Atlantic Passage East to West

February 2015

Cape Verde to MartiniquE, caribbean Islands

After spending 5 days in Mindelo, Cape Verde, we decided to set sail towards the Caribbean. By now, we had had some rest, repaired our faulty autopilot, filled up with diesel and re-provisioned for food.  This Atlantic Passage was to be the opposite of our 2010 passage where we had perfect weather conditions. Weather continued to be unpleasant with high winds and overcast skies to start and then light winds from dead aft and large swells on the beam. When the wind turned light it was accompanied by squall after squall. The endless march of them repeatedly gave a much appreciated boost the wind, accompanied by a less appreciated down pour and the fear of a lightening strike, followed by no wind, slatting sails, and miserable rolling. Abject misery, after several days of this we gave up counting some counting how many we had encountered in a day! On one night alone we had counted over 30! We decided to head to Martinique instead of our prior plan for St Maarten.

We had a rotating watch schedule between the two of us so that our watch times would alternate through the days. Unlike our first passage together where we shared galley work, Banu assumed cooking responsibilities. Peter was already getting a workout with sail trim and deck work! Again Banu was the communications officer, handling all SSB radio-related jobs such as communicating on the Atlantic Net, obtaining GRIB files and sending emails. This time we had a SPOT boat tracker so that our family and friends could follow our exact location as the boat was under way.

We were trying our luck with fishing but we were catching weed instead of fish! The storms at the Sargasso Sea had kicked up the sargasso weed and brought it to the North Atlantic and, as we were soon to discover to every beach in the Caribbean. A tragic disaster for the islands that rely on tourism for their income.