Yes, the right wind is back!

Yes, we are sailing again!

Yes, Nik lost her seasickness!

After motoring for a day and night and winds of 3 – 4 Bft only, I looked this morning for quite a while into alternative routes allowing us to speed up using the gennaker. The routing is a bit tricky because there are plenty of shallow areas west of Honduras and Nicaragua. I found an alternative route. But for sailing with the gennaker, the AWA changed too often to 60 deg PRT. For the gennaker we would need at least 80 deg to cope with windshifts leading to an AWA of 70 deg. And we did not get that wind.

Watching the sea during our late lunch, let me put my thought about the gennaker aside and try main & genoa and get at least the same speed as with the genoa and the engines. And it worked out well. We are running in average half an hour 7.1 kn STW and 6.9 kn SOG. Wind fluctuating between ENE and NE and 4 – 5 Bft.

The swell running from easterly direction, slams time after time against the STB hull from under the tunnel. A bit nerv racking, but such is sailing. It’s MaRe’s way to sway through the swell from east most of the time very smooth.

We should reach our WPT “Honduras E” at around 0200 – 0400 tomorrow morning. Much earlier then before.

Lunch was “Fried rice Italian style”! A great variation to the Japanese “yaki meshi”, the Japanese fried rice. OBM is also a great ship’s cook.

How will it continue?

Just had 3 big squall ahead of MaRe.

Squalls have their own wind system and can sometimes have winds with up to 30 kn. Winds like these are in the range of a strong breeze to a gale. On top of this they can dump lots of rain.

Today, I was lucky! One squall just disappeared from the radar screen, which meant its cloud was emptied; one see only falling rain on the radar screen. The other two moved fast enough to STB and I did not get their water.

I’m getting a bit tired, the end of my watch is approaching. It’s 0145 and my watch guess until 0200.

Yesterday we sailed E and even ENE at the end. Then in the morning the decision to turn S to the WPT I called “Honduras E”. Wind direction was not too bad but the windspeed was extremely poor. Decision to use the engines was made. This was the correct decision. The wrong one was not to have started the engines in the late afternoon yesterday and run straight to aforementioned WPT.

Wind went down to almost glassy sea, picked up again and I set the genoa because adjustment to changing wind directions can easily be made. We run a STW of 6+ kn but the SOG was only a bit below 4 kn. There was a current of around 2.5 on against us.

Despite this frustrating wind and current situation, which we can’t change, we had a day filled with many conversations. The OBM changed the sheets and covers of our cabin. Now we have fresh bed clothing, but I’m sleeping in my normal cloth on the sofa to be available whenever Nik or the OBM need me during the night watches.

I also checked the wind forecast for tomorrow and if the wind chimes as forecasted in speed and direction, we will set the gennaker and stop the Volvos.

During dusk, I took my daily shower with seawater at the PRT stern. It just feels damned good.

Let’s see what the wind will do tomorrow!

… the wind shifted to E and luckily even to ENE!

So we are sailing now towards our WPT east of Honduras. Not yet fast but pretty steadily. After having gotten the right wind direction we now wait for the typical windspeed of the trade winds in this area; 4 – 5 Bft.

Unfortunately the wind direction just not yet good enough for using the gennaker.

Nik felt much better yesterday again. She joined the meals, conversations, and could do her watches. Keep fingers crossed that it stays like this.

OBM takes care of our stomachs. She prepares good tasting stomach satisfying stuff in the pantry.

Wind got already tired during the night. Thus, in the light of the very early dawn, we changed the sail size. From reef 2 to reef 1. We could have done it even without a reef but this is against my safety margin.

Swell went down as well and MaRe is not rocking anymore like during the last days when we sailed beyond the most western corner of Cuba with its very far too be seen light house at Capo de San Antonio. But sometimes a wave hits MaRe at her tunnel making “wonderful” sound.

Wind changed during the night into favorable direction of SSE. This let’s us sail 90 deg but….. There is always a “but”. But there is a current in a direction a bit W of N leading to a COG of 75 – 85 deg.

None or the 6 weather models’ forecast I get every 12 h predicted a SSE for so many hours. So I keep the current course until the wind turns to at least ESE. All weather models predict a wind from E in the later afternoon which gives a high probability that we still get these winds. When we get the wind from the right AWA, we tack and head towards our WPT easy of the corner of Honduras and Nicaragua.

The best news just before the last paragraph of this narration. Nik went back into the world of living creatures on MaRe without seasickness. She actually made her 2 watches last night. This enable all to sleep 2 x 4 h during the night.

