PIPPO LIONNI @ SEA

TRANSAT 2008

2009-09-21T15:17:00.003+02:00

2009-09-21T15:10:00.002+02:00

To my mother NAOMI who taught me to fight for life and
to my father MANNIE who taught me to sail for pleasure.

051107

2009-09-21T14:46:00.000+02:00

I may have emerged from months of seeing us drowning in ice cubes, smashed to smithereens by angry orkas, rolling head over heals by freak waves, starving in a rocky life raft, retrieving dead crew members from the sea, being run down by oil tankers... months of horror fueled by reading of all the worst that could happen to us.

020207

2009-09-21T14:44:00.000+02:00

Change of boat, change of route, change of climate... redo all the lists. With this different boat our problems of space and weight are solved but there are new enigmas: of leaving from a unknown country on the other side of the world; on a a boat we don’t know; new weather systems; very hot instead of very cold... I still wake up once in a while in a life raft rolling under breaking waves of ice water, or some very important item I forgot pops up in my head and I can’t get back to sleep till I’ve worked it out. But things are calming down a bit. I will never get everything done, it will not be perfect, and/but we will survive. Esa is still hanging in there and being a great help, Pops helps once in a while, Arik is supporting, and the kids are a bit scared. I’ve been trying to work out a watch system. I’ve looked at any number of solutions, none of which seem optimum. Most that seem to work out logically are multiples of 2 hours, which seem out of sync with my experience, which is more a 3-hour sleep cycle... Security is everyone knowing how and when to use all the alternative ways of doing almost everything. Sensitive areas are: sail maneuvers, electronic and celestial navigation, collision avoidance, first-aid, communications, engine use and repair, emergency procedures... These are the systems.

150408

2009-09-21T14:41:00.000+02:00

Only 2 weeks to go before heading to Trinidad. The last few days have been even more wild than usual: final discussions with prospective crew, packing and piling up too much stuff I don’t know where I will put, programming, bombing and reprogramming laptops, printing out charts, pushing on friends with incredible equipment deals that just don’t seem to get here, trying to make sense out of medicine lists... not to mention yet another pair of socks, calls to the yard, calls to Esa, calls to... and calls from...

Our crew is now 4 : Esa, Jorgen, Juha, and I - a solid crew.

Route/time simulations are coming in anywhere from fantastic to terrible depending (today the we might make it to Gibraltar in 3 weeks).

I went up to Stockholm last week and hauled 30kg of stuff off of Galatea II (who smiled in relief), but left the Duogen behind. Just too much weight to carry.

I am feeling a lot calmer about this trip even though it is a lot longer. 5000 miles from Trinidad to Perpignan. There seem to be two approches to the route : the classic route to Bermuda, across to the Azores and on to Gibralter and Perpignan; or the direct route NE to the bottom of the Bermuda high and then zigzagging east till we pick up the north winds on the other side. The position of the Azores High is our problem. We want it at its’ most southern limit so we can sail over it with favorable winds. If these are our conditions (which is highly unlikely) and they stayed this way for a long period (which is impossible) we would run NE from Trinidad at our most efficient angle to the wind (the most speed, as close to the direction we want to be going with the least amount of stress) and hope to catch SW winds that will run up the outer edge of the line of dark triangles (the cold front of the principle L (and subsequent Ls) and then head more ENE as the winds shift to NW after the fronts. We would be aiming for the second ring around the top of the H where we would hope to find our SW W and NW winds to carry us though the Azores to the Med. If this H is very far north we will have a more complicated route playing with the southern edge of the H till we can catch the winds from the NE then N and then NW on its eastern side. This is an overly simplified analysis because all this is moving fast and we are moving slowly. There is often another H around Bermuda which combined with the Azores H can create a barrier. In this case we would have to come very far north making it worth while stopping in Bermuda, or even ending up in Newport. This is a very simplified view but the basic approach is go as fast as possible in the right direction safely...

I am surrounded by very patient loved ones: Anne, Luca and Alix, Arik, Enrico... as I get closer to leaving I am becoming increasingly one track minded and most certainly very uninteresting to listen to.

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1909 010508

2009-09-21T14:38:00.001+02:00

Chaguaramas, Trinidad: Power Boats is an Incredible yard filled with rugged looking boats and sailors that have stepped off of circumnavigations. Most people painting there own hulls, no chi chi here. It is hotter than hell from 1000 to 1600. Jorgen and Juha are having a hard time, I’m too busy to notice the heat. We got in at around midnight after endless lines at immigration and then customs and then another customs and then tare 60 kgs of baggage apart and explain tools and kitchen stuff and drugs and a pile of wires and a pillow and.... I woke up at 04:30, rummaged around inside and then out and about at sun rise. Naomi is looking good, the hull is solid and clean, the cabin a bit worn, and lots of odds and ends to get rid of or replace..; and don’t forget the grease for the winches that are blocked and, and. Juha took the old name off the stern and put on a new adhesive NAOMI but the formal christening is in a day of two when I can find a way to kill the obsolete symbolic serpent - supposed to shoot it with a rifle, but I will have to do the deed stabbing dirty harbor water with a kitchen knife. We roamed around a locale boat store to stay in the air conditioning but I didn’t have the energy to attack my page of «need to gets» - will have to wait for another opportunity. NAOMI got clean of her white plastic covering, so I was able to untangle too many rough and dirty halyards while the guys slept away. It is now very dark, my computer screen is all we have on to save electricity, Jorgen just woke up from a nap, or rather I just loudly suggested dinner and he pulled the rag off his head.

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 0800 040508

2009-09-21T14:32:00.001+02:00

Chaguaramas, Trinidad: NAOMIi went into the water on Friday, it was a tense moment: we had a visit from the Boat Doctor at 08:00 to start up the diesel («no problem») which didn’t start of course and had to be tinkered with, parts to be bought, sweat and blood.... Paying my outstanding bills (must be paid before launching in case one slips out to sea with some unpaid debts), I discovered that we also had to clear locale customs and immigration in Chaguaramas, so we raced off by boat taxi to the administration area and wasted 3 hours - revenge on all the hard times we give our own visitors. Back at the yard we got NAOMI was lifted off her supports, driven to the ramp and slowly let down into the sea. She didn’t sink!!!! we got on board and motored to our slip, First impressions were great, I didn’t hit anything, the engine didn’t die, we weren’t washed out to sea and left abandoned for eternity in the Saragoss sea... Our dutch neighbor was having a rest on deck in his hammock in between romps with a his day prostitute. Our slip is across an little inlet from a night club - NAOMI shacks well into the night to 80s and 90s trash. (a petite souvenir for Pops and Jorgen from Alesund in Norway - GALATEA was rammed at 03:00 by a drunk couple when the nightclub let out. In our slip the riggers fine tuned the standing rigging. We are still discovering new odds and ends in endless plastic boxes in nooks and crannies. We all have our weird ways, we obsess about some things and let others slide. Yesterday I took apart the mast winch which was totally seized up - it looked like it had never been opened. Esa got in late last night (and lost one of his numerous bags with all our emergency food (which must be very light to compensate for the extra tons of gear we absolutely need for the trip), we were saved by a forgotten bag of finnish licorice. We walked around the yard and NAOMI till late and and everyone is still asleep (Esa under some blankets - thanks Mel). I’m up every morning at around 0600 to work out or do some yoga (forgot my mat but am using the artificial grass door mat - found in the fore cabin under two Danworth anchors) before the sun blasts down at around 0900.

