12 JAN 2006 1630 EST
28 02 N, 15 21 W
Course 160
SOG 5.0
Wind V 3 kts
Pressure 1025.7 up from 1023.5 at 0600 EST

Departed Las Palmas 8 PM local time. Motoring in smooth water, less than 1 meter swell. All well, if somewhat queezy.

Working our way down W side of Gran Canaria. Will run toward 20N 20W as soon as we're past the island. Will motor through night absent wind, but may slow down later to conserve fuel.

13 JAN 2006 0722 EST
26 51 N, 16 30 W
Course 255
SOG 7.5rees 35 knots

Waves 3 meters breaking all round. Spume everywhere. Occasional wavetop in cockpit, one made it down companionway, splash boards now in. Pressure 1022 steady Hazy, very thin cover near 100%; heavier cover just to south of our position.

Gale-force winds since 0400 EST, peaking at 42 knots around 0600 EST. Since 0500, have been broad-reaching SW with triple-reefed main, no foresail. Reaching up would bring water into the cockpit constantly, and anyway this course takes us toward the Caribbean. If you concur, we will revert to former southerly plan when wind/seas moderate. 20N 20W looking less and less like an option.

We thought this was associated with squally-looking clouds and splatter of rain around 0400 EST, but wind has persisted even in clearing weather.

13 JAN 2006 1330 EST
26 30 N, 16 54 WM
Course 190
SOG 7.0
Wind NNE 20 kts
Pressure 1022.5 falling

Wind moderated 1000 EST, at 27N 17W, and has been up and down (and all around) since. Lots of changing sails and jibing, including an accidental jibe with learning driver (initials AB) that broke the attachment fittings at the base of the mast; now using alternative fittings. Lots of wet gear on board, but all aboard are well and reasonably happy. Looking forward to being south of 20 degrees.

14 JAN 2007 1300 EST
25 22 N, 19 37 W
Course 235
SOG 6.0
Wind E 14 kts
Pressure 1019.7 falling
0% cloud cover
Seas 3 meters

Reaching on port tack down toward Ben's waypoint for Thursday, at 25N 22W (see Ben's 1/13 message). Over last 24 hours,wind was generally 15-20 knots ENE ith 4-meter seas, veering to E and dropping in strength during the last hours of darkness.

Andi made fresh bread this morning. Sharon finally got a good night's sleep, has shaken off all trace of seasickness and is fast becoming an expert helm. We checked the fuel situation and saw that the autopilot is consuming too much electrical power (and thus too much diesel fuel to recharge batteries). Will be hand-steering at least 1/2 time from now on.

Still wearing long sleeves during the day, foul-weather gear at night.

Cheers and love to all,
Rob

15 JAN 2007 0700 EST 24 42 N, 20 42 W Course 206 SOG 5 KTS Wind E 7-10 kts Pressure 1021.1 rising 0% cloud cover Seas .5 meters Crossed 20W yesterday evening, but still ran into some light patches -- spent 8 hours last night blowing into sails, with wind below 6 knots, but boatspeed never below 2 knots. Set spinnaker this AM, now doing about 5 knots SSW. Ben, are we east or west of the hole in the wind? Right now, we're sticking to the waypoints you gave us, which are well south of here. Any change? Temperatures warming up -- we've broken out shorts for the daytime sailing. Still wearing foul weather pants at night for the dampness from dew and salt on the cushions. Everyone in fine spirits. Sharon and Amy are fast becoming expert helmspersons in tough conditions of light off-the-wind sailing.

15 JAN 2007 1300 EST
24 19 N, 21 00 W
Ben, I have a potentially billable research project for you: What do the Trinis do with their solid waste? If the answer is, they make it into landfill, we'll save our non-environmental garbage and give it to them; if they threw it in the ocean (as many Caribbean islands do) then we'll save them the trouble.

We had a beautiful sunny day today, shorts and t-shirts. Crew are starting to look less exhausted from the 4-hour sleeping shifts and are gaining expertise in steering (no trivial matter when spinnaker flying in light air). All are well.

The wind died to about 4 knots at 1630 local time (1100 EST) and we took the opportunity to charge batteries and propel ourselves for a couple of hours at the same time. Tonight, we'll just sit and wait for wind -- a moderately uncomfortable prospect, as there's a 1.5-meter swell and it's hard to keep the boat aligned when we're going too slowly.

Send wind.

16 JAN 2007 0800 EST
23 55 N, 22 06 W
Course 225
SOG 5 KTS
Wind NNE 7-10 kts
Pressure 1019.2 steady
hazy
Swell 2 meters
Waves 10 cm

Very light wind all night. Set spinnaker in early morning; reaching SW toward 18 35 N 31 00 W or even south of that. Saw ISS (or Hubble?) directly overhead at 0725. Frequently sighting small dark birds very close to surface -- stormy petrels? Anyway, pelagics, this far from land. All well on board.

16 JAN 2007 1300 EST
23N 22W
Amy says hi. We know she keeps doing that, but we can't stop her.

Please don't waste a lot of time on the Trinidad garbage investigation. We can pack away our plastic and they can do what they want with it.

Thanks for the synopsis and advice. As I understand you, we might get good breezes for a couple of days if we go west and then a lull with possibly westerly component winds this weekend. We'd rather follow your advice and take the southerly approach, getting south of 17 N by Sunday if we can.

Our problem is that we sail downwind at about 120 degrees from the wind, in light air -- any deeper than that and we go really slowly. So with 8-10 knots from the NE, the most southerly course we can take is WSW unless we want to jibe and head back to the southeast, which is psychologically tough even if it's the fast course to take. As the wind picks up to the high teens, we can dive deeper, as much as about 165 degrees from the wind; but from what you say, we're not likely to see much of that in the next couple of days! Anyway, we'll do what we can to get south without going east.

Email: We compose offline, then send/receive -- we're online for about 30 seconds each time. So, from our perspective, we compose and send our position and weather report at around 1300 local time and receive your mail, if any, from the previous afternoon EST. The main purpose of that communication is to give you and Dave our noon position and status. We then wait until about 1800 local time, compose an answer to your questions, if any (as we're doing here) and send/receive shortly thereafter, picking up your official forecast and direction valid 1200 EST. The main purpose of that exchange is for us to get your latest synopsis and advice.

