Atlantic Crossing 2017

Atlantic Crossing 2017

Canaries to Cape Verde, and Across the Atlantic to Suriname

I had hoped to cross the Atlantic this season, it was time to cross my second ocean and would continue my circumnavigation in proper order… but it wasn’t looking likely. Then the day after Christmas, as a nice “boxing day” gift, I received a message on Crewbay from Willem… short but to the point. He’s a Dutch guy sailing on a 42’ mono-hull and was in the Canaries looking for crew to sail to Cape Verde and then across the Atlantic. I messaged back that I was interested and in short order, after we chatted by WhatsApp and over video, decided and planned to sail together. So, after a week in NY/NJ and celebrating New Year’s Eve, I was off to Tenerife to meet my new skipper and boat, and get ready for the crossing.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands) Spain – arrival 8 Jan
I caught a cold just before flying over to the Canaries… an inauspicious start to the passage, but I arrived in one piece, albeit with a runny nose and very tired. My “nest” (cabin) is nice and snuzzy, and Willem cleared out the lockers so that I would have room for all my stuff. That put everything in the main salon for a while as we jostled around and I reorganized just about everything in the galley. We did a MAJOR provisioning – 700 Euros – more than I’ve ever supplied at one time, but this is probably the best possibility for fresh quality products that we’ll encounter… at least until we’re on the other side of the “pond” and perhaps even beyond, should we still be sailing together.

We set back our departure date a few times, first because there was still much to do, then because we had a great invitation to hike up in the mountains with some other cruisers. Neither of us had seen any of the island of Tenerife so far, so we deemed it an appropriate and acceptable reason to delay.

We were supposed to leave this morning (Jan 16th) but the wind was howling and it was rainy. Not the gentle start to the sailing trip and passage I had envisioned. Willem agreed, and as the weather looked much better for tomorrow, we decided to get a few more things done and wait another day.

Tenerife to Montaña Roja 17 Jan (34 nm)
Off we go! The conditions weren’t bad, save for a bit of uncomfortable swell, but later in the afternoon both wind and waves picked up. The boat has a manual reefing system, so we needed to start the engine, turn and then adjust the sails… it was tough maintaining control and getting her around into the waves – I was swamped with waves coming over the sides – but finally got back on course. The wind was howling and the “anchorage” turned out to be a little dip behind a big rock (Montaña Rioja – Red Mountain). It was protected from the swell, but not from the wind. We got a good anchor set and it was a surprisingly peaceful and lovely night. We got up, had brekky and then set off for the next leg on to Isla Gomera.

Montaña Roja to Isla Gomera 18 Jan (32 nm)
There wasn’t much wind for the first half of the trip, so we enjoyed the sunshine and relaxed. As we passed the southern-most point of Tenerife, we expected bigger winds/waves, but it was still calm until we got about halfway across the strait between islands when then the “acceleration zone” kicked in and we were hard on the wind for the rest of the trip. Willem was lovely and let me stay in the companionway while he got somewhat drenched out in the cockpit… said he liked being out there. 😊 He also hurt his leg and was bleeding all over for a bit, which wasn’t good.

We had only one day in Isla Gomera, which was unfortunate as I would have liked to explore the island a bit. The national park was supposed to be unique and stunning, but there just wasn’t time. I felt pressed for time, just as I did in Santa Cruz. Too bad that we are late in the season and don’t have time to be relaxed tourists. It seems that’s always the way though.

Isla Gomera to Mindelo, Sao Vicente, Cape Verde 20 – 25 Jan (840 nm)
So, on a lovely Saturday morning we set out for what should be a 6- or 7-day passage. There were very light winds to begin and we even had to motor for a few hours until we had enough wind from the right direction to sail. As the winds picked up, so did the swell and some mixed seas from various directions. The motion of the boat wasn’t very comfortable – sort of a corkscrew rocking and rolling. I had to take a pill for sea-sickness after standing in the galley below a bit too long, but after the first day I felt more or less fine. We adjusted course a few times to make the ride more comfortable and that helped.

We started to get into a routine but changed the watch schedule so that we were sharing the night-time hours. Unfortunately, that didn’t work well for Willem’s natural body rhythm, so from Cape Verde across the Atlantic we’ll move to a new watch schedule. Since Willem doesn’t mind the night shift as much as I do, he’ll take the 8pm-12 and the 4-8am shifts and I’ll do 12-4am… not my best hours, but probably the best solution for us as a team.