10°40.89N61°38.041W at 2200 050508

2009-09-21T14:26:00.000+02:00

Oh man oh maaann yesterday was terrifying: we discovered that we had forgotten to put in the through hull log wheel before launching. It took a while to surpass the fear that I was about to voluntarily sink our home with all our dreams (and piles of junk)(but not Esa’s lost luggage) right here in the harbor. I took the cap off with my left hand and placed the log in the hole with my right hand while i received a nice strong salty blast of harbor water in the face. Wow incredible to be still alive. Next was the toilet that I tried to fix but impossible to find the trick to getting that new rubber flat flap into the little hole on the side of the base while curled around the bowl in a cramped bathroom, and yes it didn’t still smell like shit all over my hands...; then it was the generator that wasn’t charging, the wires to the stern antennas that were just too short, the rigger that didn’t finish, the stores that just don’t have what need... and still really hot. Today went better : we found the plug to the alternator regulator that the Boat Doctor had inadvertently pulled out when trying to get the engine started the other day; got 2 shelves that were missing cut and installed; the rigger almost finished, the water maker man came but we couldn’t find the switch or we found it but it wasn’t the right one or the only one or it had once been the right one but was no longer... we then went off the the other side of the lagoon to immigrations with Esa to find immigrations closed because the air conditioner was out of order - and just go the Port to Spain. We still haven’t found the american hex wrenches we need or much else on our massive lists. It is quite possible I wont write tomorrow because i have decided that I just can’t give my new toilet to the Boat Doctor, the one who screwed up the electrical connection and who didn’t show up as promised today, so yes I have decided that we will pull the toilet ourselves and take it apart on the dock - no sailing holiday is complete with out a toilet refurbishing, and better here than running in 5 meter seas!!! And how entertaining for the old sailing cronies next to us - the young rich guys in a swan up to their ears in shit... Not to forget Juha and Esa paddling around in the Zodiac filled with water - they forgot to put in the drain plug! this message will be difficult to send - the main office sold Esa a Wifi connect ion today that had expired on May 1st. So, no we haven’t sailed yet, why do you ask? xxxx p

10°40.89N61°38.041W at 1600 070508

2009-09-21T14:24:00.000+02:00

What day is it, what time is it, where am???? 1600 is too early to write, my brain is still boiling, should wait till 1900 but I have to get in out of the sun and I shouldn’t bug Esa and Juha who are surrounded by cans and boxes, all labeless cans, and Jorgen has gone off to get some heavy duty garbage bags... Mel the ex owner came by last night and a million enigmas evaporated in instants, it is amazing to be surrounded by hundreds of switches and valves and instruments... Every one has there peculiar way of compensating for forgetfulness Mel’s was to put labels on everything, but you have to know where to find the labeled object. I prefer the user manual method: step one, two,... We got a lot done today but there is still as much to be done.

10°40.89N61°38.041W at 0730 080508

2009-09-21T14:21:00.001+02:00

Esa and Juha went off to the super super mega market and only came back with about 30% of our needs - the rest was in bulk, like 4 kilos of peanut butter, 12 liters of milk... While Jorgen and I did wiring, got holes drilled... everything is happening but nothing seems to be getting done, there is always some thing left to do on each project, never completed enough to cross it off the list. Last night there was a moment with no wind in the harbor, so to bring the spirits up, we put up out 95% genoa - it looked like a good solid sail, but we couldn’t find any good looking sheets. I’ve been up since 06:00, took a shower, shaved off the scrub on my shin, did an hour of yoga... I am sitting at the chart table, there are 12 instruments surrounding me, some are obsolete, some should be obsolete, some are mine. I can’t quite sit straight because the electrical panel is open and spilling wires - I was hooking up the AIS but was distracted by some other more important project but i don’t remember what it was. Most likely that project was like wise interrupted... Esa is explaining to Jorgen how to use the SMS in his phone - but there might not be a swedish dictionary, now there seems to be one, but «how does this darn phone know that I want to type Christian?»... The sun is out of course, and the day has begun. Later in the day : we are very sweaty, the AIS is working, the SSB cable has been replaced, the water and oil in the engine bilge have been cleaned up and inspected, the spin sheets are too short, the Boat Doctor is coming by tomorrow afternoon to drill out the bolt on the toilet that I popped, Esa and Juha got the outboard motor smoking and escaped to eat ice cream in a nearby harbor... and we are expected for drinks on Mel’s boat at 1830...

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 2245 100508

2009-09-21T14:18:00.000+02:00

With NAOMI all ready to sail out for our first test run, everything stowed, all but two lines off, the engine warmed up, the wind out of the SE and every one ready, I put her into reverse, there was a slight bang and then the engine ran free. It seems that we have exploded the gear box, or the coupling in between the gear box and the engine. We all froze, all this work up in smoke and in a matter of seconds (this is getting to be a tendency). We were all in shock for a few minutes. When we got our wits back, Esa convinced the Indian lady with the local snack bar to put all our perishables in her cooler for the weekend, I got Mel, the ex owner over, we called the mechanic who said he would stop by tomorrow, I finished wiring the AIS antennas, Jorgen took a nap... For the moment we don’t know anything really. Our weather window is tight, we now have a week to get out of here, before hurricane season. We are basically ready to go... We just got back from dinner and a few pina colatas. If this had happened at sea and we could still charge out batteries i would have continued. Here in a harbor it is difficult to just leave with the engine in pieces, though I am seriously tempted to get us towed out into the bay and...

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1400 110508

2009-09-21T14:14:00.000+02:00

The day after, the guys went to the beach at 08:00, the mechanic to stopped by around 1000, hard to say how bad, hard to say when it will be fixed, hard to say what caused it, hard to say. Not much else to do about it so I cut my finger nails, read some for the first time here, ripped out some obscolete instruments... I’m sweating profuselly but the heat is bothering me even less than when we arrived.

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1800 120508

2009-09-21T14:11:00.000+02:00

We pulled the engine forward into the cabin, black oil, green coolant, water - it is amazing how much of these engines is liquid, we build them in our image. We found bits and pieces of aluminum cast bell housing and some other adaptor piece in between the engine and the gear box. I rigged a hoist and lifted the 50 kg gear box out of the cabin and onto the dock to be inspected. We then drove around in Ricky’s car looking for parts - the passanger door busted and something wrong with the starter so we never switched off the motor. We haven’t found them yet. It’s now evening the heat is dissipating, I took a shower because i couldn’t think anymore i was so dirty. The cabin is still covered with engine - we’ll see what happens tomorrow. The good news is that the trade winds have shifted into the NE for the next few days so we are better off here anyhow. Of course the best way to see all this is as part of the experience, discover engine time, learn what a bell housing is, check out the beautiful evening light, finish the wiring, eat some more king fish... but sometimes the experience is extra intense. I’m down to wearing one pair of shorts (wash out in the bathroom sick with hand soap drip dry on the life lines once every 4 or 5 days), two t-shirts (wash one every night) and my crocks. The rest I haven’t touched. Sweat and dust in paradise. Message to my loves : we will not leave before calling you xxxx p

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1800 120508

2009-09-21T14:09:00.001+02:00

There is a lot to fret about, but frankly, at this hour we are in paradise: sitting in the cockpit the cool breeze from the SE boats rolling at anchor. Jorgen is reading about corruption in Sweden, Juha is trying to replicate an intricate knot out of a book, Esa has gone off somewhere presumably to the showers. And which restaurant do we hit tonight ??? The broken engine parts have been ordered and should be here from 3 to 5 days (hard to know how long they will sit around in customs, hard to know if the mechanic will do the job ASAP, hard to know much of anything). We are all in good spirits, doing the fine tuning, rewiring, oiling...