News of the day: When we hoisted the spinnaker this AM, the lines controlling the sock got fouled. We finally got the chute fully out of the sock, but we're afraid we'll have to take it down without snuffing it; which, with a big crew like this, shouldn't be too hard. Lots of spinnaker practice today for the newbies -- no decision yet whether to continue to fly the chute through the night -- depends on how Amy and Sharon feel when they try it.

Akka

17 JAN 2007 0700 EST (1200Z)
22 52 N, 23 46 W
Course 260
SOG 6.2 KTS
Wind NE 12 kts
Pressure 1019.8 steady
hazy
Swell 2 meters
Waves 50 cm

Crossed into the mid-Atlantic time zone (Local time = UTC - 2 hours). Decided to dowse the spinnaker last night for easier sailing, sock worked unexpectedly well. Set genoa wing-and-wing, allowing us to go more directly downwind but slower -- averaged just over 4 knots over the night. Set spinnaker again in the AM, averaging more than 6 knots but not so directly downwind. Wind gradually going right -- NNE at night becoming ENE now -- and intensifying. Watches have been very quiet -- we still see the occasional airplane or contrail, but no vessels. We're now hand-steering almost 100%. The food is great, still fresh meat and veggies, gourmet recipes, and fresh bread almost daily. All well and happy, but chafing at the slow speeds and inability to go further south.

Ben, we don't think we can get down to below about 16N 31W by Sunday. Does that put us in the lull from the low, and if so, should we just try to proceed direct toward Trinidad or a little south of that route and eat the calm on Sunday? As we understand it, the more northerly course would give us better speed for the next couple of days, and about 100 NM shorter route (almost a day's sail), in exchange for one day of potentially light wind. So the two routes would be a wash if we could actually get down below 15N; but if we can't, we'll have gone the extra distance -- will we get a corresponding benefit?

Our current plan is to keep going west while the wind is from this quarter, and if it goes more easterly as expected, to jibe and sail about 220 degrees, getting as far south as we can by the weekend.

Dave, anything you know about possible satellite sightings would be appreciated -- nothimg much else to do on watch, and we're tiring of each others' life stories. New moon tonight. How's the website going?

Cheers,
Akka

17 JAN 2007 1913 UTC
22 22 N, 24 23 W
Course 210
SOG 5 kts.

Well, just after our last transmission the wind came in from the NE, we jibed to head SW and had a great spinnaker run southward for most of the day, until the wind just punked out a little while ago. We're currently slopping around wondering if we're ever going to be in the tradewinds.

Fresh raisin bread at lunchtime.

Overcast, wind NE 9-12, pressure 1017.7 steady. Still wearing jackets and fleece, plus foul-weather gear at night.

Cheers,
Akka

18 JAN 2007 0900 EST (1400Z)
20 54 N, 26 00 W
Course 235
SOG 7.2 KTS
Wind E 15-20 kts
Pressure 1017.9 steady
clear
Waves 2 meters

Made 161 NM noon-noon.

We flew the chute until after dark, but then dowsed it when steering became too difficult. The winds soon built to 18-23 knots and held all night. We ran throughout the night on a course of about 230 degrees, wing-and-wing using the genoa. Steering was really tricky, as there was a very narrow range of course and the big unseen waves from astern kept on setting us 20 degrees one way or the other. But all went well until this morning at 0500 when Sharon came up from sleeping and immediately took the helm. A wave turned the boat hard, and Sharon blearily spun the helm -- in the wrong direction. We jibed the main but because we had the preventer on, the main simply backed and stopped the boat. Andi took the helm and tried to jibe back, but to no avail. Finally, Rob released the preventer, the boom slammed over, and we could start sailing again. We jibed back in a more orderly fashion and were on our way again. No damage other than a bent stanchion. Moral: Don't yank somebody out of bed and put them on the wheel in tricky conditions!

All well on board, and continue to be well fed.

Ben, you wrote:

I am correct that your sail is out to the left side of the boat, and you would jibe to bring it over to the right side of the boat to head further south? Can you go-about using your motor or is that cheating?

That would be correct, except that the left side of the boat is the 'port' side and the other one is the 'starboard' one. We can go about (or 'tack') using the motor, and in fact did so the second night out, when we had winds over 30 knots and were double-reefed. But generally we haul the mainsail almost all the way in, turn gently, and when the sail comes over, let it out fast to damp the impact.

0200 Friday, 19 January
19 34 N, 25 46 W
Ben,

Sorry for the delay in picking up today's forecast. I misunderstood the reference to 15 hours ...

Saw our first flying fish today. Then forgot to bring in our fishing gear at sundown and caught a barracuda at 1 AM -- didn't know they hunted in the dark.

Sharon's feeling a bit queezy again, not sure whether seasickness or exhaustion. Otherwise, all well.

Note Lisa Overton was missing from your list of recipients.

We've been having a small problem with the power line to the Inmarsat -- the connector is a bit corroded. In case we can't use the satellite phone but could get a message through via a radio patch, can we have your phone number at work?

Cheers,

Rob
S/V Akka

19 JAN 2007 0900 EST (1400Z)
18 41 N, 27 28 W
Course 230
SOG 7.0 KTS
Wind E 13-16 kts
Pressure 1017.9 steady
clear, some haze
Swell 2 meters
Waves 50 cm

Set spinnaker at first light, bore off to present course, which is as close to west as we can sail fast. (Our course on starbpard tack would be about 290, which would take us westward faster but also north, which we don't want to do.) So, we're making about 7.0 * cos(40 degrees) = 5.3 knots to westward and diging down into the trades as well. On this course, we'll run down the waypoint we set almost a week ago, at 16N 31W.

Sharon still feeling queezy but up to standing watches again. Not sure if she's seasick or something else. She's taking ginger, drinking lots of water and juice, and wearing a pressure bracelet. We'll see.

The rigid vang finally broke completely (and loudly), then failed the float test. It had no function while we're sailing, so there's no problem there.

