Trade Wind Sailing 4th January 2024
We were now far enough south to begin to pick up the trade winds which generally blow from east to west across the Atlantic at this time of year and typically about 15-25kts. We had the Red Baron up all night as we felt comfortable that the wind would not increase beyond 20 kts and the sea conditions were reasonably calm. We therefore maintained a good average speed of 7 kts. Robbie and I had the 8-11.00pm and the 5-8.00am slots. What I really noticed was the lack of light pollution and the star constellations were amazing. There were hundred of thousands of stars and we could clearly see the milky way. It was good to lie back at the back of the cockpit and to gaze in awe whilst listening to the swish of water passing along the hull. If you looked carefully you could see the fluorescence in the water and one crew member said he saw it in the water in the heads whilst using it! No he had not been drinking as we have no alcohol on these long passages. Marks’s chocolate brownies also keep us all going on the night shifts, although Robbie prefers soup.
The sun eventually came up about 7.45am and it turned out to be a lovely sunny day and we chalked up the miles with the Red Baron. It seemed almost effortless as we sailed along about 7-8kts and broadly going in the right direction as best we could bearing in mind the wind angle. Each day (perhaps twice) we download the weather from Predict Wind and we plot our course for the next two days. We had been aiming as best we could toward the Cape Verde Islands as we were seeing a wind hole to the Northwest of us which would becalm us. Whilst we can see forecasts 7-10 days ahead things change daily. It was now appearing that to avoid the wind hole we need to go south of the Cape Verde Islands before turning west toward the Caribbean. For several hours we continued on our course enjoying the day, eating, sleeping chatting and sailing. There was no traffic and it was as if we had the sea to ourselves and a 360 horizon of blue wavy water with the odd white sparkle and colour from the white horses.
However as the day passed the wind started to slightly strengthen and the waves and swell started to increase and to start to feel more like the last Atlantic crossing. The Red Baron was doing a good job but with the increased swell and wind it began to feel a bit too much and I made the decision to bring it down as we do not want to break anything especially as we were early into our crossing. This is quite an exercise. I was on the helm, Keith on the sheet, Ian on the winch at the mast, Robbie on the snuffer line with Mark and Peter ready to grab the Red Baron as it came down. The order was to release the sheet which depowered the sail by taking some of the wind out of it. Robbie would pull on the snuffer, which is like the sorting hat from Hogwarts and which is attached to a sort of sock. Robbie pulls on the snuffer and it brings down the sock sliding the Red Baron into its sheath. Ian releases the halyard holding it at the top of the mast which lowers it and Mark and Peter and Robbie then grab it so that it can be laid on deck and tied to the guard rails. This took all of us and by the time we finished it had taken about 25-30 minutes.
We then just put out the genoa only and ran with that. Whilst we were more under control, with the swell increasing it was more rolly. We decided to run with it for now and probably overnight to see how conditions developed. As we were going a little more slowly Mark and Ian decided to fish.
As we go across the Atlantic we cross 4 time zones – so Barbados is 4 hours behind GMT. Some yachts do not bother about this until they get there. However we have decided to do it as we go along. So today we decided to go back one hour as the first time zone change. This means an extra hour on one shift which Peter and Keith volunteered to do. Therefore at noon we put the ships clocks’ back one hour but we always keep one clock on GMT.
The day passed and as the sun went down we had spaghetti bolognaise cooked by Robbie which we eat out if a sort of dog bowl as with the swell we could not keep food on any flat plate. The trade winds seem to have finally arrived. We settled down for a rolly night again.