Soon we left Grand Harbour and began to feel the swell as the wind increased to around force 4.
The weather was just as predicted on the GRIB files namely NE force 4-5 we sped off south and soon got the twin genoas out.
Hocus Pocus was spanking along once again on our way across the Atlantic. As Soa Vicente dropped in our wake we were all looking forward to our next big adventure.
The day continued hot and clear and we made fair progress until the late afternoon when the wind dropped appreciably, the wind continued to be sub 10 knots for most of the night as we began watches. I was on the morning watch and the wind had just started to fill in a little and I was admiring some flying fish when I pondered what may be making them take flight, I chose this moment to look back at the one lure I had left in the water ( big tangle earlier with carpets of weed ) I was amazed to see a large Dorado take the lure. I grabbed the rod but the reel just wasn't man enough to bring this fish in so I shouted Lynne to get me the gloves and I pulled it towards the boat like a handline. I got it on board after a little struggle and there it was my third catch but first landing of a fine Dorado. The colours were spectacular but began to fade almost immediately.
Dorado are very good eating so that was dinner sorted!
Dave also caught a good Dorado and my handline produced a John Dory, also good eating!
The weather continued hot, and there were few distractions apart from "Ming Ming" on the VHF at night, we suspect that there was a Japanese fishing fleet around after Tuna and there was one philipino radio operator who delighted in hogging channel 16 and broadcasting music or just verbal rubbish and profanity. So eventually Dave and I gave him some back and amazingly he shut up!
After a few days we no longer heard him or anyone at all. Shipping vanished and the ocean became a very lonely place. Life carried on however and Dave and I had a few days of changing the rig from twins to main and Genoa as the winds varied from ENE to NE. Progress was good however and we were all getting back into watch keeping routine. A few days after we had ceased to see or hear from anyone else I spotted an orange fishing float which caused great excitement, Dave even watching it longingly through binoculars as it faded from sight!
The stores we had bought in Mindelo to replace those we had used since rescuing Aku Mor were proving a disappointment. Many of the vegetables were going rotten very quickly and Lynne was doing a good job as supply officer sorting out the good from the bad.
The noise was still a problem for us, Hocus Pocus has a tendency to slam alarmingly between the hulls and it makes sleep off watch very problematic, at one point we were forced to try sleeping in the saloon as it is not immune from the noise but it seems less loud.
However despite the relentless tyranny of the watches we seemed to always be able to rest enough to be able to enjoy time off watch just looking at the sea or the antics of the flying fish which seemed to be our constant companions.
The rough conditions of 2-3 metre swells combined with a moonless portion of the night meant we were getting a bumper crop of flying fish on the decks and in the bow trampolines every morning.
The watches are becoming familiar, Lynne is not keen on the 12-4 am ' graveyard' watch as for the first week it was very dark, however I quite enjoy it as I can familiarise myself with a new sky, one where the plough is standing on its tail and Orion is directly overhead. Lynne thinks the sky is ' upside down' she's quite right. Most people enjoy the 4-8 morning watch as you get to see the sun rise, which is always nice. As once again the moon was in the sky in the afternoon during the first week at sea Dave has been practising with the sextant and given the limitations of a plastic frame Davies model is gradually getting better results. I am missing my Cassens and Plath, when taking sights it's weight would help to dampen this horrible catamaran motion, I don't think I will ever get used to it!
Several ' magic moments' have arrived on the log, the first for me was 1492 miles to go as it was the year Columbus first crossed the Western Sea. The next was at about 1056 miles to go which was the half way point. Hocus Pocus had managed to do this distance in a week so the possibility of a two week crossing was quite good, this would be a very fast time. Under the twin genoas Hocus Pocus was regularly reaching 10 knots.
As we got further west the winds settled into a pattern of NE to ENE and we managed to run under the twins most of the time. Hocus Pocus is normally steered by her auropilot most of the time.
One day we were lucky enough to be shadowed most of the day by a whale, it was about 5 metres in length with a small central dorsal fin, kind of greenish on top with white underbelly which glowed a sort of aquamarine colour in the sunlight. It remained underwater most of the day circling the boat and swimming under her on occasion, it also breached ahead of the bows like a dolphin. Could it have been a pilot whale? Try as I might I couldn't get a decent shot of it, my camera just picked up waves where we could see his glowing form beneath the water. Luckily Dave managed a shot that just catches "Wally" under the waves.
Still tricky to spot?