Cheers,
Akka

2015 UTC Friday, January 19
18 07.5 N, 28 00.3 W

Ben,

Thanks for the telephone numbers. Hope we don't have to use them! Remember, if you don't hear from us assume it's the Inmarsat telephone, not anything more calamatous. We're in touch with some nearby Dutch boats by radio, but so far haven't been able to transmit enough power to be heard in the States. Not sure what's wrong -- looking into it.

We, too, are surprised there are any fish, but there are lots of them. We hooked a dorado (mahi-mahi) this afternoon, but failed to land it.

Wow, degrees and minutes, even. But I hate to tell you, we use decimal minutes, not seconds, of lat/lon. Maybe we use that order -- latitude, then longitude -- because for centuries longitude was almost impossible to determine. For a great read on this topic, I recommend the little book "Longitude" by Dava Sobel et al.

Snow? Trying to imagine. Like rain, maybe, only white and cold? It's very cheering to hear of it.

Non-fish related news from the front: We're reaching the maximum range of our Worldspace satellite radio receiver; it comes in and fades out on every roll. Guess we'll miss Andi's favorite show: "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me". Oh, well.

Still doing well, headed SW at 7 knots or so. Plan to fly the chute all night for the first time. All well and happy on board.

Cheers,
Akka

20 JAN 2007 0900 EST (1400Z)
17 09 N, 29 25 W
Course 240
SOG 6.1 KTS
Wind E 12-15 kts
Pressure 1017.7 steady
clear, some haze
Swell 1.0 meter
Waves 0.5 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 150 NM.

Just after dark last night we blew our spinnaker apart in 17-19 knots of wind, sailing at 6 knots almost dead downwind (i.e., apparent wind 11-13 knots). It went with a bang, not a tearing noise, making the crew on deck think a shackle had blown. It took awhile to get the pieces down, working in the dark with crew inexperienced in where everything was on the mast, but we rescued it eventually. We think the tear is reparable, sewing by hand over about 40 feet of tear -- estimated work, 26 crew-hours. Meanwhile, sailing wing-and-wing (the mainsail to one side of the boat, the genoa poled out on the other side), we make only about 6 knots in 15 knots of wind, in contrast to almost 8 knots with the spinnaker.

And unfortunately we haven't had much 15-knot wind. All night, the wind was around 12 knots, dropping for long periods to 10 knots and once for a few minutes to 7 knots.

We hooked another mahi-mahi, but again lost it before we could get it aboard. Sharpened hook.

Cheers,
Akka

PS. Note addition of Amy to recipient list -- she wants to compile all the mail into a single document when she gets home. Shows what government contractors do with their time! R

2016 UTC (1516 EST) Saturday, 20 January
16 51 N, 29 55 W

Hi all,

Work on the torn spinnaker continues apace; no way to zigzag stiches and finish before next Christmas -- hope it doesn't just rip again when we put it back up! The main cabin is filled with spinnaker, and each crew member is taking his/her turn on the sewing, with Sharon (who sews at least twice as fast as anybody else aboard) as lead sailmaker.

We just caught a nice medium-sized fish, which we tentatively identify as a Pompano, though it might be a female dolphin (mahi-mahi). Sushi tonight!

Still on port tack, headed well south of west -- sooner or later the winds have to come around to the northeast, right? Then we can jibe and head directly for Trinidad.

All well and happy with our new food source.

Cheers,
Rob
S/V Akka

21 JAN 2007 0900 EST (1400Z)
16 25 N 31 19 W
Course 265
SOG 5.5 KTS
Wind ENE 12-15 kts
Pressure 1017.1 steady
clear, some haze, 10% thin cumulus
Swell 2 meters
Waves 0.5 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 120 NM.

Low (8-12 knots) wind all night. We jibed at midnight local time, at 16 31 N 30 20 W, onto a westward course. Turning into the long home stretch, it's Akka, well, at the back of the pack. Still, we're making steady progress and will get there sooner or later.

We're all getting sick of sewing, but work on the spinnaker continues, as we wonder whether our simple stitching will hold up against enough load to pull 40,000 pounds of boat through the water at 6 knots. Phrased like that, the answer seems obvious, but we'll persist.

There are flying fish all around. At about 1930 local time last night, Sharon was standing watch in the cockpit when she got hit in the leg by one. Andi and Sharon threw it back in, much to Amy's disgust when she awoke, as she wanted to see a flying fish close up. So when another one landed on the side deck this morning, Sharon left it for Amy to see. It was dead when we found it, anyway.

We caught a small (12") pompano at 1010 this morning, and released it on the assumption we'd catch a bigger one soon. As we were paying the line back out we got another strike -- this time a big mahi-mahi. We got it onto the tiny aft deck, but as Rob was trying to line up the rum to pour down its gills to kill it, it gave a mighty flop and slid overboard! Oh, well.

As we were typing this note, we got another strike, and this time landed it -- a mahi 28" (70cm) long. Fish for dinner again tonight! We've stowed our fishing gear away for the time being.

All well on board.

Ben, you wrote:

Thanks for the feedback on my questions. I am surprised at the rapid changes in wind speed. The charts show averages over large areas, but given the uniformity of the overall pressure patterns, the uniformity of the ocean surface and temperature, and no land masses nearby to cause differential heat effects, there is not much to explain such changes. But, there is a reason; I don't know what it is.

I can think of 3 likely factors: first, our estimates of windspeed and direction are calculated from apparent speed and direction, measured at the masthead, and the boat's GPS course and speed through the water. The direct wind readings are affected by our pitch and roll, which in these waters can be pretty extreme. All the readings vary slightly with time, and the integration time steps aren't the same for all the instruments, so we can get estimates that are off by a couple of knots and maybe 20 degrees. We try to solve that problem by taking a bunch of readings, and so you get our range of values.

A second, and probably more important, factor is that we're reading the wind only about 65 feet off the water, and the surface of the water isn't at all smooth. So sometimes we're down in a trough and sometimes on top of a particularly high swell; also, the waves themselves affect the wind direction and speed.

The third factor, I'm not sure about. As you say, the granularity of the big synoptic models is so great that they miss local phenomena. Presumably the water isn't entirely homogeneous, and the surface is warmer in some spots than in others; also, there are clouds around, which surely affect the wind speed and direction at the surface, both from convection and from shading large areas of water. I don't know much about the air/water interface, but I understand it's very difficult to model accurately, even in mesoscale models -- which we're not using.