On day 4 we saw two beautiful whales!!! We had only seen a few dolphins – 2 the first day out and then one solo intrepid traveler on day 3. The winds picked up some more and at times we were flying – once we got up to 10.1 knots! We made good time and approached Cape Verde at about 5am on day 6. Willem let me sleep a glorious three hours extra (so 6 hours total since we had short shifts that last night), which was such a gift – thank you Willem, my dear! He decided that we should stay out at sea and wait until daylight before attempting to enter the anchorage, which was really a great suggestion. We came in at about 8am and found our way to the fuel dock, raised the quarantine flag and the Cape Verde courtesy flag, then began the check-in process. It went smoothly and without a hitch. I wasn’t sure what the visa situation was going to be as I thought at least I needed a visa to enter, but they just stamped us in, no problem.

We planned for 5 days, leaving out the 6th morning, assuming weather and preparations were in order. It was a little marina with a floating café… everyone gathering there for drinks or snacks and to make connections – find crew or boats, find people to do repairs, etc. They give you a card with a water allotment of 100L and you need to pay for anything above that. We put it on Willem’s card as I thought that was for water at the dock and didn’t directly relate to water in the shower… but no, I had no credit on my card and got halfway through washing my hair and showering then all of a sudden there was no water. I exited the shower stall soapy and with conditioner in my hair and needed to rinse my head in the sink (luckily not metered) and wet my towel to get the soap off the rest of me. Got it now, and have topped up both cards with more water credit, lol!

We meandered around and I loved the feel of the place – somehow being out of 1st-world countries is lovely without the big chain stores and especially in the US, without the same things repeated every few blocks. Unfortunately, I won’t have enough time to browse thoroughly here, as we need to set out in just a few more days and there is much to do, but I’ll find a few hours. I did manage to find a hair salon and make an appointment to get my hair touched up and a pedicure done as well… a girl has to look her best to cross an ocean, right? 😊

Willem suggested we go out to dinner and listen to music the night we arrived, but we were both too wiped out. We decided instead to get a good night sleep and then go out the following night – Saturday. We went to a little café that seemed the “healthy choice” restaurant in the area. We passed by several places that were filled with European tourists, and this one was as well, but turned out to be ok. We had some local Cape Verdean wine, which was pretty respectable if a bit pricey. After dinner we walked back to the main intersection where we had seen the streets being blocked off for a band playing at 8pm. The music was in full swing, as was the audience – dancing and swaying to the tunes somewhere between local and rock… really very nice. Willem and I danced the night away. He’s a terrific dancer and it was wonderful fun. After the band stopped, we walked some more and went back to a place I had seen for ice cream. There were several places in town, but somehow, I had a feeling that this was the one and my intuition did not lead me astray. Trying to keep my calories down, I said I’d just have a lick or two of Willem’s instead of getting one of my own, but when he ordered coconut, my favorite, the inner coconut fiend in me wound up sharing close to 50/50 if not more.

Bus #9 – there are about 10 bus routes in Mindelo with ¾-sized buses painted (not recently) in white and blue and making their way up and down the main streets. Somehow, bus #9 captured our attention as it seemed every bus (and there were a lot) was a #9. With so much to do in preparation of sailing across the pond, we may not actually get a chance to ride on it, but we said we wanted to. So many things we want to do, but not enough time to even get the most basic preparations done.

Wondering how things would go at the hair salon – I probably would get the prize for having my hair colored/cut in more countries than anyone I know – I went in for my appointment. No one spoke English nor any Spanish. German was clearly not going to help me here either, so I was left with charades to communicate. I had scheduled a mani/pedi as well, since my hands and feet were in need of care. Even if it doesn’t go very well it would be better than it looks currently. Surprisingly enough, they did a fantastic job!!! The color came out perfect and the pedicure and manicure were very professionally done. I now have lovely electric-blue toe nails. They were doing my toes while applying color to my hair. I was on my phone trying to type and carry on a Skype IM conversation without my reading glasses, so couldn’t see very well. My handbag was on my lap sort of between my legs, and then all of a sudden it went “plop” and fell into the water basin where my feet were soaking. Oops! Luckily the phone wasn’t in it and I was able to fish it out quickly, but everything was wet inside. I’m sure it looked hilarious.

Having recovered from that, I was able to communicate that I wanted bangs trimmed and let them talk (or motion) me into having the entire thing trimmed. She did a great job. The drying process for my hair went a bit astray though, as I tried to tell them to keep the fringe straight and leave the rest natural – curly. Nope, they went right ahead and straightened the entire thing to within an inch of its life. My hair was straight, straight, straight! I figured with the wind and all it would start curling by the end of the day, but one day later it is still totally straight. Willem like’s it a lot, but I told him not to get used to it… it wouldn’t last.