The next day conditions were a tad rough with a swell building from the NE, this would occasionally pick up the boats sterns and surf of to one side. The autopilot tried manfully but occasionally lost control of our direction. We were in for a bit of an uncomfortable few hours.
To add to our troubles we noticed that the batteries didn't seem to be charging, Lynne and I had noticed the previous night watch that the batteries were struggling to hold a charge but now neither engine or generator seemed to be putting any charge into them, the only charge was coming from the solar panels. Dave tried to isolate the problem and remade one obvious bad connection but it didn't solve the problem.
On a boat like Hocus Picus we are very dependent on electrical power. Tonight will see if we are about to have a serious problem or if we can find another solution. Only 500 miles to go so at a pinch we could hand steer and navigate by Dead Reckoning. Hopefully it won't come to that.
One thing we have been surprised about, as well as the frequency of flying fish is the preponderance of some type of sargasso weed. It's been absolutely everywhere we look, sometimes widely distributed but occasionally very thick long clumps. We presume it's a rich habitat as there are usually fish around.
I have just discovered it is known as Sargassum weed and is becoming more prevalent, to the point where it's becoming a problem. Columbus was familiar with it but there seems to be a lot more of it now.
Meanwhile we are struggling to keep the twin genoas filled as the large swells kick off Hocus Pocus's stern and the wind shifts from ENE to NE, this gives us a wind angle that is beyond the working range of our twin headsails. So the dilemma is do we struggle and hope the wind comes more east or do we fill the sails and lose ground to the south which may mean getting the main up to re acquire the latitude of Barbados.
This is the pilot atlas for this part of the world for January,( the game of little squares) we are at about 50° longitude so according to the atlas there is a 55% chance of NE wind and a 44% chance of E wind. I suspect the wind will make the decision for us but in the meantime we have to trust the helms woman tweaking the autopilot. In this case it was a good decision as Hocus Pocus reached speeds of 14 knots and covered 10 miles in an hour! We managed our first 200 miles in 24 hour days.
More good news is that as we switched the genset on it began to charge the batteries at a healthy 30 amps. There was an audible sigh of relief around the boat. This coincided with us passing the 500 miles to go mark.
That night was the first time we experienced one of the classic problems of trade wind sailing namely the " line squall" these are preceded by black storm clouds in the vicinity of which the wind increases a couple of forces and is usually accompanied by rain. They are decidedly unpleasant, and if you have never experienced one before are a sudden and intimidatingly scary thing. Our tactic for these short lived mini-gales is to run before them downwind to take the pressure off the rig. This is easy enough during the day but is a different kettle of fish at night when you are flying on instruments. However the sudden increase in boat speed helped to contribute to our high mileage day! The rain also helped remove some of the Sahara desert from the decks.....
The constant wind shifts during the night became a bit wearing, Lynne gained valuable experience trimming the autopilot to keep the twin genoas within their working wind angle. The dawn brought a bright and fair day and the wind settled from the ENE, everyone took the opportunity to sleep and relax the day away as we passed the 300 mile to go milestone.
The following evening brought a return of the line squalls but nowhere near as severe as the previous night. Dave and Carole heard the first transmission on the VHF in ages! And as I took over the watch we passed over the continental shelf at 4 am. Can't say I noticed it.
Lynne took over at 8 am and it was again a scorcher!
This is our track across the Atlantic from Mindelo Cape Verde to Barbados.
The final night the wind dropped a little so at least we got some sleep, by the morning winds were very light so we decided as the batteries were flat any way to run the engines for a while and motor sail. We assume the engine noise and vibration were what seemed to attract a pod of bottlenose Dolphins. They played under the bow for 15 minutes and dived from side to side under the boat.
I woke Lynne up to see, Hocus Pocus was nearly at the end of her marathon journey of over 2000 miles.
We continued to the lighthouse at Harrison point and continued down the coast to Port St Charles ( which we discovered by VHF was fully booked. We then had the usual massive struggle to tame the twins and finally docked at the fuel berth just outside the marina, Lynne and I jumped off the boat as Dave went to clear us in through customs. We said hello to a couple who rowed past in a dinghy we had last seen in Mindelo marina. They had taken 16 days. We had done the 2108.7 mile trip in 13 days and 7 hours.
The guy at the fuel berth said " do you need fuel ?", Ii replied," no but we need 500 litres of water " it's 60 us cents a gallon" sorry we said we have no currency, " have it on me", he said, "welcome to Barbados"
Brilliant!!!!!!
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