The person on watch was the first who saw in the early morning light Sint Maarten ahead and St. Barthelemy roughly at WSW. Next it was me. Then one by one came out of the cabin and looked at the horizon.

Now I’m really only writing about me and my impression.

I still can’t believe it that we crossed, with a very strong crew, the Atlantic ocean from Las Palmas to Sint Maarten. The only one I missed on this sail is the OBM. I’m grateful to the crew for this safe and pleasant trans Atlantic crossing. I hope the crew assembles again for another long sail.

As I’m writing these lines I had a look and saw that we crossed already the 3000 NM mark of the distance sailed.

We had nice winds, we had strong winds, and we had no wind. Since last night we are using the engines, mostly with the genoa, or we just sail.

Traffic has increased now. More sailboats, then freighters, tankers, etc. In all bays we see plenty of yachts via their AIS signal at anchor.

We got in contact with Simon of shore support in Sint Maarten. Once we are in the Simpson Bay, just outside of the Simpson Bay bridge (draw bridge) we will call him again and one of his staff will come on board to get our papers. Let’s see how the inbound clearance will work out and where in the Simpson Bay Lagoon we will get a very in a marina.

On board, I feel that all are excited to reach land, see and feel Sint Maarten. One of most likely can’t wait to meet wife again who waits for him in Sint Maarten since a few days.

An incredible voyage comes to end.

There is especially the Offshore App, which I’m using to get weather information, let you see where we are and read my notes about life on board. I tried all kind of possibilities to get the upload of notes running again. It simply will not work. Hopefully tomorrow I get information from PredictWind’s support.

I will upload again as soon it’s possible again.

The wind is also not kind to us. It almost died fully last night. Thus shortly after sunrise we set the gennaker to gain speed. As the weather forecast looks for today and tomorrow, we will have to run with the gennaker. This sail allows us to get enough speed to make it to Sint Maarten on the 24th.

Bathroom at starboard is open again. Water and air temperature is great. Barefoot route!

195 NM was indicated when I start writing this note. At the end it will be less.

As the wind blows mainly from ENE, the swell developed over the last days to one from ENE. Having to sail an averaged COG of 277 deg, today’s ride is a bit bumpy.

G needed to bake bread, which is on bumpy course difficult. Additionally we all wanted to take our seawater shower at the stern, A had the idea of a “shower & bread baking course”. He set wind vane that MaRe sailed downwind. It made all planned activities easier.

Then we wanted to celebrate the last 200 NM and could not. Beer was not cold.

Today we had the last muesli for breakfast. Also coconuts milk, fresh fruits vegetables are gone. But plenty of canned food is on board, grain for fresh bread, and beer and bit of wine. Having written about beer and wine, it needs to said, the beer or glass of wine is, voluntarily limited to 1 for dinner and a second one on day with some thing especially to be celebrated.
Safety first also in this respect.

Since this morning we see a lot of saragossa grass. I expected to see more large carpet size areas but, at least until now, we see only long streaks. It’s an interesting “grass” during over the Atlantic most likely in search of new living grounds. Access to Wikipedia will soon be possible again.

Due to this grass, G had to give up on catching fish. The grass sticks immediately at the lure. So, no fresh fish for the last 2 dinners. A pity, because his fish dinners were simply very delicious.

This morning I woke up as usual, went to the cockpit, and talked with A during his watch. We were sitting on port side rest area watched the sea and the clouds illuminated by the still bright moon. All is dream in infinite number shades of grey – not only 50.

On top of that there are the millions of reflexions of the moon light on the water. Moon river at is best.

We quickly came to the topic of the clouds and A used the nice expressions: “riding the clouds”. There are horse riders, wave riders, storm riders, and A, the cloud rider. He carefully watches clouds being not far away, adjusts the course a bit and gains additional speed by using the wind system of the clouds. Each cloud is a small, local low pressure area,
which helps us especially on our port side to gain some speed.

Sint Maarten, we are coming, 306 NM to go!

G caught his dolphinfish no. 6.