We ran out of bread. Thus, the lower waves and swell makes baking bread easier. Today it will be dough made of 50 % commercially available wheat flour from St Thomas and 50 % freshly ground whole grain wheat. I wonder if I can replenish my grains in Panama and, ideally can also get dried corn for corn for based bread. Should then try to make tortillas. Should someone have a nice tortillas recipe, I happily take a copy of it.

I bought a pair of Gill sailing gloves in Gibraltar as spares.

When we left St Thomas on 23-Mar-2022, I started using them. Upon arrival in the Marina Hemingway, Havana, Cuba on 11-Apr-2022 (20 days later) they became unusable. Holes all over and all the very special enforcement material (stated on the package when I bought them) was in pieces. I even burned a finger due to that because a line slipped through my hand.

I will never buy Gill sailing gloves again. All statements about the quality and endurance are just a layed out, are made by my sailing friend Sh, and my OBM. Both have the same gloves.

I’m now using simple Japanese working gloves with dots of a rubber like material to prevent slipping of lines etc. Cost – I don’t remember but estimate it to 1/2 – 1 Euro. Even they cost 2 Euro for a pair, they are about 10 times cheaper. BTW, the ones I’m using now, I’m using for several years already for all kinds of work on the boat, where I need to protect my hands. For working with lines they feel very wel and never a line slipped through my hands, not even a millimeter.

I’m going to send an email to Gill and wonder what the reaction will be.

Just before sunrise we changed from reef 2 back reef 1 to get more speed. In average we are running 6 – 7 kn with peaks of 8.7 kn. Swell been longer thus a less bumpy ride and MaRe can accelerate better.

This was what in wrote the day before yesterday. Then I became busy with all kinds of things and a lot thinking about tacking.

Logbook says that we tacked first time to STB tack at 15:28. We sailed in easterly direction with a northern component. As the wind turned to ESE we would have sea sailed too much N. Thus at 19:30 we tacked again and the ESE wind helped us to sail close to 180 deg until next day.

We got an additional passenger. A little bird. It seems to be completely exhausted but was still good enough that it flew into the aft cabin at PRT side. There it was sitting on the floor. The next day it suddenly sat on the cockpit floor giving us the impression that it is not able to fly anymore. It did not react to us walking through the cockpit. But suddenly it was gone. Farewell little bird and make a safe landing somewhere at land.

Then I did maintenance of the fishing rod. The little rolls did not rotate properly anymore. I also thightend 2 internal screws of the fish rod holder. I could get all done despite that MaRe rocked in the waves.

In the late afternoon I tried to catch a fish. However within 20 min we caught two saragossum grass “fishes”. This was the end of fishing. Too much saragossum is in the waters here.

In the evening I wanted to take a shower. I sweat to much during the day. Safety line around the body. The bailer secured at the handrail I sat on the last step out the transom, grab a bailer full of water from the we wake and poured it over my head. It felt GOOD!!! The water just had the right temperature.

As Nik was seasick and knocked down, OBM and me had to do the night watches. From 20:00 to 08:00 a change every 2 h. A challenge.

Yesterday, we tacked again. This time when the wind changed from ESE to SE. The day showed the decision was right. Until close to sunset we sailed with reef 1 in the mainsail but the genoa still fully out. Swells from SE and E with the swell from SE close to 2 m but short wavelength. The ride was bumpy!

For the night, we reduced the sail to reef 2 to be prepared if a squall should hit us

Despite the rough sail, OBM managed to prepare a delicious salad. Because the wind was so strong in the cockpit we ate it from small bowls instead of a plate. The wind would have blown some vegetables from the plate.

While sitting after our late lunch in the cockpit and talking, we suddenly saw huge saragossum fields drifting by. Size of a soccer/football field. Incredible. I never saw huge fields like that. And soon after that another field came up and MaRe was fully within this field.

I was afraid that some of this will stuck at the rudder, when we saw that the boat speed was zero although MaRe continued to sail. A little bit of saragossum gras got stuck in the speed log.

Some work to be done. Moving all drinks into another bilge department and closing the drainage hole of the bilge department of the log to avoid seawater following through the next bilge department with canned food, vegetables, and fruits and the preparations to take out the log were done. Taking the log out, putting the plug in caused about half a liter of seawater coming in. Looking at the little wheel of the log, no saragossum grass was to be seen. Exactly as I expected, the grass got off the moment I take the log out of its position. All the work backwards and a total of about a liter of seawater came into the temporarily sealed bilge department. It was quickly removed.

Nik recovered during the day and made the first watch of the night. I’m curious how she feels when I wake her up soon. Keep fingers crossed she feels fine again.

A seawater shower from the braider ended my day.