How is my email list now?

Great, though now Amy says she doens't need to be on it. She's going to collect all the correspondence right here on Akka, as we go -- thus saving the taxpayers some money later (Rob's comment).

Cheers,
Akka

21 JAN 2007 1300 EST
16 20 N, 31 52 W Not much news this afternoon. Great dinner of mahi sauted in butter and ginger this afternoon, served on the cockpit table. Consensus: Better than any restaurant could offer. But even the finest restaurant might have trouble duplicating the environment, as Akka rolled every second or so and all the untended knives, forks, drinks, and butter sauce went hither and yon. We're getting pretty good at catching flying silverwear!

Amy saw dolphins today while she was on watch with Gene. At first she thought they were sharks, then thought it was just a trick of the waves and her imagination.

We must be in the area affected by the weather to the north, because right now (2030Z) we have only 8 knots of wind from the east northeast. But more will blow anon, we're sure.

Cheers,
Akka

22 JAN 2007 0900 EST (1400Z)
16 17 N, 33 11 W
Course 269
SOG 3.7 KTS
Wind ENE 10-12 kts
Pressure 1016.2 steady
clear and hazy
Swell 3 meters, very long
Waves 0.5 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 110 NM.

A ship passed us in the night, only about 1.5 NM away, headed east. That's the first vessel we've seen since leaving the Capetown-Europe sealane, more than a week ago!

The question arises: Why not motor at 5 knots instead of sailing at 3? We have fuel enough to recharge batteries for about 19 more days. If this passage takes, say, 14 more days, then we've got a reserve motoring range of just under 100 NM. For now, we've elected to use sail only and keep the rest of the fuel for emergencies.

Still slow work with no chute. Crew has started whistling, despite skipper's admonitions. We console ourselves that almost no other cruisers even have spinnakers, so this isn't all that unusual.

A boat to the north of us reports on SSB that they've been motoring for 2 days now -- no wind at all. Ben, what's the synopsis? Are we still too far north?

Cheers,
Akka

22 JAN 2007 1450 EST
16 13 N, 33 33 W
We had a really uneventful day. Slow going -- sometimes under 4 knots -- in 8-12 knots of wind, E to ENE.

Stopped at lunch time for a mid-ocean swim. Just before we jumped in, we saw about 10 shark-looking fish under the boat; but closer inspection revealed the bright yellow tails and blue sides of dorado (mahi). Do you suppose they swim along under our boat as we go? Sort of a supply of sushi for Akka? All the way from the Canaries to Trinidad? If not, how did they all get there that fast? Anyway, they disappeared when we splashed in. The water temperature was perfect; Amy, Sharon, Andi and Rob enjoyed a great swim and salty shampoo, while Gene endeavored to keep the boat still with sails still up and Sharon took photos.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Rob

PS Any more astronomical things to look at? Which planet is that, right near the moon? R.

23 JAN 2007 0900 EST (1400Z)
15 59 N, 34 55 W
Course 230
SOG 5.5 KTS
Wind ENE 9-11 kts
Pressure 1016.5 steady
clear and hazy
Swell 2 meters, very long
Waves 0.2 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 103 NM.

The big news is, the spinnaker is flying again! Our speed jumped from 3.6-4.0 knots up to 5.5-6.1 knots, and we can sail much deeper. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the wind is up around 10 knots, rather than the 8 knots we had all night.

The wind will be shifting a little south of east over the next day. It is significantly more so and lighter to the north of your position, so yes head south a little more.

We're on our way, just. We jibed to go south last night, but found we were making less than 2 knots toward Trinidad and about the same to the south -- not much better than stopping and waiting for the wind to blow. So we jibed back and continued westward until 1130 local time, when we could fly the chute and get better speed and angle.

There is a dissipating trough passing by to your north. The best wind is around 12N, running 15-20K.

That's nice; but unfortunately 12N is some 180 south of here, and we couldn't be there for another 60 hours or so, even under spinnaker and assuming the wind stays in the east. As we understand it, we now have only 24 hours or so of 10 knot breezes at these latitudes, then we're back to 15 and above. Please advise on whether it still pays to go south on our current course (taking about a 20% hit on speed made good to Trinidad in order to get south sooner).

In the mean time, I am downgrading your wind to 10K for the next 48 hours. By 72 hours you are back to 15K as high pressure builds to your north. Long term, winds improve for the rest of your trip, but you may have some rain showers.

David has noted the Patriot sadness after their stunning defeat last night. They were ahead 21 to 6 at half time, and broke a tie near the end of the game, only to see the Colts get a last minute touch down. Final score 38 to 34. I don't think I will watch the SuperBowl. Last night was the equivalent, game wise, but without the glamour.

We're amazed you mustered the strength to do a weather report, after that.

The fishing sounds great.

No fish since day before yesterday; a couple of hits, though. Perhaps the lack of fish aboard is just as well, as we've got meat we bought in Gran Canaria that will go bad if we don't eat it.

Please note the reinstatement of Rusty Burshell and Drew and Sue Hogstrom as recipients. They appear to have gotten dropped at some point in our correspondence.

Cheers,
Akka

23 JAN 2007 1400 EST
15 45 N, 35 17 W
Not much to report. Wind continues E 9-11 knots, and we continue to angle down south on a course of 230 (more or less) at 5-6 knots under our newly-repaired spinnaker. The ocean is calm and incredibly blue. No fish bites.

Because the passage is looking to be almost a week longer than planned, we're instituting water conservation measures: only cups and glasses get rinsed in fresh water -- everything else just gets a seawater rinse. No more showers, hair washing, or clothes washing except in salt water, until futher notice. Fortunately, there's lots of salt water available.

Cheers,
Akka

24 JAN 2007 0900 EST (1400Z)
15 24 N, 36 53 W
Course 247
SOG 5.2 KTS
Wind ESE 9-12 with gusts to 15 knots
Pressure 1017.5 rising
clear and hazy, 50%
Swell 2 meters, very long
Waves 0.2 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 120 NM.

