst anchorages ever! Patong at New Year can be worse!

Ok back to the high seas and a bit of sailing!

UPDATE

We love the new shorter pole! We should have shortened it years ago!

 10TH JANURARY

Finally after diverting all over the Atlantic we found a sea mount with a fish on it! Snared a yellow fin tuna about 600mm minus a bite from a competitor as we bought it in. All in the fridge and a nice sushi and sashemi dinner. 

Had a light wind day Sunday after a brisk 20KN around dawn. Looking light weather for next few days.

PASSAGE ST HELENA TO GRENADA. ALL WELL. Monday 30th December

Averaging about 150nm per day. Kite up for longest straight run ever. The seas are good, about half a meter and wind pretty steady ESE 10 to 12 with occasional gusts or lulls.

We are still struggling with the settings on the new AP55 TMQ Auto pilot. We always said the old AP 50 TMQ was the most reliable piece of equipment on the boat but the jury is out on the AP55. The manual suks.

The kicker which holds the spinnaker pole down, broke on David's shift last night when a shackle shattered but it was OK and we didn't have to remedy it til this morning. "Jigsaw" is about 30 NM abeam of us and we are keeping regular HF scheds with them. 

At 8pm Monday we have 1383nm to F d N.

All well and happy aboard as we approach the end of 2013. We would like to wish you all a great big fat Happy New Year and healthy wealthy and wise 2014!... or just have a great night and sink a few for us! 

Well its 8.00pm Tuesday 31st December. Friends everywhere are celebrating the incoming year and we wish we were there! Its a long way from any party out here although we will call Jigsaw on the HF and play some rousing party music while we down a glass of wine to welcome in 2014. 

Seas haven't improved and we are still wandering along with just the poled out head sail and main. Our last 24 hour run was 156 nm and we expect the next to be slower. Jigsaw are edging ahead now that we have dropped the kite. 

Seas are around 2M and wind is gusty SSE from 10 to 25 in short sharp blows. Its mostly overcast but warm. Course around 310. No fish. No line in the water either!!

Here's to 2014! Cheers 

For lack of something else to do we decided to fly the kite again yesterday afternoon. It was all good and we decided then to leave it up again overnight. Averaging 8.3Kn was great and a welcome change but at 3.30am the pole gave up and bent like a banana. All hell broke loose!! (and a few other things) In an instant we were laying on our side with the mast in the water and the kite set well forward and dragging us to leeward. Not exciting... but not boring!. We had to cut the brace line to windward which de-powered the kite and enabled the mast to resume a more acceptable angle so we could regaining control of the steering. 

At this point we were unsure what the sudden bang prior to the broach was. A quick trip forward revealed the reason and then we set about pacifying the autopilot and then untangling the mess around the inner fore-stay. It took about half an hour to get the spinnaker untangled and snuffed then bought down and bagged.

So now we are going really slow with no pole to pole out the headsail. David says he can repair it! We will see! 

Some trivia.. at 8 knots we are moving about 18ton of water every 3 seconds!! 

No fish, no ships, nothing!

Wind SSE 10Kn, Sea 1m Cloudy. 

1200 UTC Monday

06 27S

025 47E

424 to F d N

Pleasant sailing.. in the wrong direction..hoping for that promised wind shift to east!!

CRS 276 6Kn Wind SE 12 to 15kn. Sea 1.5M

Comfortable without a pole.

No fish, no ships, no rubbish.

Thanks all for your emails

All well.

The past 24 hours have nearly been another record for slow. 132 NM and struggling with wind angle and very light. 6 to 9kn ESE. Even with those miles we motored at 5kn for most of the night. Needing to preserve fuel because we have another 2000 NM to go after F d N and cannot expect fuel there.

312 NM to F d N, Pos at 1100 UTC, 06 03S, 027 39W

Its 10 am UTC and we have 50 NM to run to Fernando de Narohna. Today we have nice ENE wind at 10 kn and have the MPS flying nicely making around 6.5KN so hope to arrive into the anchorage where Jigsaw are waiting for us, before dark. 

Tomorrow we will cut the pole down and replace the beak so we will have a usable but shortened version for the rest of the trip. If all goes well there we will rest for a few days and decide where to go next! Forteliza 350NM on the north coast of Bazil, Trinadad 1920 NM, Barbados 1920 NM or Grenada 1920 NM or St Martin 2200NM. So many decisions!! 

We are not planning to clear into Fernando as the fees are reportedly extortionate. We have heard figures in the $400 range and we don't know any yachts who have gone there and cleared in recently. It is a big Brazilian tourist destination apparently. Australians must have a visa before they arrive in Brazil and we don't have one so will just be using the rest and repair rule!! 

No fish again!!. 1 Ship and no rubbish.