Hello to you all. Well we have made it after 25 days at sea. Thankfully nothing major went wrong but I will share with you all our stories and how the journey went in the next few days.
I would like to thank all of you who posted such kind and caring messages, I have read a few and will reply to all of them shortly.
Carlotta and I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a great New Year.
Best wishes,
Oliver, Carlotta and Troskala.
How I would like to describe Troskala´s atlantic crossing so far? Today,has been excatly a week since they left. I would love to say that it has been like every sailor describes, but actually is not.
In the past year since I decided not to cross, I have heard from nearly every sailor ” Carlotta, do you know that you are doing the hardest part? Bay of Biscay, Portuguese coast and down to the Islas Canarias is much harder than the Atlantic” -Hmm, I do not think so-“In the Atlantic you get pushed by the lovely and light trade winds, you just lie there, sunshining, playing the guitar and you hardly need to touch the sails”.. ja, ja -Not this time, I am afraid- 🙂
The poor things have been faced with forces 9 -8 in the first night and between 6-8 the remainder of the days. So far, I think that their Guitars, Ukalele and armonica that they are carrying will have to wait . Last night a freak wave came in the cockpit and Oliver lost his new Kindle where he just downloaded all the books for the crossing, including the Yachtmaster’s bible 😦
Main thing is that the boat is safe and sound and on a good note they are doing amazing speed and a very good course! Troskala is making an average of 130 miles per day at a speed of 6 knots, I have not had a chance to find out their sail plan but I believe that at least have 2 reefs in main and also genoa, in order to balance the Hydrovane.
Oliver just sent a 2 lines email from the sat phone and apparently the boat is being hit quite vigorously but all 3 are pulling together and standing strong in good spirits! The wind that they are getting is more than the windpredict in the fleetviewer shows.
Really recommend the fleet tracker, is a very good peace of mind and a great tool. Quite addictive too, is like a video game but with real people. Also beacuse I know quite a lot of the boats, is really funny to see their progress and read their logs. Please find the link below (since Oliver last post it, THE ARC has changed the link), this is the latest.
http://www.worldcruising.com/arc/eventfleetviewer.aspx
Troskala is a light green icon to odds the end of the fleet, he is now heading SW to odds more the rumb line and tomorrow will start heading more west. Weather wise is looking lighter conditions for the next few days, however still they are getting 3-5 metres swell and confused seas coming from the beast that is lying on the west of the Azores.
I wish I could relax and enjoy his passage but I can not, when I know that is hard for them beacuse I know, how is like out there, when we experienced the gale in Biscay and my last sail from Madeira to Gran Canaria, the last day, the wind picked up too quickly while I was on watch, not wanting to disturb Oliver, we picked up to force 7 cofused seas, 3-4 metres swell and It was such the weaher helm that I had to steer the tiller, lying down with my 2 legs for 8 hours as it was too dangerous and too late for Oliver to go on deck , head to wind to reef, so Hydrovane could not work in an unbalance boat…my fault for not making Oliver aware of the situation…
Still, I think with sailing, you have very very highs with amazing experiences and very very lows, when you think why am I doing these?? I am sure that it would be the same for them in this passage and it will be all worth it at the end!
Anyway, I completly trust the boat and the skipper and I am sure that they will be very proud of them selves for being the smallest boat in the ARC 2012 and making such a great progress, 1860 nautical miles to go only !
I will update you again next week with more news. In the mean time, we all wishing them fair winds and safe crossing ahead.
4/12/2012 @ 20.00 HRS UTC
18º02 ´45 N
28º 55´ 68 W
Miles 840
Engine hours, I would guess just for the departure (maybe one) 😀
magneticdeviation 