We're trying to be gentle to our newly-repaired spinnaker: we only fly it in under 13 knots of wind. Last night at about dusk the wind came up to over 15 knots and we dowsed the chute, sailing wing-and-wing all night, as the wind continually broke our 13-knot criterion. After dawn the wind dropped to 10-13 knots and we set the spinnaker again, but while undoing a foul-up in the way the sheet was reeved we noticed a small rent in our handiwork of the last few days. We took the chute down immediately and Sharon repaired the tear -- but by the time she had finished, the wind was up again to over 13. So we continued under main and genoa, "all plain sail" as we call it.

Our policy on whether to head west or south is that we sail as close to downwind as we can. Any time we find ourselves on starboard tack sailing north of 273 degrees, we jibe onto port, and any time we are on port sailing south of 231 degrees we jibe to starboard. Sometimes this means we can almost sail towared Trinidad (262 degrees), other times that we're sailing almost 10 degrees north or 30 degrees south of that. As one can see, this heavily favors the southern route while still keeping us on our way to the Caribbean.

By the way, we're seriously considering stopping at Barbados, both because Amy wants to go therte and because we're short on fuel and water. So, Ben, please keep that option in mind when you make your weather predictions and routings.

No satellites seen, despite, David's excellent directions. Generally, the haze prevents our seeing anything below about 15 degrees elevation -- even the sun rises and sets at that level.

All well and cheerful. We've definitely settled into the pattern: watches being served (hand steering almost 100% of the time), sudoku being solved, books being read, gourmet meals being devoured. Turkey dinner last night, with all the fixin's. Delicious.

Cheers,
Akka

2315 UTC (2115 EST, 24 January)
14 47 N, 37 48 W

The spinnaker held together until just after supper, when the wind came up to 12 knots and it tore in a gust, this time irreparably. We'd been having strange winds, about 10 knots ESE for a few minutes, then a complete lull -- chute lost all air, came back into the boat, mainsail inverted, apparent wind from dead ahead (west) -- for about 5 seconds, then the old wind started blowing again. Huge long swells from the north: we measured them as higher than 4 meters, can't do better without climbing into the rig.

All well on board. No more fish, though a couple of hits.

Tonight we'll put the clocks back an hour -- we've entered the Greenland time zone (UTC-3, or EST+2).

Cheers,
Akka

25 JAN 2007 1000 EST (1400Z)
14 20 N, 38 47 W
Course 240
SOG 4.9 KTS
Wind ESE 12
Pressure 1016.2 steady
clear and hazy
Swell 4 meters, very long
Waves 0.5 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 127 NM.

We crossed the midway longitude of the Atlantic Ocean at 0513 UTC this morning and followed it with a champagne, eggs, and bacon breakfast. Winds continue to be light ESE-ENE.

To answer some questions about our schedule here and what we do with our time, Amy has provided the following. The watches are 0800-1400, 1400-2000, 2000-2400, 2400-0400, 0400-0800. So we only have two four hour night watches every other night and one 6 hour watch during the day. Amy's on the watch with Gene. Andi, Rob and Sharon are on the other shift. Rob and Andi do all the navigation work, boat maintenance, and Andi cooks the meals, so it is good for them to have 3 on their watch. Rob usually helps with the jibes since it would be difficult for Gene and Amy to do it by theirselves. We all help with dishes. When we're not on watch, we relax a little and try to sleep. We have meals at round 0800, 1400, and 2000. Gene and Amy usually have a cold beer at the end thier watch. We read books. Rob, Andi and Amy enjoy the sudokus. No competitions, we all have our own books. We're definitly in the tropics now and it is hot! In order to cool down we have rigged a salt water hose on the fore deck for showers.

Alls well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

25 JAN 2007 1600 EST
14 09 N, 39 10 W

Wind continues to be under 12 knots, easterly; we're really missing that old chute! No sign of rain so far. Missed the satellite last night because of clouds.

We're now using the seawater deck pump for showers, with a very brief rinse afterwards in fresh water from the cockpit It's cool, very refreshing, and uses essentially no fresh water.

The temperatures are finally tropical. The bimini is back up, and even then it's tough to find a cool place to nap in the middle of the day. Nights continue to be cool.

One of the bolts holding the battens to the battcars on the mast came undone, so after lunch today we rolled in the genoa, headed up into the wind and dropped the mainsail. The repair took next to no time at all, and we were soon back on our way at about 4 knots. Only after we were all squared away did we realize we'd promised Amy a swim. Even Amy didn't want to stop again, though.

Cheers,
Akka

26 JAN 2007 1000 EST (1400Z)
13 57 N, 40 36 W
Course 260
SOG 6.2 kts
Wind ESE 15 kts
Pressure 1015.8 steady
clear and hazy
Swell 3 meters, very long from NE with second short swell 2 meters, from E.
Wind-driven waves 0.5 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 112 NM.

Light variable winds all night, jibed 3 times to keep heading west. Wind went ENE and picked up to 15 knots sustained, around 1300 Z today.

Ben, if you've got the time could you give us a synopsis with locations of highs, lows and areas of influence over the next few days? This is mainly curiosity, but we do have this nice chart of the entire Atlantic Ocean and would love to see where the weather systems are; besides, it helps in decisionmaking to have a broad picture. In terms of routing: We're now staying on whichever tack takes us closer to the bearing to Trinidad/Tobago; should we still be digging down to the south more?

Enjoying Saturn overhead in the middle of the night, but not sure what planet we're seeing in the east around Libra (?) around 4 AM. Anybody know?

We've seen 2 birds out here, more than 1000 miles from the nearest land: one, which we believe to be a "boatswain's bird" has long wings and even longer sharp tail; the other has very angled wings, like a tern, grey, with white at the front of the wing angles, and black wing tips. Short tail, red or orange feet, hunts flying fish. Immature frigate bird?

Our starboard secondary winch was making horrible grinding noises under load, so this morning Andi rebuilt it. More fun than usual, with the boat rolling 30 degrees! No lost parts, no parts left over, and no noise from the winch -- mission accomplished.

