Transatlantic: Day 6 [Day 27]

It’s a really big ocean, and while we feel that we have been moving fast each day, we are still only in the beginning of our voyage. Every day, every hour, every wave, we get closer to our distant goal, but it never gets closer to us.

We are traveling very far south of the usual route and the reason is simple, sail to the winds that you have and not to the winds you might get by going somewhere else.

Our friends on shore are telling us that we will have steady winds in the 20 knots range a few hundred miles north of us. We could sail a few days north to find them and then turn East, or we could simply sail straight towards our destination via the shortest distance possible.

Transatlantic: Day 5 [Day 26]

Our speed is back and we continue to clock along at 100+ nautical miles per day! The weather is great and consistent, and we have not had to adjust anything on the boat since we left Bermuda.

Once we were clear of the last buoy of Bermuda, we set our Monitor Windvane, balanced the sails, and let the boat do the rest! The winds were steady and consistent, and we never had to touch a thing since! Yes, our course might wander a little north or a little less north, but we are generally going in the right direction, and that is all that really matters.

On the boat, this is the closest thing to a digital chart of our travels that we can see. It is small and basic, and you can see all the messages we send back and forth with family and friends back on shore.

The funny thing is, when we first traveled down the coast of the United States, there were times when we thought we were “very far out to sea” because we couldn’t see land. When you look at this big map of our travels so far, you can see that we never did leave land, but yet we were planning to cross an ocean.

We were young and green, and now, a year later, we are approaching the middle of the Atlantic. At that point, our closest point of land will be ahead of us because we truly are “out to sea”.

The best part of this voyage is how little we need to do. With the sails balanced, the windsteering keeps us going in a general straight line. The winds are steady and powerful, allowing us to move along at a nice speed constantly. Life seems normal when heeled to port, as we have been on starboard tack since we left Bermuda.

Transatlantic: Day 4 [Day 25]

The pace may have slowed a little, but we are still moving along very quickly! In our slower pace, we are still covering almost 100 miles per day. At this pace, we should make the passage from Bermuda to the Azores in under 18 days, but we know it is a long trip and everything could change. In the meantime, we are enjoying the fast pace and good winds.

While we may be rather far from land, we were graced with a visitor today! A seabird was relaxing in the distance and Maddie was able to capture a photo of him with her telephoto lens!

Seeing reminders of land based life is comforting out here, even though we only left land a few days prior. The memory of land will fade quickly as your reality is all around you and dry land is merely a figment of your imagination, a dream about a past life, a fleeting thought.

And by the way, there is a Hurricane only a few hundred miles away!

Transatlantic: Day 3 [Day 24]

While this is the 3rd day out from Bermuda, it is also our 24th day of the Atlantic Crossing. I wasn’t really sure how to describe the timeline. Should I number the days as a total from the time we left the United States to the time we made it to the Azores? Should the clock keep ticking until we make it to mainland Europe?
I decided to break the days up into the different legs, and put the total clock in brackets. This way, you can have a rough idea of how long it had been for us while also seeing how long each leg took.

Once again, in stark contrast to the first leg, we covered well over 100 miles in 24 hours! We greatly enjoyed the wonderful speed we were having, but it was proving rather difficult to carry out the basic daily activities. Cooking, cleaning, and bathing are all more difficult when the boat is surfing along at over 6 knots. While it may be a roll filled cruise, it is wonderful to have such great speed!

Transatlantic: Day 2 [Day 23]

We are off! We left Bermuda at 6pm the day before and put Bermuda directly to our stern as we made our way to the Azores. This time, we did something very different compared to every other time we leave land behind us.

We didn’t watch the land (or city lights) fade away over the horizon!

We left Bermuda and set our course for the Azores. We were focused on going forward and only looked ahead as we made our way from land. The sun set shortly after we left Bermuda and we began our night watch. At no point did we look back!

Why didn’t we watch land disappear behind us? Because we were moving forward! When we attempted our ocean crossing a year prior, we were still wanting to cling to land. The thought of losing sight of land seemed frightening and fearsome, but this time, losing sight of land meant getting to where we are going faster!

You can’t cross an ocean if you are still close to your home port!

Bermuda is located smack in the middle of the Westerlies, and when the Westerlies are blowing, you can cover some miles quickly! When we sailed to Bermuda, we had no wind and were covering 50 miles a day (on the good days). This time, we made over 100 miles on our first day!