Although G was very kindly requested to catch a tuna or something else, at the end he caught his biggest dolphinfish. Big enough for 2 – 3 meals was G’s first estimation.

After a lazy sunny afternoon G had prepared a dolphinfish risotto and we were about to set the table, when the fishing rod sounded alarm, a metallic clack clack clack sound caused by the fishing line running out from the drum. We were sailing with about 6 kn with the gennaker and needed to suddenly slow down MaRe not to lose our catch.

A gennaker is a binary sail, up or down like the digital 0 and 1. Nothing in between is possible.

Thus, the gennaker was put down in the shortest time possible. Possible, because the crew knows exactly what to do on which position.

Once the fish was secured on deck we set the sails for the night. Main sail at reef 3 and the genoa full. Genoa full it’s possible and necessary because the wind is weak. The reef 3 is for safety reasons the smallest size possible. Should we get a strong wind or a squall, we only need to reef the genoa, which can be done from the cockpit.

After the sails were set, we enjoyed G’s delicious dolphinfish risotto. How will he prepare tomorrow catch of the he day before?

Thereafter the remaining preparations for the night.

Now this in this very writing moment, four are still awake and one is asleep already. Good night from MaRe.

As expected, we had a nice gennaker wind this morning. Thus, already at 0750 we changed the genoa for the gennaker resulting in more speed.

Course was only changed a little bit to S. We first wanted to see the new weather forecast for final course decision.

After breakfast, with the last preservative filled bread from the supermarket, the challenge is with G. Baking bread with only sourdough and baking powder. I am sure he masters this challenge excellently. While I’m writing these lines, G prepares his first wholegrain dough with only baking powder. Result report follows.

Then we had our weather forecast and route decision meeting. SPIRE and ECMWF showed almost identical forecast and COG proposal. We follow this proposals with a few degrees less S. We also decided to download from now on only these 2 weather models. SPIRE is indicated as the best offshore model and ECMWF is number 2 for offshore. (ECMWF is indicated with the best accuracy for inshore forecast. So we are sailing with a COG 240 – 250 deg and an AWA of 165 deg STB.

To the N of us is low to zero wind area moving south and this is what we’re want to avoid.

Board routine included today cutting (thanks N) of plastic garbage to fill it into big plastic bottles. This is an incredible idea because the volume of plastic shrinks a lot. And G (thanks!) squeezed the empty beer cans volume by about a third.

Today we all got the feeling that we are now on the barefoot route. Its sunny, temperature in the log book is recorded with 26 degC. Wind is constant and the gennaker pulls us nicely forward. N and A enjoyed already the barefoot route feeling at the pulpit and the bow mat.

Coffee and cake will be taken, according to A, the cake baker, in half an hour.

After dinner we looked at the weather forecast and decided to sail COG (course over ground) of 268. This because N and 3 of us are low wind areas approaching. The weather model ECMWF, which is by PredictWind’s comparison, called in general the best, shows a good wind corridor to the West. The model SPIRE indicated as the best off-shore weather model points in the same direction.

From 1800 until this morning 0600 we made 59 NM safe sailing.

If our decision was right, we will know today or tomorrow. In a few hours we will get the next weather forecast.

Should the wind go down to below 15 kn we will use the gennaker again. We make good speed with it.

This morning, when we went to the fordeck to set the mainsail, we found the first flying fish dead at deck. As they are full of fishbones and not good tasting, we buried it, like a sailor, at sea.

For the whole day we used main and genoa. Just before sunset we put the main down and set only the genoa for safe night sailing.

And, we got the first squall late the afternoon. High wind and heavy rain later maybe 10 – 15 min. The sea appeared in a completely different look. Its surface sprinkled with millions of raindrops, creating circular little waves, which drew a surrealistic picture of the sea. The already low standing sun added a great illumination to this scenario.

The problem came thereafter. There was no real sailing wind. Wind was weak and changed for at least 20 – 30 min directions of up to almost 90 deg. Extremely difficult to steer in such conditions. But then the wind came back.

Just before the squall we got another catch of the day. Using the lure which is supposed to attract tuna, we caught the 3rd dolphinfish. Another excellent fish dinner tomorrow.

In the navigation system we replaced the Western European Sea Chart for the Caribbean one. Coming with a few other changes of settings it was quite a lot of work and the reason for the narrative today.

The wind was too weak to sail with the genoa. Too much flapping of the sail and no speed. Thus, we set the gennaker. The ideal sail for light winds. With the swell getting lower and longer, sailing was very comfortable.