2200

2009-09-21T14:06:00.003+02:00

We just got back from our worse meal ever, like really bad. depressingly bad. It is rare that i walk out of bad movies, less rare that i walk out of bad plays, but to not eat when I’m really hungry - that is extremely rare. Well we got there tonight. So bad that I left half my plate, lost my appetite and contemplated revenge. Good food is essential when adapting the zen or stoic attitude under the strain of broken-engine-frustration. Good food permits one to go with the flow. Imagine an over cooked hamburger so over cooked it was tasteless, probably micro waved to death, on a cold store bought bun with a dab of store bought pesto sauce (it was called «Vespa basil burger») (this was an italian style harbor bar and grill). The fries were as undercooked as the burger was over zapped - frozen fries micro zapped and very mealy... Unfortunately i didn’t attempt a taste of Jorgen’s Lasagna, or Juha’s Penne primaverra salad so I can’t expound on the qualities of the pasta. Esa and i were supposed to split the fries and his salad but after a try he quickly finished off his side, and didn’t try a second fry - I don’t blame him. Tomorrow, day one of the 3 to 5 days, I will eat only bananas. I forgot to mention that we haven’t had any electricity in NAOMI since they pulled the engine, so we all walk around with headlamps while inside - miner style. I have mine on right now so I can go brush my teeth. I have been sending pictures but they seem to have gotten lost in cyberspace. xxx p

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1100 160508

2009-09-21T14:03:00.002+02:00

Waiting, waiting, waiting... and waiting some more. We rented a car yesterday and drove across Trinidad to a postcard like beach: long smooth sand, palm trees, the reef far out, small waves on the beach..., bought a bag of mangos that were the best I’ve ever tasted, ate terrible hamburgers in a very funky roadside shack, and got home late. I expected to find NAOMI sunk or gone or in cinders but she was still there bobbing in her slip waiting, waiting just like us. Modern times permit us to «track» our Fedex shipment so we can wait with information, but it doesn’t reduce the stress. News from up north is that the very deep low I’ve been tracking (doing some tracking myself) hit Bermuda and a lot of big boats lost rigs. We weren’t planning on being anywhere near there, but that was the low I was hoping to use to mess up the Bermuda high and get us across lower down. The boys have been great. Juha and Esa are working their ass off to make our life easier and exciting at the same time. Just got back from customs at Crewsend, putted over in our zodiac and got the pieces that we finally tracked using the conventional telephone method. So tomorrow I hope to get this boat back under power. The sky is black with the first clouds of our stay, and rain. We must be catching the tail end of the front that hit Bermuda yesterday.

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1600 180508

2009-09-21T14:01:00.001+02:00

Sunday morning, we swung the transmission on board and down into the cabin with halyards yesterday, positioning the engine with blocks from the deck and maneuvered the engine and transmission together. We went out looking for a replacement for the bent engine mount last night but came up with a corroded monster that we weren’t able to clean up. For the moment we are surrounded by tools and a partly assembled Perkins.... life goes on. No wind this morning so we brought the main up and marked it’s halyard for the reefs. Some seems to have stolen our trusty dock mat that served also for our yoga mat, or maybe it just flew away. Jorgen has read about 46 trash detective novels and might have to go cold turkey soon - finish, russian, norwegian and french are the choice of recycled books in the laundry room. The Boat Doctor never showed today - testing us. So we brought up the main and marked the reef points, did some more rewiring, cleaned the deck... threw out some more rotting food from the now warm fridge. If this keeps on I might even start reading and thinking I’m on vacation.

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 2300 190508

2009-09-21T13:59:00.002+02:00

Just back from dinner with Mel and Jane, the last owners of NAOMI, at 75 they are still sailing the high seas, just the two of them. I started the day at 06:00 with some push ups in the cockpit, while waiting for the mechanic to get here (hoping he would show up, wondering what I would do if he didn’t) he came at around 08:00 and we were at it till 20:00. It was one long day with the mechanic ailing from kidney stones and his assistant and i doing much of the work up to our elbows in sea water and engine oil, nuts and bolts, metal straps, hoses... Through all of this I feel more confident with my crew, they have been helpful and patient. We have another couple of hours to do tomorrow morning on the engine. We are now on the count down - ETD is for Wednesday morning... We have to replace the fresh food that has since been eaten or rotted, go to customs and immigration, fill a mountain of jerry cans with diesel and water, check out the weather and get the hell out of here. Our worldly experience of the Caribbean has been limited to a square kilometer, peopled by odd characters from odd places, displaced souls in a dusty yard, in a sea of petroleum and crab shells. We have sort of gotten used to this trailer park life.

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 2300 200508

2009-09-21T13:55:00.002+02:00

After some gasket gunk to exhaust elbow, we started up the engine, took up the dock lines and headed out of the pass. Nothing broke, almost no weird noises, not an impressive amount power, but a beautiful day. After half an hour of motoring, we have no speedo, the auto pilot seems to work, the wind instruments sort of. We hoisted the main and the 95% and pushed her for all she was work in 10kts of wind in on the flat bay. It was great to put the muscle into the winch, lean into the wind, find the right heal angle and feel the power. I would have brought up the 135% but the mechanic and his assistant were along for the ride on a tight schedule. Later in the day under piles of junk being moved from one side of the boat to the other, and food, and water and tools and rusty anchor chain... we found we couldn’t light the stove and traced the problem to a ground wire the mechanic had left hanging - man we have got to get out of here while we are still in one piece. For the past 3 weeks I have had to listen and find ways to fix a steady stream of problems. Tomorrow morning we take on 400 liters of fuel, some fishing gear, do the formalities at customs and 12:00 is the right time to leave no? xxx p

10°40.89N 61°38.041W at 1500 210508

2009-09-21T13:16:00.002+02:00

Full tanks of water plus 4 20 liter cans, full tank of fuel plus 10 20 liter cans stowed fore in the fore cabin and under the cockpit, all food on board, a moment of hesitation, a moment of disbelief, a last look around, a bit of lunch, try to remember the forgotten, fend off the fear that another breakdown... Naomi is heavy, I don’t know her, can’t gage her inertia, am timid with the throttle, never really sailed her. We motor out into the Chagaramas harbor, turn west and then north through the pass in light winds. Entrada Point @ 1500, raise the main with one reef, open the 95% genoa and cut the engine. For a moment we are engulfed in silence and then we are hit by a 18 knots of Trade wind pressure and a 1.5 meter sea, we fall all over our selves adjusting sails, the nose dives into the waves as we pick up speed, we are soon covered in spray, the deck is awash, news comes up from below that it is raining in the for cabin as well as in the clothes lockers (no one seems to have listened to me about packing in garbage bags)... we are off at last but there is no time to enjoy the moment, we are soon pounding along in a boat we don’t know how to sail and there are just too many problems to deal with at once. But it is beautiful!

11°03N 61°31W at 1800

2009-09-21T13:14:00.001+02:00

We pass Hibiscus gas field doing 7.5 kts, we are feeling a bit more in tune, a bit less wind, pop the reef out, optimize the maneuvers, learn the ropes, lots of stories about pirates in the area and feeling better as we get further north. 2100 wind freshens to 15 kts and backs to ENE, the moon is full and the instruments aren’t working.

12°24N 61°31W at 08 a25 220508

2009-09-21T13:12:00.002+02:00

Sailing at full speed outside of Grenada, pulling inside because of seas. a

12°53N 61°21W at 1700GMT 220508

2009-09-21T13:07:00.003+02:00

Just south of St Vincent, running inside to escape the swell and gain speed. Boat speedo is down But our position gives us about 136 Miles in 21 Hours gives us about 155 Miles in 24 Hours. Considering the zig zagging through the islands this is ok. I’ll try to get the instruments working after I sleep a few hours. For the moment I’m more used to heavy diesel than fine electronics. Otherwise no said anything but we were all a bit green last night but there was no degat. Today some of us took a fast bucket on the head with sea water, Esa is trying to fish, jorgen and Juha just woke up, the inside of NAOMI looks like Alix’s room on a Friday night, we had to do a fast move of heavy sails as such last night to keep her nose from diving into the surf - we’ll clean it all up this afternoon. Time now will be in GMT, 17:00 is noon for us here.

15°13N 61°07W at 1500GMT 230508

2009-09-21T13:03:00.002+02:00

At 1200GMT we left the inside passage and headed out to sea in a howling morning blow. The situation has calmed down now, Jorgen and Juha are asleep, Esa is on deck naked doing yoga (or some approximation of it appropriate for a swinging foundation), the sun is out, no ships in sight, the wind is 15 to 20 kts out of the east, Mona, out wind vane has the situation under control, we have one reef in the main and we just took out the reef we had in the genoa, our heading is 40°T and we’re doing between 6 and 8 kts depending on what Mona hits as waves. Time to go back on deck to fiddle with the sails so we can get another 0,5 kts out of her. XXXX p

18°06N 59°47W at 2000GMT 240508

2009-09-21T13:01:00.001+02:00

Bright blue sea (very tempting for a swim), occasional small thunder storms, COG 30° SOG 7kts, Esa and I got in the way of one and had a much needed fresh water shower. Fixed a defective cabin gusher and discovered a bent genoa track - there are numerous things to fix each day. We are starting to get into an offshore organization, sleeping our 4 hours every 4, eating one prepared meal (lentils today) (some pressure cooker surprises). Our menu is determined by what keeps and what is going bad. We saw one cargo way off to the SW, otherwise we are alone. I am impatient to use up as much diesel as possible to lighten for and aft, for the moment we have piled all we can in the cabin on the starboard side. Some of us have opted for the outside hang over the side WC comfortably seated on the MOB horse shoe, the others are still using the head which is smelling like piss splattered offshore heads come to smell like. Mona, our wind vane is working overtime and doesn’t seem to mind. We were just called on deck to see dolphins !!!!