I was both delighted and dismayed at the selection in the grocery stores. Delighted with muscat raisins, which are delicious and hard to find in the US, plus unsalted roasted peanuts which were really delicious. Dismayed with lack of many things I was hunting for. Truth be told though; you can make do with much less, and much less variety, than one thinks. We get used to (and too comfortable with) our luxuries in choice and it’s good to have a reset now and again. It’s one of the things I love about not being in a 1st-world country. But there were some luxuries (like the raisins) to be found. Most notably, I found a little grocery that had vacuum-sealed smoked chicken legs. Now I would love smoked chicken legs anywhere, and on any occasion, but for crossing an ocean without a freezer on board, this was the perfect solution (along with the amazing Iberica Jamon from Spain we got in Tenerife). So, between smoked chicken, iberica jamon, lots of fabulous cheeses, eggs, homemade yogurt and bread, and a variety of other scrumptious morsels, we will be eating fabulously for the next three weeks as we make our way to Suriname. Did I mention fresh avocados, bananas, great apples (who would think you could find Pink Lady apples off the coast of Africa?), and a few out-of-season mangos? Tomorrow I do the last of the provisioning (100 eggs, 20 tomatoes, cilantro for Willem only (yuck, as far as I’m concerned), more mandarins/oranges, and another green cabbage, we’ll be almost ready to go. We’ll be leaving on Friday Feb 2nd instead of tomorrow, as Willem needs to go back to the doctor one last time. Thanks to the “MomNurse” (my Mom, our shore-based medical advisor), who strongly recommended he go get his leg checked after he slipped and injured it on the way to La Gomera when it still hadn’t healed over a week later in Mindelo, he found out he had an infection that requires a series of antibiotic injections followed by oral antibiotics. Final check is scheduled with the doc on Friday morning for the “go ahead” to sail out. I am so glad he went to get it taken care of as sailing off for 3 weeks could have been problematic with an infection. Yikes!

So tomorrow, more provisioning and dinner out, then Friday to the doctor, the bakery, and to check out of Cabo Verde. Then we’re off! Oh, another coconut ice cream cone needs to be factored in there either this evening or tomorrow, for sure. 😊

Rats, no more coconut ice cream, as it turned out, but a lovely day trip to the next island over, Sao Antao. We went with Tako, a Dutch skipper on another boat and enjoyed a day driving up and over the mountain, where it was freezing cold, then down on the north shore for a lunch, through the green valley and then back around the coast. It was really the only thing we did as tourists in Cape Verde. I wish we had more time both here and in the Canaries.  

Mindelo, Cape Verde to Domburg, Suriname 4 – 19 Feb (1898 nm)
Atlantic crossing!!! Wow!!! We set out later in the afternoon than I would have liked, but sailing for two or three weeks, it really doesn’t matter when you get going. We had quite some wind and waves as we sailed out the channel between Sao Vicente and Sao Antao islands. Since we were sailing downwind it wasn’t too bad, but still a rocky ride. Slowly it grew dark and the wind and waves increased. Willem went below to sleep and I was on watch. At one point, the autopilot lost its heading. I thought it would find it again and waited what seemed like a long time for it to regain the course again, then decided to take it off auto and try to hand-steer back to the course and then put it back. I realized too late that I didn’t have my glasses on and couldn’t read the GPS compass heading and was steering in the dark, so got even more off course, had the sails back-filled and then the spinnaker pole holding the cutter sail broke. My fault… stupid thing to do. I called to Willem and he came up immediately and got us back on track. I can’t express how much I appreciated his calm approach. He took over without yelling at me or making me feel even worse than I already did for what I had done. Thank you, Willem.

That was the only real problem we had. Willem worked out a way we could use the other spinnaker pole the following day, and we continued on our merry way. The wind was stronger than expected… over 20 knots continuously and sometimes more. We thought the wind would be lessening (which is why Willem wanted to leave sooner rather than later), but it wasn’t the case and we made the trip in only 15 days! On the first day and the last day we saw dolphins. One other time along the way I saw three. When we made our final approach to Suriname, we had a 300+ dolphin welcoming committee… they kept coming in waves and waves and more waves… small ones, but such beauties! I don’t believe you can ever see too many dolphins, right?

Willem put a “message in a bottle” for a friend of his and dropped it overboard in the Atlantic… wonder when and where it will turn up?

The water off the coast of Suriname is unbelievably shallow… sometimes less than 20 feet. We had to stay very close to the buoys and the current was running sideways very strongly. We made it into the river entrance and then decided to anchor for the night rather than stressing whether we’d make it upriver before dark. Willem thought we’d enjoy the late afternoon and then a relaxed motorboat ride the next day up to Domburg, which we did.

We anchored out the first night once we arrived in Domburg, since they didn’t have a mooring available for us until the following day. The river is lovely but muddy. Luckily, no mozzies so far!!! Willem heard what he thought was bull frogs, then apes, and it turned out they were howler apes.

We arrived!!!! Atlantic crossing completed!

Thank you Willem dear, for a wonder crossing of my second ocean, for being so understanding when I screwed up and broke the spinnaker pole, and for being a great skipper and sailing friend!