A and R discussed the best setting for tack line and sheet. Experiments followed. At the end the gennaker had pretty good shape. STW (speed through water) was almost half of the TWS (true wind speed). Pretty good for a downwind course with an AWA (apparent wind angle) of about 160 deg.

Dinner, pizza made from freshly ground whole grain wheat, was excellent. Obviously, because G is our chef in the pantry.

After this relaxed, filled with lots of topics to talk about, dinner, we carefully watched the clouds behind MaRe, checked the weather radar, looked again at the clouds and decided to put the gennaker down at once and fast. It was a fast downing of the gennaker with a perfect timing. While pulling the genoa out, we all got a bit of light shower. But MaRe is prepared for the night and also for more wind.

The night might come, even with more wind.

We got reactions from OBM and “The Admiral” about the speed the PredictWind tracking site shows. The high speed shown is not correct but it’s out of our influence. The Iridium GO device send automatically every hour our actual position to PredictWind. From there their algorithms works. To the best of my understanding, they connect 2 positions by a straight line. This allows also sailing over land when in reality sailing is just around a cape. I assume they use the distance between 2 points to determine the speed. I have no explanation for 17 kn.

As long as we sail downwind we expect speeds of max 10 kn, except for gusts.

Last night we sailed for most of the night with 6 – bit more than 8 kn. In B’s watch the wind increased and for safety reasons we put a reef into the genoa. Later the night we took it out again.

After breakfast the wind was very low, the sun shone, temperature got warm this time for a bath at MaRe’s port stern. Safety line attached to the body one by one took a shower. Before R could get ready for his shower, clouds came with rain from behind. Within a minute wind went up from about 3 Bft to a high 6 Bft value. Again for safety reasons a reef in the genoa. The rain front passed us in a nice, not throwing rain on us distance at port side. When the next rain front, currently at starboard astern, had passed, we will again get the safety reef out.

Beside this, very relaxed routine on board.

Since early morning, the lure is trolling more than 100 m behind MaRe and we all hope for another catch of the day…

It started as normal relaxed morning. All crawled one by one out of their comfortable and warm beds. It was fresh outside. The wind from ENE was not a warm one and was blowing into MaRe’s sails and cockpit with around medium 6 Bft. Maybe even on this very morning someone questioned again if we really sail along the barefoot route.

Various topics based on observations during last night gave – as usual – lots of stuff to talk. G and R talked about the fish which got lost last night after getting it in to about 30 m; we had trolled the lure with more than 100 m. From a jumping we could see that it was not a colorful dolphinfish. A tuna? Nobody really could make a clear statement. Their interesting discussion was on how to prevent a fish gets off the hook. At the end we decided to troll again. Lure again more than 100 m behind. We all went back to normal morning routine with breakfast preparations, log book writing, etc.

This morning routine lasted just about 15 min until G said “fish” and ran into the cockpit to the fishing rod. N and R rushed to starboard genoa and furler winch to reef the genoa to slow MaRe down; she was most likely running around 7 kn. G was slowly getting the catch in. At about 50 m we saw it is a dolphinfish with his bright colors. In the meantime MaRe got so slow that waves hit her stem and R got a full body shower. A and N brought MaRe again at speed and into course. G, well secured, went down on MaRe’s port stem and got the fish with his gaff. He killed the fish with a few quickly done strokes on its head. Some might now think how gruel it is too kill fish. Normally we don’t kill any animal because we buy our meat, from which animal so ever, in the supermarket… But the mid-Atlantic supermarkets are closed on Thursdays.

Fish was secured on deck.

Wet clothes changed for dry ones and we had breakfast.

Sailing at 6, 7, and even occasionally more than 8 kn, at 6 But winds, our breakfast in the cockpit is a luxury one. First we tight down the cockpit enclosure for stern, starboard door, and starboard rear part to reduce the wind. Then place mats get out on the cockpit table and, and, and. At the end, we have muesli with fruits, milk or soy milk, bread, butter, marmelade, cheese, Spanish chorizo, coffee, tea, and organs juice. What a luxury life we have on board of MaRe. On a rolling monohull it appears impossible. I also need to think about a famous French sailor, one of thr real great sailors, the late Bernard Moitessier, and what he had as breakfast when he sailed across the Atlantic with his wife on board of his ketch JOSHUA. (There is a nice Wikipedia article about him and his JOSHUA.)