22°24N 57°03W at 2200 260508

2009-09-21T12:58:00.002+02:00

What to tell you? at least once a day with my hands in the perkins, fixing, pleading, learning as fast as I can, we just finished potato ginger soup by Juha, there are birds I don’t know the name of swooping along the waves way out here in the middle of nowhere, it is incrediblly beautiful and we are on the move. Days start for Esa and i at 0800. I do the log, check the volt meter, pomp out the bilge. We adjust the sails the vane, strip and take a turn under the salt water bucket, dry off naken in the sun eat some cereal and either get on with the things to fix and verify or just drift off day dreaming. I haven’t gotten any of what i had planned to do done - no reading, yoga... we are all bent on getting the max out of the wind, using the squalls, pushing up into the north east. We haven’t done any reaching, running or what ever else - just beating. Looking for the most favorable angles and Naomi is made for this. We can balance her sails and she’ll bound through the waves in a stright line. We have the wind vane hooked up for security, and we haven’t touched the autopilot yet. We tried fishing with a pink dayglow lure from Trinidad without success. (tears come to my eyes listening to some Bob missing Fister and the Poops). We are looking for a low to break through the Bermuda Azores high, but it is too early to tell where and when. We are keeping up with our 150 miles/day average following the weather. Tomorrow we are having a party on board for Esa’s daughter Léda’s birthday, complete with ballons and crepes. It is still hot. Nights are wild with stars and a moon one could read by. Usually we take turns sleeping during our 0000 to 0400 watch, but the cockpit is just a bit too small in all directions. big kiss to you all.

24°43N 55°51W at 2230GMT 270508

2009-09-21T12:55:00.001+02:00

Just spent an hour cleaning up some strange alien substance from the bilge, thought it was engine oil mixed with sea water but the engine oil is staying put in the engine compartment, then we thought it might be bear or beer and milk and sea water, and then diesel from the leaky filter... it breaks down with dish soap? we are definitly out of the trades, gray day with repeated squalls some of which are endless. The squal hits and all hatches open to the cockpit and everyone throws their dirty laundry out to soak while the helmsman stuffs the nearest garment into the lee cockpit drain with his heal - too much rain, too much wet laundry hanging around the cabin. Jorgen made his first meal today under the direction of our expert Esa : corned beef and mashed potatoes (this is a secret, no one is to know the Jorgen can cook). With the squalls come heavy winds that we run with to the north so we are a ways off our course. We just saw a cargo on our radar which did not respond to our vhf call but an other sail boat did, which we can not see on our radar. Juha is off to bed, as is Jorgen, Esa is in and out checking on Mona and our horizon... Naomi is plowing along at with an APA 48 at 7.5 kts, getting jossled on occasion by the waves. It is the darkest time of night before the moon is up at around 2300, big kiss to you all, i’m off to chat with Esa on watch. xxx p

26°44N 54°21W at 2330GMT 280508

2009-09-21T12:53:00.002+02:00

Bob Marley in the setting sun; the 135% came dirty and moody out of the bag and is now powering to windward at 6.6 kts in 16kts AWS; under cloudless skys over flat seas. Last night Esa and I shot the shit, ate a big flying fish with our fingers, finished off a bottle of Madeira, and found ourselves smack in the path of one massive and ominus cumulo nimbus. I confirmed the obvious on the radar and we made a hasty tack to starboard for the first time in a week - no time to move all the stuff over or wake up the guys - just let it fly. We got hit by 30 kts and a good soaking but avoided the brunt of the gusts as we ran back to Trinidad for half an hour. Today i spent up to my ears trying to put some order in piles of boat odds and ends - so many labeled zip locked bags i never find what i’m looking for; we got a 80 cm dorade up to the boat before it got away and just fabricated a fishing net with a plastic pipe and vegetable hamack. Esa is doing pancakes for dinner??? the ballons are out and we are having Léda’s bithday party!!! Now its Taj and its about time I check out Jorgen on deck.

290508

2009-09-21T12:49:00.002+02:00

Spoiled over the last few days, down when we drop to 132M/24H, tracking the barometric pressure to its steepest angle, just finished our first tank of water (100l / 8 days / 4 crew = 3 liters / day - we are over consuming). We discover that we just finished water tank #1 instead of the agreed upon
tank #2, and I am angry with myself for trusting someone else and not double checking. No danger here but what else haven’t I seen? I sculpted a piece of tooth in Esa’s mouth with some white gunk.

30°35N 51°09W at 0000 310508

2009-09-21T12:44:00.003+02:00

Ever heard of the sweet spot, the adjustment point that is perfect, the angle that fits... well we have been playing around with exactly the opposite for the last 2 days and most probably for the coming 2. The optimum angle to avoid the low winds of the Azores high is about 30° T and our AWA is exactly 90° at this point which means that the sails don’t hold, the wind vane freaks out, helming is a pain in the ass and we have been spoiled by the constant 15 tà 20 kts of the trades. Here we are playing with 7 to 12 kts. This morning we brought out the Genniker and cooked most of the day at 7.5 kts but in a more northerly course. I brought it down at sunset so we can have only one watch on deck at a time with me on call - too dangerous with the big kite up all alone in the dark. So we are off on a more easterly course holding a AWA of 80°, sweet talk the wind vane and hopefully get some sleep. I fixed the AIS today but I am not sure it works - no boats out there to test it on, and worked on the kicker that was missing washers and making a racket. There are still many things i can’t figure out how to use - the autopilot worked for a few minutes and then went off in some odd direction, the SSB as mostly static - not picking up all the weather gurus people rave about. On the other hand we used the watermaker for the first time yesterday and there is still cold beer in the fridge (Jorgen’s special pleasure). We aren’t racing but everyone is very concentrated so not much else is going on : stand ones watch, eat, sleep, fix things. Jorgen and Juha seem to be reading, Esa is writing in a note book or on a computer, but I can’t seem to get any time off and when I do I remember that I forgot some important chore and I’m off filling my black bag with tools and climbing under over a pile of stuff to get at what ever it is. The sea is very calm (too calm for my taste) but this is a vacation, remember! We experimented with pasta cooked in sea water - well I don’t recommend it. Our days are punctuated by occasional sightings of bits of garbage : an old shoe, bottles, buoys, ropes, plastic sheets etc. but no ships.

32°07N 49°49W at 0000 010608

2009-09-21T12:39:00.003+02:00

Phase 3 : the Azores high - more complicated more demanding, can’t just adjust the wind vane and keep an eye on the horizon - here everyone helms, the tension is up - playing the edge of the high, light wind frustration, a bit here a bit there, play the edge of a lone thunder cloud, adjust the sails, readjust, preventer to the main, a barber haul on the kite sheet, relook at the angles, gamble on the shift, push more to the north to keep the options open... less heat, less humidity, airing out the leaky fore cabin, fill the diesel tank (we have used 35 liters of diesel since we left, 13 hours of charging)... 54 miles in the last 12 hours, like standing still!!!

Jorgen is out there now, lots of stars no moon yet, black night, can’t see the sails, talk to me kite, let me hear the luff flutter, feel the smooth flow as Naomi locks into the groove and surfs down the swell. I feel sweaty, my beard itches, i spaced out the morning sea water over the head, woke up to do battle and got around to breakfast at 1500LT. We got too far to the east last night without the kite, taking it to easy and paid the price today - not tonight.