For variety, we've switched around the watches: now Amy stands watch with Rob/Andi, and Sharon stands watch with Gene. Still 4 hours on, 4 off at night and 6 on, 6 off during the day; everybody seems to like this schedule.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

26 JAN 2007 1600EST
13 52 N, 41 10 W
Wind continues to be 13-16 knots, ENE. Been doing 5.5-6.5 knots all afternoon, directly toward Trinidad.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

27 JAN 2007 1000 EST (1400Z)
13 39 N, 42 54 W
Course 252
SOG 5.6 kts
Wind NE 13 kts
Pressure 1016.5 rising
25% cloud cover
Swell 2 meters, very long from NE with second short swell 2 meters, from E.
Wind-driven waves 0.5 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 141 NM.

It is very likely we will make landfall at Barbados instead of Trinidad/Tobago for 3 reasons: It is 1 to .5 days closer; Rob and Andi have not been there in 20 years (and are not likely to go there again, as it's upwind from the Caribbean); and the Mount Gay distillery is there. Besides, Amy wants to go.

Wind was extremely variable last night from 8-17 knots with sudden changes. Our new water conservation practices are paying off -- at this rate we have enough water for 25 more days. We are now allowing people to rinse off with fresh water after showering and bathing with salt water.

We had another champagne celebration this morning commemorating less than 1000 NM to our destination point. The GPS reading in the cockpit maxes at 1000 NM and is finally counting down. Additionally, we've crossed the fold in the paper chart on which we're recording our position -- now we're looking at the Caribbean when we plot, instead of Africa!

The last of the big hand of bananas we bought green in Gran Canaria went into a delicious banana cake. We took one of the flying fish that landed on our deck at night and are using it for bait, but no luck so far.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

27 JAN 2007 1430 EST
13 31 N, 43 24 W
Ben,

Answers below.

It sounds like you are headed to Barbados. Please give us the coordinates of your harbor so I can re-plot our future direction.

If you use 13 00 N, 59 32 W you'll come out fine. That's the southern tip of the island, which we have to round to go to Bridgetown. At that point, we won't need any more weather reports, only rum reports.

We were wondering if it takes a lot of electricity to use your satellite phone and if you need to run the generator just for that purpose.

No, only a couple of amps of 12-volt power -- about the same as a couple of lights. We switch the satphone off when we're not using it, though, to conserve energy.

Your waves tomorrow will be choppy from the ENE, 7 m at 7 seconds. That should continue with a larger swell at 10 feet from the NW developing over the next several days, and then the swell will diminish by day 4.

Whoa! 7 meters? That's above the first set of spreaders. Surf city, here we come! If the current winds of 16+ knots hold, we'll be flying!

We will have a big family dinner tonight as described yesterday. There were a few snow flurries this morning. We are having a heat wave. It is up to -7 C.

Happy birthday, Bob! BTW, Amy tells us you're an ornithologist. Want to take a crack at identifying our two species of birds out here (see earlier message)?

Stay warm.

Cheers,
Akka

PS. Who's in the Super Bowl, and when and where will it be played?

28 JAN 2007 1000 EST (1400Z)
13 28 N, 45 29 W
Course 247
SOG 6.9 kts
Wind E 17 kts
Pressure 1017.4 rising
clear, some haze
Swell SE 2 meters
Wind-driven waves 0.8 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 152 NM.

You may wonder what kind of exercise we're getting. Well, we're not doing any exercises, per se, except for Sharon who sometimes does shoulder/upper arm stuff. But we get a fair amount of exercise naturally, because we are moving constantly as we adjust to the movements and rhythms of the boat. Even when sleeping, our bodies have to adjust to, and counter, each roll. With the wind, waves and swell from astern, the boat takes a serpentine path downwind. Sometimes a wave will lift our stern somewhat to starboard, other times it will be to port. The boat lurches forward and often surfs down a wave, wanting to turn one way or the other. Whether we're standing or sitting, we're always compensating for these movements. When we walk around, we go in stutter steps, trying to time movements to the rolls of the boat, pausing during contrary motions, and always with a nearby handgrab. When we're steering, we stand with feet spread apart and bend one knee or the other to stay more or less level. Or we sit, again with legs spread apart, and bend at the waist. Of course, steering also gives us lots of arm and shoulder exercise. Even when we're sleeping, as much as we wedge ourselves in with pillows and cushions, our bodies rock around. You could say that Akka and the Atlantic combine to make a perpetual motion exercise machine.

Akka is rolling right now at a period of about 7 seconds, so assuming we've averaged that rate for the whole passage we've rolled about 200,000 times so far, with maybe another 80,000 still to come.

All well on board, and happy to be moving fast at last.

Cheers,
Akka

28 JAN 2007 1530 EST
13 32 N, 47 23 W
Nothing much to report. We jibed onto port tack and headed south for a few hours, trying to get down where the wind might be stronger; but then we got lifted and had to jibe back. At the moment, we're making almost exactly the course to Barbados, on starboard tack. Good ENE winds, consistently over 17 knots, moderate seas.

This afternoon, we freshened the nip on the main halyard. This is an old sailing custom -- the points where a line is cleated (the 'nip') or runs over a block is a point of stress, where the line is deformed and compressed, and so, weakened. Every week or so of offshore sailing, the prudent mariner takes in or lets out a little and re-cleats the line, thus 'freshening the nip'.

We broke the cover on the pole downhaul or foreguy, and had to end-for-end it. If we'd only freshened the nip on that line, we could have spared ourselves the trouble.

Cheers,
Akka

29 JAN 2007 1000 EST (1400Z)
13 31 N, 48 11 W
Course 266
SOG 6.5 kts
Wind ENE 16 kts
Pressure 1018.3 rising
clear, some haze
Waves 2.5 - 3.2 meters

Distance in 24 hours: about 159 NM.

Great winds at last -- almost always above 15 knots and sometimes above 25 (though that's a little too much of a good thing, as the driving starts to get really hairy). Everybody's now experienced driving Akka faster than 8 knots -- the top speed so far is Gene's 8.7 knots. The big seas make steering a lot more of a challenge than usual: on each big wave, the stern starts to lift and you have to decide which way it's going to go and counter the turn. Wait too long, or guess wrong, and you've got a real wrestling match bringing the boat back on course. Guess right and you look like a pro (and maybe find the elusive 8.8 knots). There's been lots of advice about how to relax shoulder muscles, and we think there are new finger indentations in the steering wheel.

