Although it’s more 1055 local time in board (UTC-3), bright sunshine, dark blue sea with white decorations, the next lines are about sailing at night. Since 2 nights the moon is increasing from half to full. Thus, the moon is, with a clear sky, an incredible illuminator of the sea and what floats on it;…

Sailing in the trade wind is very relaxing. Beside changing from reef 2 in the main to reef 1 in the morning, nothing more needed to be done until about 30 min to sunset. For the night again reef 2 in the main, and the genoa still in full size, MaRe is well prepared for…

The night brought good progress towards St Maarten while running with reef 2 in the main. Depending on the windspeed we put a reef in genoa as well. This was needed serval times when the wind increased above 20 kn. After breakfast in the cockpit we changed to reef 1 in the main. Genoa size…

Sorry for not being able to write yesterday. The night before was normal. We were well prepared. Sometimes the wind was on the lower side. In the morning we used the gennaker for a while to gain speed. But wind increased again and the gennaker was replaced by main (reef 1) and the genoa. We…

During the night the pretty good wind continued. In the morning we set the gennaker for a very short time until the he wind reached the threshold speed. We changed it sails to main with reef 1 and the genoa fully out. AWA of 120deg makes a COG of around 265 – 275deg while we…

During the night the wind stable around 15 – 16 kn TWS, resulting in 4 – 5 on STW. The sky is covered with clouds. Nothing special. “Are we back in the trade wind?” was a comment by A.

The day was not exciting but with the gennaker we made good progress towards W. We kept the gennaker until 16 kn TWS and then put it down. This was just the right timing in respect to windspeed. With TWS of around 15 kn (until 1945) we can expect 4 – 5 kn STW. Let’s…

MaRe runs as good as she can with wind in COG of about 260 deg. Thus we make good way towards W. However a bit more wind would be nice to get some more speed. But this is sailing. Today it’s quite on board. One after the took a nap. Sea is gentle. No fish…

The night was not too fast in average but sometimes, when a cloud passed by closely, MaRe moved faster through the sea. We also got a short, free sky-water shower before midnight. Beside this MaRe moved with only the genoa and wind from 90 – 150 deg safely through the night. B reported an interesting…

The problem of the day was the missing wind and the fact that there is no fuel station in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The fuel consumption was nagging on my nerves. On one side there was the need to get out of the calm ASAP, and on the other side there was the…