35°44.7N 46°43.5W at 0000GMT 020608

2009-09-21T12:34:00.004+02:00

big day, woke up, did my calculations and gave the new course 40 to 45° and for the first time there is more east than north in out route - now this might seem a very insignificant event, but for a bunch of nuts in a bathtube trying to get to the other side of the Atlantic we’re supposed to be going east... in other words our VMG has been poor up till now, like all our efforts have been to position ourselves with respect to the weather so we can head east and watch those VMGs go up. The kite came down, we trimmed the sails and did some hocuspocus to get Mona the windvane working the helm. I then went off with my black tool bad and and tore all the panels off the fore cabin roof and then crawled into the fore peak to tighten bolts - looking for leaks - keep the water out!! The sludge we’re creating is definitely diesel leaking out of a fuel water separator that looks too old and delicate to mess with out here, the diesel is shaking it up with the salt water to make quite the kunk all over our canned food in the bilge. Winds have been variable up till today but we’ve done 68M in the last 12 hours. I did a curry tonight with all the left overs - exception to the captain doesn’t have galley duties rule. I had all sorts of projects for this crossing : do celetual nav, do yoga every day, write a book... but there has been to much to do without the added nav, yoga is quite impossible on a topsy turvy floor, and I have nothing in my head these days to write about, no profound thoughts. Life is very basic here, discussions rare, the agenda all booked up with eat, sleep, wash and sail... I add to this the nav, the weather, the maintenance and keep an eye on everyone. Text by Esa : Jeeman, roti is the thing, taste that! Said the taxi man when I arrived to Trinidad. We had several roties in Power boat yard. The roti place was just next to us. Early morning rotiman and the rotiwoman came to their restaurant and started to prepare delicious rotis. It’s like Indian curry combined with pizza. You can have veggie, chicken, duck, goat, beef roties. You name it they have it. Instead of wheat flour roties are done from mashed chick peas combined with baking powder. Curry is folded into the pizza like in calzone and the dinner is ready. We didn’t take roties to the boat. In two weeks we got more than enough of them and felt the curry sweating through the skin in 35 celsius. When we finally left Chagaramas and Trinidad and Power Boat docks Naomi was loaded with everything we could imagine we would need in the galley during 30 days for 4 persons. According to NOLS bulk food system it would mean 120 kg which would give us 3000 kcal/day so it would be 1 kg/pers/day (thank you Michael for introducing NOLS, National outdoor leadership schools principles!). Fridge was full of yogurts, parmesan, gouda, juice, delicate vegetables, salami, gouda, bacon, sausage. The saloon cuboards had their weekly portions including rice, beans, lentils, pasta, pesto, olive oil, milk, jams, peanut butter, cereals, brownies, bread, graham flours, all different condiments from basilico to Angostura. Not talking of all the cans which just waited to be blocked from the bilge. We were prepared for serious ocean cruising plus emergency baggage with ready made soups in cans and dried food from beef jerky to mousse de chocolat not forgetting the eggpowder! What is Angostura? The Trinits are proud of their angostura production. You are able to find angostura from rom to soya sauce. It’s a aromatic bitter (orig. from the city of Angostura Venezuela) normally used for some drinks which are not in fashion any more. We have to get angostura simply because Finland was once the biggest exporter of angostura. That happened after the prohibition law some years ago. The bureaucrats who were in charge of finding something to drink for thirsty Finns had hard time to decide where to buy all sprits and vine. So they found an old list before prohibition. List had load of spirits from all over the old and new world France, Italy, Hungary, US. They couldn’t understand why there were just few hundred bottles of Angostura. They thought that there must be a mistake and order at once enough of it…tens of thousands of bottles. Same quantities like the other bottles. No one knew where Trinidad was but soon the Trinits knew were Finland was when cargo ships were heading north. Later in wartime Finland became the biggest Angostura exporter in Europe because no one could get their favourite drink behind the ocean because of the German subs. Dry bread what we love on boats was specially hard to find. We went with Juha trough all Hi Lows (local supermarket) but no dried bread. We went so despaired that we bought 3 kilos of tortillas, which seemed to be the only bread like product that would last more than a week. Our skipper didn’t believe that we would be able to bake our own bread onboard even we had carefully planned everything with yeast and all kind of flour and even the boat has an original Eno -owen. (We will surprise him soon!) The day we were going to leave we saw a big pile of famous Swedish Wasa knäckebröd in our local super. The trip was saved and we felt that B. Marley’s Allmighty had his hand on this super natural happening. We were ready to start cooking along. esa Back to me. These guys did a great job on the food, really. i’m not quite sure how we’re going to eat all this stuff. To add to the piles of food they bought, we were inundated by food from other sailors when they heard we had engine troubles; They were all leaving their boats down there and we were the only boat leaving in the other direction. 4 guys alone on a boat, with engine troubles and crossing the great water. We now have a very interesting collection of bottles of sauces and 5 boxes of baking powder, ketchup (we have 6 bottles!!!) and half used bags of pasta... And yes the captain couldn’t imagine bread baking in the 35° cabin a week ago, but it is getting cooler. My salt water over the head this morning was even a bit shocking... xxxx p

36°38N 44°29W at 2100 030608

2009-09-21T12:31:00.003+02:00

The high is not far to the southwest, playing with us, trying our resolve, taunting us with continual changes in wind force and direction. Predictions are for the high to move north in the coming days and we’re following, but not too far - there is a deep low on the move to the north so we’re looking for the right route in between - up with the kite down with the kite, 10° north or south of our optimum angle, trying to keep us moving at over 6kts, or at least 5.5kts. Cooler nights, but the sun still blazes down in the daytime. I took a sight this morning and another this afternoon. Learned about Alix’s aggression in the morning mail and went through the roof with anger, frustration and fury... Called Alix, who needs her pops more than ever, and her pops is out here in the middle of nowhere!!!!! Luca on top of it all and rolling. One shark, one tail of a whale, lots of dolphins... big day for animal life, and still no other boats. Change sails again and again...

37°32N 42°20W at 1600 040608

2009-09-21T12:29:00.002+02:00

Cirrus stratus fro SW, alto cumulous in a band N to S - changing weather systems, occasional cargos.

37°48N 41°59W at 2300 040608

2009-09-21T12:26:00.002+02:00

Yesterday we cooked, today we dragged in low and variable winds, and we can’t get anywhere near a run in these conditions. We are broud reaching with only the kite up in 7kts of wind, charging the batteries - sounds like a factory. After days alone saw 2 cargos going west one 10 and one 2 miles off. Our AIS is receiving but not transmitting, our range is about 15 miles with the antenna on the pushbit, they were both going about 16kts. that is about as far as one can see and about as far as the radar is effective... Both ships responded to my VHF calls. I saw a big shark swim by. Our main meal in mid afternoon was cabbage cooked in beer, with apples sausages and onions, with a dash of mustard, vinegar and soysauce... Esa is now working on a rice pudding for our dinner - hope he put enough rum in it. We are just about out of vegetables. Supermarket quality in Trinidad was shitty so the stuff didn’t keep for more than 2 weeks. We have tons of rice and cans of everything. In one of our more frustrating windless moments we did a wild manouver and put the main sail forward and the kite aft all twisted around just about everything. Now this is not easy to accomplish and we were sorry there was no one here to see us. We had to drop everything and untangle piles of sheets, halyards, downhauls, barbar hauls, preventers... not to mention the spin sock, bedsheets that we were trying to dry out and Esa’s long johns. XXXP

38°28N 38°52W at 0000 060608

2009-09-21T12:23:00.002+02:00

Variable winds, barometer over 1030, fixed fridge belt.

38°34N 33°36W at 1200 070608

2009-09-21T12:20:00.001+02:00

Storm raging since yesterday, SW blowing force 7 and maybe 8, seas 2 to 3,5 meters filling the cockpit every so often, Mona is at the helm ( a bit jerky for my taste), Naomi surfing along with 2 reefs in the main and the 135% reefed 50%... and we did out best day ever 178M/24h!!! We watched the front come at us and hit us at 2000 last night. More traffic crossing our track, one every few hours, all respond to VHF and agree to joint maneuvers. Barometer never lower than 1025.

