Day 12… Day 13… Day 14…Days are becoming blured into a very long one… with the weather staying the same, with nothing special happening and the 6h shifts pattern, it’s hard differentiating the days. If not for the fact that I do a logbook entry, I would have no idea how long we’ve been out here. So we keep on going. We passed our 2/3 of the way mark. Nice! No real celebration but we […]
Day 9, what a fantastic day! We finally hit out halfway mark: 1100nm(1980km) complete! Most cruisers have something planned for this event. We did not. From my side it was a mix of not sure if we’d make it this far, and/or feeling I’d jinx it. Luckily for us, Helena from SV Freedom heard about this and prepared a present for us to open. What an amazing present that was! Gift after thoughtful gift, full […]
We’ve now entered day 8 of our crossing. This is the longest we’ve ever been at sea and the longest we’ve sailed without engine! We’re quite proud of it! To be honest, if there wasn’t that long to go to the other side (or if we had enough fuel aboard), I would have turned on the engine a few times already. Times like now! I’m desperate to get the sails to stop flapping. But it’s […]
Yesterday I went to bed at 6:00 and Saskia took over. Just as she was coming up the wind picked up (finally) and there was no need to make any change in our sail set up! Great! That means I can go to sleep comfortably without hearing sails flapping, that really sounds like the boat is coming apart when you sit inside. After waking up I went about the usual: checked the batteries the consumption […]
(Written on the night of day #6 but fell asleep before pressing send) After days of +25kt winds and big waves making the boat feel like a washing machine, we’re faced with the opposite. Almost too little wind to sail! The wind has dropped to about 10kt, which makes it really hard to sail. The sails start flapping, the boat speed plummets to nearly halve and it feels we’re stuck in the water. Hard to […]
Day 4 finished so well! We were quite excited for day 5, expecting it to get even better conditions. But that’s not how the weather works. In the middle of the night the winds and seastate started to build. By lunch, the waves had disengaged the autopilot around 8 times. But this can’t be a reason to just lounge around. I went to the kitchen for some power cooking (that’s what I call cooking and […]
Yestersay we were reading updates from boats close to us. Risa said they’re keeping up their exercise routine, White Pearl has been cooking omelets and chili con carne, Off Course has been gourmeting on their caught mahi-mahi by cooking steaks and ceviche, and Philos even went up the mast to get a halyard. H O W ? ? ! Saskia and I hear about this and are really amazed that people can be this active. […]
On our last passage from La Gomera do Cape Verde, I spent all my time on shift watching shows and writing little messages. So I thought: on the next passage, since I can’t edit videos, I should put an effort on writing a blog. Well… things are not turning out as expected but at the start of our day 3, I put an effort. The conditions are so rolly and windy, that my brain’s capacity […]
After many weather updates and running around town trying to fix our liferaft, we finally thought wise to leave to the Caribbean. In the last week we had almost constant winds of +15kt gusting +30kt at anchor. The wind was coming from land, and the holding for the anchor is superb, making the conditions at anchor very reasonable. Still, it made the idea of leaving a very uncomfortable one! I kept on thinking “if the […]
We’re storing the last things aboard, and taking out our heavy weather gear. After we’ll go in the water to clean the dinghy from all the growth, and do the same to the rudder and prop. And of course, take one last shower. After that, we should be ready to go! 2200nm to the next destination: St Vincent. Scary and exciting, but looking forward for it too. It feels like being in the queue to […]
Sailors write their plans in sand. Sounds romantic, doesn’t it? I see a pretty beach, nice sunset, sandcastles, candles and maybe a cocktail if I hear this saying. This saying is very true, but for me, the mental picture I have with it, is not at all how reality feels for me. I like structure, I like order (although Miguel will disagree with that one, seeing how messy I can be sometimes). If I have […]
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean sounds like a massive thing to do. Not as massive as crossing the Pacific , but still: massive! And at the same time if feels like something we are ‘just’ doing. I think this is because it has been part of our life for such a long time now, and we know and see so many people do it, that it almost becomes normal. I say almost, because I don’t think […]
It is time to do some catching up! We are a bit more then two months into our trip at the moment and we can say it has been a trip with ups and downs. In our last blog about our trip you can read how we reached France and how we have spent our time there. After this, it was time to cross the Bay of Biscay! Do you prefer to watch a video […]
A while ago we posted a blog about a couple of our decisions before departing on on our trip. Today we want to show you a couple more decisions we have made, and for some of them, how we enjoy them! Safety equipment Some things we really wanted/needed to buy before leaving were a life raft and an EPIRP. Our life raft is almost 10 years old and it needed to be serviced. Apparently this […]
We have arrived in Plymouth, but we did not plan to stay in Plymouth for a long time, so after two days we left towards France. When we left we weren’t sure if we would go to Brest or if we wanted to keep on going and cross the Bay of Biscay in one go. We wanted to check the weather forecast when we were closer to France and decide then. The trip to France […]
YES! We finally did it, we left the Netherlands!It wasn’t at all how we imagined it. In our heads it would be proper summer with lots of sun, feeling excited and everyone in Amsterdam Marina coming out to see us leave our berth. Well, we did not expect that last part, but we definitely expected sun. But when we left there wasn’t any. It was cold, grey and rainy. The trip First, we had to […]
I know, I know, work on the boat will never be finished, so we probably can keep on saying we are almost ready, but looking at our whiteboard: the list is really getting short! So short, that at the moment only last minute to do’s are on it, like taking away the trash and filling the water tanks. The last blog finished with us sailing to Kampen, a little town in the centre of the […]
The trip to Norway was an adventure that began a few weeks prior to departure. It started when the boat came out of the water for a new paint undercoat and anode replacement. Things went well and the boat was put back in without incidents. A week later we were about to leave for a weekend trip away in preparation for Norway. As I put in reverse to get out of the berth, the engine […]
I love being alone. Don’t get me wrong, I love being with Miguel, but I really need my time alone as well. When I was living in the apartment, that was not a problem, but living together on a boat, taking time for yourself can be a bit harder. Miguel does not like the idea of me being alone on the boat. I have to admit: when I wasn’t living here, I did not pay […]
Now we are at our first destination, Stellendam. What should we do? We decided to stick around Stellendam for a few days. This gave Saskia time to go on an interview and for me to have a look at the furler and engine. Easy checks, and no damage to equipment. Great news! The day after, the weather was still playing up, so we decided to walk around Stellandam’s, especially through its seaside. It is no […]
Summer is here! And I am tired of boatwork! It is time for a nice long sail, put to test all that has been updated, and try to get some colour on our skin. The thing is, it does not feel very summery; 18 degrees and forecast of rain. Hey, it is the Netherlands. Plus, “bad” weather will not keep us from going. It is 7:30 in the morning on Sunday 14th July. The passage […]