Just before sunset we changed the main from reef 1 to reef 2 to increase the safety margin for the night.

TWS is currently 16 – 18 on but we had peaks of 20 kn. MaRe sails an average SOG 5.3 kn but often with peaks just above 7 kn.

Dinner was excellent Cuban made fettuccini with a sauce prepared by our OBM.

The Gods of the winds are nice. Wind changed from SE to ESE, which let’s us sail almost 180 deg. But sometimes winds turn back to SE… They are the Gods!

Beating upwind is indeed a bumpy ride!

Already last night, when the wind came back, it hit us at 60 deg on PRT. Later at 30 deg.

During dawn, when there was enough light, I set with my OBM the sails because we had enough leeway after we completely had passed the inshore traffic area, east of the traffic separation scheme at the western corner of Cuba.

The wind came at that point from SSE, the direction we need to go to pass the western point of Honduras in a safe distance. We set main with reef 1 and the genoa fully. With reef 1 we have enough room for increasing winds. In a few steps we tuned sails and course.

As the wind is forecasted to turn E, we have MaRe steering in the wind vane mode set to 52 deg PRT. Close to 10 deg higher would be possible but then the ride becomes even more bumpy.

Steering in wind vane mode means MaRe follows every windshift to E bringing us more S. However, the same it’s valid for other windshifts. We just believe that wind will shift to E because it’s the main direction of the wind here and the forecast also predicts a shift to E.

Swell slowly built up, rolling on to MaRe from 180 deg T (True direction) where she runs currently a COG of 210 deg. At the beginning the sea was just choppy with low and multidirectional swells mixing up with each other. For most of the day the swell was 1 – 2 m with a wavelength still much shorter than 100 m. A longer swell makes sailing more comfortable.

As we sail on port tack, the wind generator does not produce so much electricity. But the hydro generator and the solar panels filled the batteries perfectly fine also we are running 2 refrigerator. With the batteries week filled I lifted the hydro generator out of water again.

Nik is knocked out today. Seasick. She knows she gets seasick but she loves sailing so much that she stays through a few days of seasickness. And I like to her on board, I like her company, our conversations, and her desire to learn sailing. Additionally she is the youngest and I’m the oldest of the Br clan from Fau. Maybe the two most crazy ones.

After quite some work to be done until the early afternoon, OBM and I sat in the cockpit, reading, writing and talking. The screen of the Axiom chart plotter to see if there is something in front of us.

Today we experienced quite some traffic crossing our course. Two cargo vessels I called because their course would have given a full hit onto us. An escape with an emergency maneuver by us would have been an action of last resort. I called both vessels on CH 16 and both changed their course immediately to stay clear of us. Thanks to AIS the course change is quickly to be seen in our AIS layer in the chart plotter.

Saragossum gras – a lot drifts by. Too much to get the lure out for catching a fish. Yesterday I first had a barracuda on the hook but let it go again. No risk for poisoning ourselves. Later, when the sun was almost down a tuna took the lure. But there were more hungry fishes around so OUR tuna was eaten by half by another predator. Such is life!

My problem is now to get a good measurable criteria for tacking. I know I need to tac But I don’t know yet what’s the best time. The chance that the wind turn a bit N of E can be regarded as zero; can’t get on this. Thus, when to tack? Tomorrow?

This song from Rod Stewart is what The Admiral would have played about 2 hour ago because we set the gennaker. The crew performed well! A compliment to both ladies!

As we got a bigger wind shift, we needed to shift the gennaker from STB to PRT after it was up for about 15 min. Now, the wind direction is so stable that we can sail in “track mode”, which means the autopilot steers is directly to the next WPT.

Life on board is relaxed. Nik sleeps. Jetlag and the first days out of stress from work.

OBM types something in her mobile phone hoping we get at least once more a sufficient connection to the Cubacel mobile phone network. Currently we sail 10 NM off of the coast. So far my experience is, the network is pretty strong in coastal areas. We saw this already on our way from Puerto de Vita to Havana. While I wrote above lines, OBM changed to reading a book.

Skipper jumped in his baker roll and made dough for bread. Baking will start in about 3 h. The dough needs his resting times to raise several times. During resting time 2, he writes these lines.

Challenges of the day: First to watch for small fishing boats, which could be pretty far away from the coast because the sea is very calm today and second, to get the right point for downing the gennaker. Until that, we are enjoying a speed of up to 4.5 to almost 6 kn.

Traveling like we do it today is extremely relaxing within the endless blue of the Caribbean Sea and the trade winds areas.

What will be the wind on the long leg south? Abeam? From front desk we have to beat up wind? We’ll see.