38°32N 28°37.5W at 2000 090608

2009-09-21T12:18:00.003+02:00

Very spaced out here on land, and swinging a bit when walking... we got here to Horta last night at 0300, this morning, drank some champagne and tidied up a bit and fell into deep slumbers till this morning’s formalities (something we forget exists living in a Europe where we circulate freely once inside). The last few miles were rough and we had to tack our way south in strong winds. We finally dropped the sails and motored the last 2 hours back into civilization. We crossed in 18.5 days, did 2661 miles, which gives an average mile/day of 144 miles, which gives an average speed for the whole trip of 6 kts. This is fast, very fast if you talk to other sailors in Horta, most of which could count their days with wind on one hand, the guys next to us spent 30 days getting here. We did all but a couple of hours on the starboard tack (the couple of hours on port tack felt very strange (like sleeping on the other side of the bed). We used about 200 liters of water and charged the batteries using the engine 27 hours using about 70 liters of fuel (we haven’t touched the jerry cans in the fore and aft lockers). we still have about half our total food, but no fresh stuff at all. Naomi handled extremely well. We felt safe and powerful in the shittiest situations, permitting us to continue sailing our course in a storm that gave us our best day of 178 M/D. We mainly used the 135% and the Genniker, changing back and forth many times in a day depending on our AWA. For the most part we sailed at around 90° to the wind. We didn’t break anything, this is exceptional. We have problems with water leaking in various places, mostly in the fore cabin - i think from poorly sealed through deck fittings. We have problems with the toilet which never stays empty of water - I will re build the thing tomorrow. The engine gave us endless problems, none of them drastic. As I mentioned in one of my last messages, I have worn the same shorts, t-shirt and cap for the whole trip, adding leggings and my foil weather gear for the storms which amounted to about 3 days. I finally opened my locker a few minutes ago - everything in plastic bags is fresh and ready, everything left out covered with mold. The guys are off doing the laundry and taking a shower - i was so thrilled with our last bucket of sea water over the head yesterday, and with my first underpants and a change in t-shirt in 3 weeks that i have decided to stay in this state for another day - one shouldn’t shock the body (or the soul). The other big question is the beard... see what happens. Stay tuned for our video clip which will top the MTV ratings for this classic documentary of off shore sailing - the only problem is that it is so heavy we can’t find a way to get it off the virtual boat.

HORTA at 1400 110608

2009-09-21T12:15:00.003+02:00

We are still in Horta, still fixing, still shopping, still getting ready. I tightened 70% of the genoa traveller bolts, found 4 that turned free which I filled with sikaflex. We finally got wifi so I could down load weather analyses files which confirmed my findings off the grib files - the deep low to our west is very deep and stationary extending up into the 500mb altitudes. we should expect winds 30 to 40 kts in the region off and on till the 1306 from the SE. For us this would mean beating into gale force winds for 1 to 2 days so I’m staying put until it moves a bit north, the wind looses 10kts and veers into the S. I heard myself think that we don’t have much time and we can out sail anything... and then reminded myself that that is exactly the reason for most accidents - no time, got to be back to work, and bullshit, we are minute out there. 10 minutes after I showed us all the weather maps and told them what i had decided the marina guys showed up asking everyone to layout anchors in the harbor because we were going to get a beating tonight and tomorrow. Sitting around here has been really hell - rice and calamari at Peter’s Bar, baked cod and potatoes at Captielo, and tonight we might have to go to the other side of the island to a special fish restaurant to fight off our depression. Esa is being interviewed about our trip by a charming french grad student, Juha is watching football at the local bar, Jorgen is - where is Jorgen? Yesterday we did a major overhaul of the toilet and I rewired the GPS antenna on the AIS which seems to be transmitting for the first time. Oh yes, for those of you that think we have hidden a woman on board, i have no knowledge of this. I did a full inspection of the ship looked into all lockers, and found no stowaways. Oh yes, Mona, well Mona is with us but she is our name for the wind-vane... and very sexy she is all decked out in stainless steel - kind of hardcore and really intelligent!!!! And it is raining xxxx p PS I am looking for a crew member from the south of spain to Perpignan.

HORTA at 2100 120608

2009-09-21T12:11:00.002+02:00

Here is a 20 to 30kt wind blowing straight down the harbor at us, and it is pouring (more like driving) rain. Been this way for hours, maybe days. For those of you that don’t feel it yet, it is like sticking your head out the window of a car cruising through a downpour. And there is a lot of pressure pushing us toward the rocks, pushing on the boats around us, pushing. And the wail of the wind in rigging. These boats are made to sail, to slice through the sea, these sailors are happy out there where they think they have there destiny in their own hands, active people, active boats. Imagine all this bottled up, helpless in a small space inactive, worrying about the shore lines that aren’t right, the anchor that could have been bigger, the fenders that keep slipping, and howl of the wind. This is no ordinary storm, it spins on the surface and climbs turning straight up into the sky. I have never seen a tight deep low tight on the surface and deep right up to the 500mb level - has its own private jet stream spinning around up there. One on top of the other means the system is stationary, which means its been there and there is more to come. I check it out every morning on the weather maps, sort of say hello to an old friend - and when are you going north, anyhow? And nuts like me keep the windex on so i have the wind speed flashing in my face. Looks like we’re here till Saturday because 35 to 40 kts out of the SE means more brutal then I’m willing to subject my crew and boat to. The predictions are for a turnaround tomorrow night. We are ready to go, but for the moment I wish I had put the bigger anchor out with the full chain, and how about another line to that steel sailing barge dockside, and it is leaking around the aft hatch... but Bob Dylan is ripping it on the CD, just came in from the cafe-bar after a couple of beers with sailing cronies (i hate beer but it sure is great when you should have put the other anchor out), off at 2100 for dinner of grilled squid, and Naomi is definitely the sexiest boat in the harbor even in the driving rain... so life is super even if a bit wet. The problem with the cronies is that they don’t seem to have any other existence other than sailing, and like anything else, it gets boring after a while. Turning the discussion around usually takes excessive effort and it usually doesn’t hold for very long. These guys seem to live outside of any political or social reality. They are living wild experiences all of them and they are all thrilled to the core. They have risked obliteration and usually broken a fair amount of material doing so. And this is what is on their minds - how to fix it, when is the low moving north, and when are you heading out? The guys are doing great. And yes we are all ready to be out there, and yes 4 guys living in 10 square meters gets a bit tight sometimes, but for the moment there have not been any explosions. The captain is all doing fine, but he also wants to get on with this, ‘cause there are a lot of very wonderful people he misses very much, and it is definitely time to on to other adventures with them xxxxxx p

38°27N 27°37W at 1700 140608

2009-09-21T12:08:00.002+02:00

We left Horta this morning at 07:00, motored out into the outer harbor, pulled up the main and the 135%, and set our course to pass over the island of Pico. The sun is out, the clouds are rare. We soon switched to the genniker and cooked at 8kts till the peak of the volcano was off our beam. We soon ran out of wind and motored for a couple of hours. We saw a lot of whale backs and some spouts but no post card tails in the air. Once we cleared the end of Pico we picked up of WSW winds, brought the kite back up and we now headed E. As usual, we did some fast repair work on the main sheet traveller while bounceing around in the swell, opened up the starboard cam, shook out all the smashed ball bearings and redistributed the remaining 44 whole ones. Good news is that the toilet is working and the engine pushed us along at over 5 kts. We are all glad to be back out here, even if some of us seem to have momentarly forgotten how to sail. Our course is to continue E for another 100M and then curve NE about 50M before setting our couse ESE for Gibraltar. Got to go mess with the weather predictions xxxx p

38°39N 26°15W at 1200 160608

2009-09-21T11:39:00.002+02:00

A lot of nowhere all night, wind shift at 1000 in WNW and we are back on the move. The kicker ripped off the mast at 1100, black tool bag on deck drilling and tapping new holes. The ware is beginning to show on the material and the crew. 108M/24h - our lowest ever - plunge us all in the blues.