Gene pointed out last evening that the starboard jibsheet was frayed where it went through the pole fitting, but Rob said he thought the frayed patch came from a previous chaffing problem, now resolved. This morning Gene was proved right, as the sheet parted with a bang. We rolled up the genoa, leaving 3 feet exposed, and Rob was able to pull the clew down to the deck and re-tie the sheet. A few minutes later, we were off again in search of 8-knot speeds.

Despite our vigilance and some very clear nights, we have not seen any of the Hubble passes. On Saturday night, in particular, we had a great chance with a cloudless sky and with the satellite scheduled to be 82 degrees above the horizon and very bright -- yet three of us examining the skies intently failed to see it.

No edible fish, but we did catch a big barracuda -- about 3 feet long -- and we've had several hits from unidentified fish. This morning, we saw a big fish (3 feet or more) with yellow on its sides jumping out of the water alongside the boat, but no action on our lure.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

1700 Monday, 29 January
13 32 N 48 45 W

Sorry Dave, I guess I forgot our position at yesterday's mail run. At 17:29 local time (2029 UTC) yesterday, we were at 13 32 N, 47 23 W.

To answer Ben's question about seasickness: Andi regularly uses the "patch", Transderm Scop, which is a skin patch with slow-release scopolomine, when she anticipates being at sea in rough conditions. One patch lasts 3-4 days. It's not 100% effective (on this passage Andi was seasick the first night out) but better than any of the other remedies we've tried. At least it doesn't cause drowsiness, as several traditional anti-seasickness drugs do. Lots of people swear by wrist bands with pressure dots at precisely the right position on their wrists, and that seems to work sometimes.

On this trip, Andi and Amy applied patches before we left. Sharon is leeary of medication, but finally used a patch after she'd been too sick to function for a day. She continued to have problems with seasickness, as well as dehydration and malnutition, for the next day or so as she recovered. She then tried the wristbands, which seemed to help as well, or maybe she was over the seasickness by then. Generally, people are only seasick for a day or two at the outset, and after 4 days on this trip there was no need for anybody to take any further precautions against seasickness.

We had a hit on our squid lure this afternoon, and saw the fish, about 3 feet long with a blue back and long pectoral fins -- but then he gave a twist and snapped the leader line.

There's a big swell that we didn't notice earlier and didn't mention in our noon report. It's at least 5 meters high, and comes from the northwest; but it's so long (period more than 16 seconds) that its effect is only to raise us up and lower us down gently. When we're on top of one of those waves as well as one of the local wind waves, it feels as if we were on a high sand-dune by the shore: the horizon, normally about 10 miles, expands to maybe 25 miles or so, and looking down on the bottom of the swell is like staring down from a hill into a valley. A deep blue very wet valley.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

30 JAN 2007 1000 EST (1400Z)
13 39 N, 51 00 W
Course 290
SOG 6.6 kts
Wind ENE 16 kts
Pressure 1018.1 steady
clear
Swell from NW 4 meters
Waves 2.0 meters

Distance in 24 hours: 165 NM (162 toward Barbados).

Today is our last day of fresh meat -- pretty good, considering the problems we had all summer with refrigeration!

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

1940 EST Tuesday, 30 January
13 35 N 51 53 W

Well, there's good news and bad. The good news is the 37 inch mahi we landed at lunchtime. Rob just happened to be looking aft and saw a white object streaking across Akka's wake toward the squid-like lure. The lure was hit, the line came out of the clothespin retainer (which makes a snapping sound that can be heard from the forepeak below) and the shock cord that we use in lieu of a fishing rod stretched out to its maximum. At first, Rob thought a low-flying bird had taken the lure (this happens), but when the resistance continued and nothing surfaced we knew we had a big fish -- Rob must have seen its dorsal fin protruding from the water as it attacked. We managed to land and subdue the monster (albeit with blood splattered all over the back of the cockpit), Rob filleted it and Sharon prepared a fantastic dinner of sushi, sashimi, mahi rolls, and seviche.

The bad news is that the wind dropped to 12-14 knots this afternoon, and our boatspeed was down to around 5.0 - 5.5 knots. Add to this the fact that Barbados is dead downwind, so we have to sail 20-30 degrees off the rhumbline course to keep our speed up. At that rate, we won't get to Barbados until Saturday. On the other hand, we've just been getting some 16-knot puffs, and if the wind blows as predicted ...

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

31 JAN 2007 1100 EST (1500Z)
13 49 N, 53 28 W
Course 290
SOG 5.6 kts
Wind ENE 16 kts
Pressure 1017.0 rising from 1014.9 at 0600 EST
10% cumulus/cumulonimbus
Swell from NE 1.5 meters
Waves .5 meters

Distance in 25 hours: 146 NM (note time change -- now in Atlantic Time Zone).

Experienced our first squall this morning -- winds went to 25+ knots, no rain. Furled jib then unfurled it when winds subsided to 18 knots a few minutes later.

Lots of rain in little patches all round; we have the feeling of a duck in a shooting gallery as squalls bear down on us from the northeast, then go either just to windward or just to leeward of us. Sometimes this brings a change in wind direction of up to 40 degrees, keeping the helmsperson on his/her toes and rolling the off-watch around in their bunks as we cross the waves diagonally.

The preventer jammed between the sheave and cheek of the snatchblock this morning, breaking both the line and the block itself. Fortunately we have plenty of both blocks and line, and the preventer was quickly re-rigged.

We're continuing northwest when possible, anticipating the ESE winds in Ben's forecast, which will give us a good angle sailing the last bit SW to Barbados on port tack.

Had delicious mahi fish fingers for breakfast.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

1630 Atlantic time (1530 EST), 31 January 2007
14 00 N, 54 00 W

Some people are never content, and Akka's crew voted to again deploy the fishing lure -- even with about 2 pounds of fresh mahi in the fridge! The fishing came after we saw several fish swimming a few feet under the surface of the waves near and under the boat, eiher alone or in pairs. They seemed in the sunlight through the water to be orange or brown, about 2 - 3 feet long; we would have said they were porpoises except they never come up for air. They're pretty certainly not mahi, which have bright blue sides.

After the lure was out about an hour, we got a strong hit. When Andi went to pull it in, she saw a good sized dorsal fin, but then it gave a huge twist and snapped the lure right off the line. Ah well.

