Atlantic Re-Crossing Part II

Wednesday January 14, 2014

Day 15 – January 1, 2015

• Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 118 nm – 1,447 total
• Matt was supposed to wake me for a midnight countdown into the new year. He forgot. At the moment he still doesn’t realize it’s New Years. Waves outside are steep and choppy. I wouldn’t call this miserable, but it’s not ideal.

Day 16 – January 2, 2015

• Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 114 nm – 1,561 total
• Nothing much different happening. Didn’t bring much soda on this passage with us we didn’t think it would sound good once we were sailing, but now we’re fighting over the last Pepsi.

Day 17 – January 3, 2015

• Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 110 nm – 1,671 total
• Put on a seasickness patch but I still feel dizzy & sick when I stand up. Tonight we’ll set the clocks back, the first time since we’ve left, since the sun is now rising at 8:30 am.

Day 18 – January 4, 2015

• Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 122 nm – 1,793 total
• Almost broke my foot when I slid off the settee and it wedged itself under the table as I rotated around it. Luckily it’s fine. We saw a big cargo ship this morning visually that never showed up on AIS.

Day 19 – January 5, 2015

• Winds NE 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 124 nm – 1,917 total
• We haven’t seen the sun in days now. Today there was a squall with winds in the 40’s, but it passed fairly quickly.

Day 20 – January 6, 2015

• Winds E 20-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 126 nm – 2,043 total
• Showers off and on all day. A few more squalls just like yesterday, but they always leave no wind in their wake for awhile and we bob around with the sail flogging and making a terrible racket.

Day 21 – January 7, 2015

• Winds 30-40 knots; Seas 3-4 meters; 135 nm – 2,178 total
• Today we had a pressure drop of 4 bars in 2 hours. 3 bars in 3 hours is BAD news. This was REALLY BAD. For a 4 hour period we had winds over 50 knots and seas of over 5 meters (16 ft). Kept rounding up into the wind. Prepared ditch bag and waited to be tossed over. Matt trailed lines and fenders to steady us. One wave we didn’t ride down fast enough and it pooped our cockpit. With quite a force, the wave crashed right into our cockpit. Luckily we were down below with all our boards in, but a fair amount of water still forced itself through the cracks. Winds finally died down into the 30’s.

Day 22 – January 8, 2015

• Wind E 25-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 112 nm – 2,290 total
• Our days have consisted of nothing but sleeping lately. Between our sleep shifts and naps we’re lucky to spend 2 hours awake together each day.

Day 23 – January 9, 2015

• Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 98 nm – 2,388 total
• Now is the time that I’m really looking forward to land. I want to sleep through a whole night and I want to be able to take a shower without getting sick. Is that to much to ask for? Less than one week now, hopefully

Day 24 – January 10, 2015

• Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 115 nm – 2,503 total
• I told myself before that I was done making meals for this passage, now I mean it. I almost cut myself so many times while chopping veggies for pasta salad tonight while a rogue wave would toss us on our side and I’d have to use both hands to hold onto the counter while a knife was dangling out of one.

Day 25 – January 11, 2015

• Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 120 nm – 2,623 total
• Forecast is looking rough for the next few days. Winds over 25 and seas at 12-25 feet. Aren’t we there yet? Only 400 more miles….

Day 26 – January 12, 2015

• Winds NE 25-30 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 127 nm – 2,750 total
• Storm didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. I wish I would have downloaded more movies on our tablet, I’m getting tired of reading and I’m always left with a bit of a headache.

Day 27 – January 13, 2015

• Winds E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 134 nm – 2,884 total
• We’ve decided on St. Martin for landfall and only have two days left until we get there. Researching everything we can on the place now. So excited!

Day 28 – January 14, 2015

• Wind E 20-25 knots; Seas 2-3 meters; 107 nm – 2,991 total
• Getting a little worried about having such high seas and then transitioning to the shallow waters of the Caribbean. But…the weather should actually be dying down for our arrival tomorrow. Here’s to hoping!