38°38N 23°13W at 2100 160608

2009-09-21T11:38:00.002+02:00

151M in the last 24 hours, great after the 108M of the 24 hours before. Mostly under genniker until the wind went to 20kts... We are in much more complicated weather, we could go north or south or straight. The high seems to be everywhere at one point of another and often in all three places at the same time. I’ve opted for the direct route and we are beating into 6 kts of wind on a flat gray sea toward a bank of thunder clouds. The wind will run out sometime in the next 24 hours but when? I am beat today, up most of the night doing putting in reefs, and I forgot to eat breakfast till 1500. The combination put me in a rotten mood. I made pasta for dinner in the pressure cooker - not perfect but not bad at all. I made a zucchini sauce, added some water, threw in a bad of rigatoni and pressurized it for about 5 minutes. Next time I’ll try 4. Mona the wind vane is back in service the wind is expected to do a 360° in the next couple of days - I hope I can sleep some tonight!!!!! The wind out of the north has us all wearing clothes for the first time, still no socks but sweaters are out, leggings and a hat has been seen.

We were passed by a cargo on its way to Quebec doing 16kts in exactly the opposite direction to us. I don’t remember if I’ve talked about what we are doing about keeping these guys at a distance. Basically we have 3 tools at our disposal : our eyes, the radar and the AIS, each of which has its qualities and its defaults. For distance we can see a ship that is transponding at around 24 miles depending on its size and the sea conditions; then comes the radar which will start to pick up a clear blob at around 12 miles, then come our eyes at around 6 to 10 miles depending on conditions. AIS is the best but you have to have it on, have the computer on and be sitting in front of it - this is impossible because they consume too much electricity and I can’t sit here all the time. The radar is the same, eats too much electricty and you have to be there. So if the conditions are good (which means good visibility, good maneuverability and some one at the helm that keeps their eyes open) we rely on eyes first when off shore; when conditions are shitty or we are closer to land or shipping lines than I have to be close to one or the other of the electronic means of visibility. Next question is what happens when see a ship? If it is far away and I have ascertained that there is no risk we go back to whatever we were doing, if there is a danger or I don’t know, I fire up the computer with the AIS, and maybe the radar. If there definitly is danger on the AIS and or the radar, I try to contact the other ship to let them know that I see them and that they should see us and hello hello. Mostly they don’t move much and we do. Usually the fact of seeing them early means that the course change for us is minimal. At night it is more complicated because there are fewer people around to keep a watch, because I try to sleep a few hours and because it is easy to mistake ships for raising stars. For the moment I’m not convinced that they see us on their AIS receivers, we have been seen on some of their radar screens, I have very seldom seen other sail boats on my radar screen. Most of these cargos are moving at around 15kts. Toward each other means their 15 and our 5 makes 20 kts, if we see them 20 miles away we have lets say 10 minutes to get all this clear, 12 minutes to be a mile out of the way and 40 minutes to play with. If we only see them on the radar 12 miles away we have 10 minutes to play with, if we only just see them 6 miles away we have 18 minutes, we need 12 to be out of here and 5 to decide which makes... move fast, be sure and keep your eyes open. Luckily most boats are not coming from head on, which gives us more time and very very few are really on a collision course, but there have been enough to keep us on our toes. The best solution is to have another source of electricity, keep the computer and the AIS running and wire some kind of alarm to the system.

38°05.5N 20°42.3W at 1200 170608

2009-09-21T11:37:00.003+02:00

Engine on, no wind in the high, high moving up and down, sun out, swell from the N, engine noise everywhere, better to get that book out... hard to give up the schedule and just live the wait. If my calculations are correct we should be through this part of it by midnight.

38°59N 19°36W at 2300 170608

2009-09-21T11:36:00.002+02:00

It is hard to describe the sensation of the sun setting after 12 hours of motoring through the hot high, a near to full moon and then 10 to 12kts of breeze arrives from out of nowhere 45° AWA off our course, the wheel is balanced, the sea flat and off Naomi goes smoothly slicing the moon lit night. (and yes we are back on starboard tack)Hard to describe how much of this trip has been an incredible pleasure, I was sitting out on the for deck this afternoon the engine cooking along below how even this windless day was fabulous (for those who don’t know - motoring is not my thing at all). To top it off, Esa made a fantastic dinner : dates rolled in bacon, squid, muscles and bonito spread, melon and prosciutto as appetizers, and Thai soup as main dish. Accompanied with a bottle of red, topped off with port and chocolate cookies - life is rough! (and Anne was worried I’d return skinny as a broom stick!!!) The port was ok, but we sat around for a while reminiscing about the bottle of Madeira that Jane and Mel gave us one evening after a particularly frustrating day in Trinidad. The bottle got opened in the shower, was well appreciated that night on board and finished off by Esa and I one night in mid Atlantic chasing or being chased by a squall (looking for a bit more pressure for the speed sometimes got us more than what we had bargained for) Anyhow, we are still talking about what a great battle of Madeira that was - one of the high moments of the crossing.

37°37N 18°30W at 0900 180608

2009-09-21T11:33:00.001+02:00

The wind is still holding - knock on wood, cross our fingers... we are cooking along SOG : 7 kts COG : 103°, mostly cloudless sky, sea 0.5m. Esa is back in the kitchen making bread and rummaging around with his ipod on, Jorgen is asleep hidden behind the lee cloth, and Juha is at the wheel in an orange jacket, orange sun glasses and green cap, drinking out of a green army canteen, both hands on the wheel. There are two kinds of helms people, the ones that can’t wait to get their hands on it, who keep turning back and forth adjusting compensating... and the ones that can’t wait to get their hands off it, who look for all possible ways to balance the sails, get the wind vane to work, or the autopilot, and then go on to other things when ever possible. Jorgen and Juha are more of the first type, and Esa and i of the second type, though I tend to push the holders to let the boat do its thing and Esa and myself to pay more attention to getting the most out of the situation. There is also an attitude question - I am always racing even when I’m not, which means that I want to go as fast as is safe at all times even when cruising. Others make the distinction between racing and cruising. As the skipper is a nut for speed and perfection, the trip has that style. We met lots of boats in Horta and Trinidad, and even out here on the VHF that are content to just sail along peacefully. While we are changing sails, adjusting halyards, moving ballast around, they are listening to music in the cockpit reading books, doing watercolors, yakking with their friends on the SSB. We met boats that have taken twice the time we did. It is a life style. Talking about shopping for food. Esa worked it out and Juha helped him shop and stow. We all cook, Jorgen rarely. The shopping was done on the principle of cooking improvisation with a large range of staples. This has been great because we have a lot of variety and never eat the same thing twice. But it means a lot of work for the cook. For people like Jorgen who don’t cook it is a pain in the ass. For my next trip I will be more inquiring about what crew kitchen capacities are and adjust the shopping list to include as much prepared meals as are non cooks on board. Having good cooks on board is definitely a plus - I would never sail without at least one. Esa shopped for about 50% more then my crossing calculations which are always pessimistic by about 20% so we have found that we are not lacking in anyway, better this way than the contrary. Getting fresh vegetables that are really fresh has been a problem, so stuff is not keeping for as along as it should - all the tomatoes from Horta went bad in 3 days, as did a lot of fruit. This is the hardest part of the trip for us, we are close to home, miss you all, we’re a bit tired, we did the blast and fast crossing from Trinidad to Horta in record time, this might seem like just the rest... but we are still out here sailing our asses off and till we hit Perpignan we are at sea... so keep the mail coming, xxxxxx p

36°48N 14°33W at 2300 190608

2009-09-21T11:32:00.001+02:00

Still in the calms, gybed to the ENE at around 1800, crossing our first cargos of the day, always at least 2 or 3 that come close, close like with CPAs of 0, 0.5, the others we barely see, strange out here in the nowhere to only see cargos in whose path one always seems to find oneself. Up till now they have almost all taken avoiding action when contacted on 16. I haven’t waited around to see if the move of their own accord. We are down to one full tank and 60 liters of diesel which I want to keep for Gibraltar so motoring is out for the time being. It is very slow going