A hauled it in, then G took over again. I got an important lecture from G on the way to cut the bones out, peel the skin and the side organs.

An important thing I also learned is the importance of a good Japanese fish knife. As my Japanese friend S indicated already, a debahouchou is needed. It needs a gets a special treatment that it doesn’t rust. A good Japanese knife contains quite some carbon. That makes knives to keep their sharpness, but they rust also pretty fast. Maybe I keep it in an slightly oily piece of fabric.

So tonight another version out of G’s repertoire of how to prepare a delicious dolphin fish.

Bon appetite!

What I was afraid that can happen, is happening now. Iridium emails don’t work. Also up and downloads here don’t work currently. I try all possible to get things running again.

Beside above we are sailing pretty fast towards Sint Maarten.

Until we have a solution for the currently not working upload on tracking notes, I will continue to write notes because the problem will be solved one day. The sooner the better.

Today it’s a typical trade wind sailing day. Wind perfectly with 4 – 6 Bft from E, thus we are on a fast runing course. Our waypoint just out of the east coast of Sint Maarten, is straight W of us. Life on board does not require much activities. No sail manoeuvres except a bit of adjustment of the wind vane setting or pulling in the genoa sheet a bit or letting it out a bit.

As the AWS is around 15 and more knots, the air doesn’t feel so warm. Need to test the water temperature with a shower at the starboard stern.

G tries to get another catch of the day… He wants something else than a dolphinfish….

In the meantime he makes muffins…

PredictWind found the bug and is working on the fix. In the meantime I can upload all the notes I wrote along our sail using normal internet and no satellite connection. The date in the title is the date, I wrote the note.
******

In the late morning hours, the wind became unstable, caused by a big cloud passing by and also dropping a bit of rain. We changed to the S-tack which brought us a bit closer to our BTW (bearing to waypoint). Still the situation was not what we wanted.

N had the idea of using only the genoa because it allows us to sail about 30 deg more down wind. Less speed but also less distance is the rational. Looking at old data the idea appeared good. Thus, since about 1250 we use only the genoa. VMG (velocity made good) is more of less SOG. Thus, the idea proved to be good. Especially with the expected higher easterly winds.

DTW (distance to waypoint), the first waypoint about 10 NM E of the Sint Maarten, is now only 567 NM away.

Looking at the weather forecast this morning, we decided to keep sailing on the P-tack.

Current plan – it can change with the weather forecast – is to continue this way until about 17 deg N. Then we will go back on the S-tack.

As of Wednesday afternoon we expect 20+ kn wind from E. This hopefully will be the wind to zoom in to Sint Maarten. But it needs to be seen if the wind really comes like that.

Today the wind speed plays a bit jokes with us. As long as the TWS is below 18 kn we keep the genoa fully out. Therefore the wind increases to 18 kn and bit above and we put the first reef into the genoa. 10 min later the wind goes down to around 15 kn and we take the reef out again. 10 min later the wind increases….

Beside this, temperatures getting warmer. Today we logged for the first time 28 deg air temperature. The big bathtub from which we take buckets of water for our showers at the stern, is really warm now. It’s already a comfortable feeling when pouring a bucket of water over the head.

Yesterday evening, before going for reef 2 for the night, we discussed the upcoming weather situation.

If we continue on the S-tack, (starboard tack, German ” Backbordburg”), we have a high probability to get winds of only 10 kn but we sail a bit more directly towards Sint Maarten.

If we go on the P-tack (port tack, German “Steuerbordbug”) we have a chance to keep our 15 kn wind and a chance to get even 20 kn winds on the final stretch to Sint Maarten. As on this course the drift by current and wind is not so much in our favor we will sail a bit more S.

Decision was to go on the P-tack to avoid the low wind area coming up in the N.

During the night, the wind changed direction in our favor and blew also from a few degrees with of E. Also the drift helped sometimes. We are on a lucky boat.

Right now we have no wind because a rain front passed over MaRe and it takes a while until the wind comes back. Its a bit nerve nagging because sails flap and this is not a good sound at all. Let’s hope it comes back soon and from the best direction.