We've been heading north of west, but our reaching angle got pretty bad on this tack, so we jibed at 1715 to head SW.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

1 FEB 2007 1100 EST (1530Z)
13 33 N, 55 40 W
Course 260
SOG 5.4 kts, motor-sailing
Wind light and variable
Pressure 1017.0 steady
100% cloud cover

Distance in 24h 30m: 130 NM

The trades have deserted us altogether. Until midnight, the wind was mainly 15+ knots but variable in direction, so we had to jibe repeatedly to stay within 40- degrees of our rhumbline course. Then we got about 4 hours of near dead calm, followed by what appeared to be a frontal system passing through -- 25 knots of NW wind followed by a shift to the east. The rest of the night and morning featured a series of calms and squalls, with rain, heavy at times. Fortunately, this late in the passage we don't need to worry about fuel reserves, so we were able to motor during the calm spots; and all that motoring has kept the batteries charged so we can use the autopilot more.

All in all, more work and less progress than we've seen since early in the passage.

All well on board, but getting a little impatient about arriving in Barbados.

Cheers,
Akka

1430 EST, Thursday, 1 February
13 28 N, 55 56 W

Continuing squalls, calm spots, and tradewinds. Jibing in about 50 degrees, so trying to stay within 30 degrees of bearing to Barbados. Lots of crew work, which, as as any old salt knows, makes for a happy crew.

We're thinking of starting a pool on Time of Arrival at Bridgetown; the only problem is the control various crew members have on our speed. Amy and Rob agree that they trust everybody except each other -- no resolution to this problem yet.

Cheers,
Akka

1730 EST Friday, 2 February
13 21 N, 58 55 W

There's a blend of excitement and resignation aboard Akka this afternoon -- excitement that we're so close, and resignation that we still have to sail our reaching angles downwind, and can't actually see Barbados, less than 50 miles away but wrapped in cloud.

Heavy winds and big waves have continued today, making Akka into a surfer's delight. Everybody aboard has become an expert in steering, and all have clocked speeds over 8 knots. The speed champion is still Gene, who broke his own record with 9.8 knots SOG this afternoon. At 31 knots of wind, Sharon holds the record for sailing through the strongest blast.

The genoa roller-reefing line, which Amy had noticed was chafing several days ago, finally parted (though we had replaced the bullet block that was causing the chafe). When the line snapped the wind was up to 25 knots, so when the whole genoa unfurled the boat became really hard to handle. But with Gene at the helm and Amy and Rob up on the bow, we managed to un-jam the line, tie it back together with a square knot, and re-reef the genoa (which we normally reduce by about 1/3 to fit the pole length).

We still plan to have sushi tonight, but only as an appetizer because we've almost run out of soy sauce. Even by our most optimistic estimates, we had no idea we'd eat so much sushi on this passage! The main course will be mahi-mahi almandine (plenty of almonds aboard).

ETA Bridgetown still around midnight tonight.

Cheers,
Akka

Barbados Arrival!
Amy sighted land at 1840 local time tonight (1940 EST). She saw three lights all at the same time; one turned out to be a star, but the other two were on Barbados. We were almost exactly 25 NM from the southern tip of the island, at 13 14 N, 59 07 W.

We held a little celebration before dinner, with champagne, party signs, party poppers and horns, followed by mahi-mahi sushi.

We successfully navigated around to Carlisle Bay on the southwest side of the island, hunted around for a place to anchor and finally picked up a mooring at 2350 local time on February 3, thus officially completing our Atlantic crossing -- 21 days, 4 hours from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria to Bridgetown, Barbados.

Cheers,
Akka

6 FEB 2007 1100 EST (1500Z)
13 05 N, 59 37 W
Course 220
SOG 7.5
Wind NE 17 - 20
Pressure 1017.5 steady
50% cloud cover, altostratus and small cumulus
Seas 6 feet

Departing Bridgetown, bound for Tobago. We had planned to go direct to Chaguaramas, Trinidad, but due to delays this morning were not able to leave as early as we had hoped. So we're now planning to stop at Tobago instead; that's about 120 NM, an easy one-day sail in a decent breeze.

Sharon left our company on Sunday evening, as planned; she stayed in a hotel that night and presumably made it safely onto her plane the next morning. We took the Mount Gay distillery tour Monday afternoon, then rode a bus with a maniacal driver to Holetown, where we dined on pasta with a smoked flying fish sauce. It was delicious.

This morning, as Rob was leaving in the dinghy to clear out of customs and immigration, the outboard motor conked out. He set the dinghy anchor immediately about 100 feet behind Akka, but was unable to get the motor started again. Just as Amy was swimming a very long line out to attach to the dinghy, the guy on the catamaran alongside us launched his tender (too big to be termed a dinghy) and took Rob in tow back to Akka. With the tools on Akka, Rob was able to clean and rebuild the carburetor, and soon was on his way again to customs. Two hours later, he returned with not only our clearance papers but also about a pound of flying fish fillets from the fisherman's market.

We're now reaching under all plain sail (main and genoa), though we had to furl the genoa for a 32-knot squall.

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka

7 FEB 2007 1100 EST (1500Z)
11 16 N, 60 33 W
Wind NE 10-15
Pressure 1016.8 steady
clear
Swell 9 feet, seas 2 feet

At about 1500 yesterday, we were hailed on Channel 16 by "Calvin", the guard boat for a Russian research vessel, which was crowssing ahead of us and, according to Calvin, towing a 7-mile long cable, purpose unknown. So we had to take a 3-mile detour to go well ahead of the research vessel before resuming our course.

Had a lively night, with squalls, tradewinds, and calms. Motored about 4 hours out of the 22-hour passage from Bridgetown Barbados to King's Bay, Tobago, where we anchored near the village of Delaford. We'll proceed to Scarborough this afternoon, to clear into Trinidad/Tobago. Meanwhile, we're protected by international law, which allows us to take refuge in bays like this, as long as nobody goes ashore (we're flying the TT flag over "Q" from our starboard spreader, indicating that we haven't yet cleared in). We are allowed to snorkel, drink rum punch, read, and do sudoku puzzles. A refuge, indeed!

All well on board.

Cheers,
Akka