But this was not the end of today’s action morning!

There was the dolphinfish we want to eat for dinner!

Normally G eviscerates the catch at the stern. Today this was not possible due to too high speed of MaRe, wind and sea conditions. A had the idea needed. Immediately in front of the salon door there is a wooden grating and beneath 4 big holes to get any amount of water back into the sea. A great place to eviscerate the fish and not difficult to clean up thereafter. G was on his knees in the salon and did his job. After all was out, he showed us what is heart, stomach, liver, the ovaries etc. He even found a little fish, the lady dolphinfish swallowed not long before on its way to our lure and hook.

Finally we had fish for a good dinner. A and B worked on cleaning the boat inside and out side.

Then the relaxed routine returned back to MaRe, until A called for immediate attention. Our log showed we had sailed 1000 NM since we left Las Palmas. It was at 14:14 and the position was 21deg 05.204min N, 029deg, 13.333min W.

With grey clouds above us, the sea lost today its dark blue color for a grey one, with millions of small sunlight reflexions on the tiny little wind waves on top of the bigger ones, reflecting weak the sunrays, which made it through the clouds.

MaRe makes nicely her way with often more than 8 kn towards Sint Maarten.

Now, being in day 7 of our transatlantic sail and in day 3 in the trade wind, a relaxed routine had spread on board. More reading, more sitting and watching and writing. Watching can easily become a kind of meditation. G said yesterday that there are millions and millions of waves but there are not two waves which are the same.

No sail change since yesterday also were are curious if the round-sail performs as sold at TWS of 20+ kn. Everyone says, we should test it, but nobody makes a decisive move. Relaxed life on board.

We moved the flow generator into off-position losing about 4 – 6 A constant charging current but gained about half a knot on speed.

As we have AWS (apparent wind speed) of about 16 -20 kn on, the wind generator becomes much more effective and the indicator shows 4 – 6 A. This appears as reasonable because the batteries are not empty thus the charging currents gets reduced by its controller. With solar and wind we have a total net charging current of 2 – 7 A. That looks like a good preparation for the night.

Talking about speed, we have winds of 5 – 6 Bft (Beaufort; if I recall it right, there is a good article in Wikipedia), in knots the range is 18 – 30 (TWS). With only the genoa, we are running the full range of 7 kn; sometimes a high 6 and sometimes a low 8.

MaRe takes the waves good. Very seldom a higher waves rolls to MaRe from a more northern direction, which makes MaRe swing around a bit on the “down hill slope” of the wave. In an extremely rare case the genoa flaps a bit and only 1 – 2 times the sail collapsed and was leaning against the inner stay and the mast for a few seconds.

The autopilot in wind vane mode keeps MaRe very good in the set wind angle.

G again tries his luck with the catch-of-the-day? As we are sailing pretty fast, we might only catch tuna or a wahoo. To increase the chance, G trolls the bait more than 100 m behind. Two crew members are prepared to immediately reef the genoa to reduce MaRe’s speed to get the catch in.

Until the fish decides to take the G’s lure, G cuts already zucchinis, pumpkins, onions… Will he create a vegetarian meal without the catch-of-the-day?

Although the day was a very relaxed one, it was bit a bumpy ride. There came a second swell from around N creating with the main swell from ENE a choppy sea.

We tried various settings to optimize MaRe’s response to changes in wind directions. At the end we felt good with the settings we are using now. As it is with every automated system, it reduces manual work, but requires a lot of mental work. This mental work we did today. It can only be done while at sea.

The sun is down behind the horizon, the sky is metal blue and the high flying clouds reflect the not diffracted reddish part of the sunlight.

Night can come, MaRe and it’s crew is prepared.

Only 1 sailvery change today so far. We put down the jib for more flexibility in sailing directions. The price is a speed reduction by about a knot, which appears to be compensated by the possibility of a more direct course.

The sea appears deep dark blue with white ornaments on top. Or, if one looks against the sunlight, the sea appears to be covered with old fashion chocolate wrapping, an extremely thin aluminum foil making them tiny little ones. As we sail downwind, waves are running towards MaRe from astem. And MaRe lifts her sterns and let’s the waves smoothly pass under her. A & G took showers sitting at the port stem but only with safety rope.

We might all be a bit crazy, but none of us is stupid. No rush is the main guideline on board of MaRe.

G tries to get the catch of the day. Please keep fingers crossed for a nice fish.