36°48N 13°40W at 1100 200608

2009-09-21T11:30:00.001+02:00

At 0100 last night we were circled by what we think was a fin whale about 20 meters long. It came to within 10 meters of Naomi on all sides, came at us and dived under surfacing on the other side... Esa and I were both terrified and amazed at the same time. He wanted to hang out and commun with nature, but i insisted we put the engine on and incite it to go and play tag with some other boat. it didn’t seem agressive but one false flick of its tail and we would have been history... We are still in the calms, with 390M to the mouth of the straits, counting liters of diesel, eggs and otherwise have a good time. The general vibe on board seems even better than normal - we are together in our frustration but the calms have given time to breathe, talk, do otherwise than sail. Cargo traffic is increasing, I’m up 3 times a night and often in the day to check out CPAs and call in to ask for avoiding action - Naomi is very small out here! xxxxxp

36°37.5N 11°50.7W at 0530 210608

2009-09-21T11:29:00.003+02:00

Yesterday at around 1500 we finally got wind out of the N, light in the beginning and building. We are on our course straight for the Straits doing 6.5 to 7.5 kts, the sky is overcast and ominous, the sea .5 to 1m and choppy, there is more and more traffic, the radar is now on and on standby, the computer and AIS on also (both of which are usually off to conserve electricity), I am sleeping dressed and up once an hour, most of the cargos take preventive action to avoid us, one last night didn’t and we had to stall to let a container ship pass - we had a CPA of 0.56 to O.OO for 1.5 hours while I haggled with them in broken english. ETA for the mouth of the Straits is early in the morning on the 23... xxxxp

36°16N 08°53.8W at 0200 220608

2009-09-21T11:27:00.002+02:00

In a maze of cargos, my screen is covered with them, on deck nothing, just 15 to 20 kts of wind, waves 1 to 2m, overcast and the howl... at the chart table surrounded by screen lights and the VHF crackling. We are 7.5 to 8.5 kts straight for the Straits, the wind should have let up and veered by now and hasn’t. Esa and Jorgen are asleep, Juha is on deck. I sleep a bit here and there, but the stress is up and I’ll sleep in the daylight. Every so often we get hit by a wave and the whole boat shutters, but none have come aboard in the last 2 hours.

36°10N 8°20W at 0800 220608

2009-09-21T11:26:00.002+02:00

Just woke up to a clear sky and a wind shift to ENE. The cargos are still there but in the flesh there seem to be less of them. I’ll send this off now at the same time as my weather request xxxx p

35°49N 07°12.6W at 2100 220608

2009-09-21T11:25:00.002+02:00

Yesterday we did 162M/24H mostly in rugged conditions, today more rugged seas and heavy winds which abruptly died out and left us in our own private doldrums. Out of electricity we started the engine and finally... the noise is with us since 1600 and the sea is still flat at 2100. After a day south out of the intense traffic, we are headed back into it tonight, for the moment I have 20 ships on my screen 5 of which present a possible danger - this will be a night at the chart table. We had a fabulous 4 hours of beating into heavy seas this morning. Racing up the mountains and surfing down the back sides on Naomi’s perfect flank. We each showed Juha our own particular body dances at the wheel - bend your knees man ! ... complete with all the sexual analogies. Apart from being an incredible adventure, this trip has had an amazing number of fabulous days of sailing. Days with perfect conditions in wild light, under dramatic skys, adjusting the sails to perfection, changing to and from the kite, pushing for that extra 0.25 kt.. The whole sensorial experience with the boat the sea ones own body... combined in perfect harmony with the very technical dimension of instruments, materials. What has been strange is that we have been doing this day after day for a month without getting tired of it... one long orgasmic experience... (complete with fixing the toilet, mopping up engine oil, doing the dishes, washing one’s dirty underwear). Last night at around 0300 I got came out of the main hatch to ask Esa a question and got hit in the jaw by the main sail traveler as it flow across in an accidental gybe, I was thrown down the hatch into pile in the galley. I came away with fat lips and a bruised hand but the accident gave the crew a fright. The crew stuffed me into bed with an aspirin for a couple of hours, took over tracking the cargos as well as standing watch, I was back at it by 0600 and had forgotten about the incident this morning. The lesson is you can’t be too careful, this is a dangerous place for the main sheet, the gybe is about the most frequent accident on sail boats and I had to give the crew a crash course in AIS tracking with a cold beer can over my lips and hand - it is stupid to not have done it before now (I drank the beer with the aspirin)

35°54N 05°37W at 1100 230608

2009-09-21T11:23:00.002+02:00

Africa to STB Europe to PT Atlantic aft and the Med before us, running 6kts at 77° on the outer edge of the incoming traffic lane. a bit of wind from N, overcast. phones suddenly come to life, plans, preoccupations, reservations... We still have 80M to Malaga and 700M to Perpignan - go to get the Grib (weather file) and plan my route, xxxxx p

36°41N 02°55W at 1200 250608

2009-09-21T11:19:00.004+02:00

Some sailing some motoring... in the Med. We left Puerto Marina, Beenalmadena, Malaga last night ar 2000 and motored out into a flat sea, We are heading straight E either in calms of very light winds out of the ESE. We had a fabulous run wing on wing from Gibraltar to near Malaga doing an daveragespeen of 7kts. We were often surrounded by dolphins and jumping all over the place. We came into port that bight without charts and a very vague idea of the layout. Our crossing from Horta to Puerto Marina was 1267 logged miles in 9.5 days at an average speed of 133 kts. We were all tired and stressed out after the tension of the traffic during the 3 days before entering into the Straits. Once into the Straits, sailing on the S edge of the cargo lane the stress went way down. It picked up a bit whan we cut straight across both lanes to come under the Rock. Once into Puerto Marina we slept some, went through some very summery formalities, Esa packed up his mountain of stuff, Josh and co. came down and we went off to a calamary, sardine, gaspacho feast. Esa is off for home... I will greatly miss my sailing brother. Jean-Loup got on and we are now cooking along for the final push home. I was so wasted that I konked out for a long night of sleep, waking occationally to verify the route and see how JL was doing before crashing out again. I’m feeling a lot less edgy today. I washed all my dirty clothes: 2 t-shirts, a pair of shorts, a pair of leggings in salt water, with a fresh water rince. Esa getting off is a symbolic turning point in the trip. he wanted to go all the way but he had stretched his leave from family and office to the limit. This has been our trip from the beginning, we planned to sail the northern Atlantic, then came the accident, then the replanning for the northern route and then this crazy turn-around changing boats, changing the route, the climate, the timing... Esa has been right there all along, I have consulted him for all important and most unimportant decisions from the beginning up the the last minutes before his departure. I could not and would not have done this trip without him. The long watches from mid-night to 0600 were our favorite time for shooting the shit under the stars, readjusting the sails, pushing Naomi faster, smoother, closer to our goal. We have a very similar way of sailing, and also a very similar way of looking at life. Esa had the hardest jobs on board: seconding a maniac captain, organizing all the food, the main man out on the fore-dack. He was always there when I went out in shitty weather with the black tool bag to repair a ripped out kicker, an exploded main sail cam... A big kiss to you brother.

36°43N 02°22W at 1900 250608

2009-09-21T11:17:00.002+02:00

Straight into 12kt head winds, motoring or beating or motoring or beating... in any case, bouncing around. We are a couple of hours away from Cabo de Gata, point where we can turn NE and hopefully gain a good angle to the wind, hopefully the wind that has been bounding us in the face for most of the day won’t choose this moment to back to NE. The mass of cargos are just outside, we will pass inshore of the lane.

37°31N 01°03W at 1900 260608

2009-09-21T11:14:00.004+02:00

Rough day against the wind, mile by mile tacking NE, the wind always seems to be against us... At 0900 we exploded our big genoa split right across the middle, shredded around the forstay, gymnastics to get it off and the 95% up for the first time since off St Vincent. When you live night and day with a sail, when the sail is a principle part of getting us across all this water, well it is heavy to watch it disintegrate before your eyes. Now beating with less power, having to fine tune to get the speed we need to not get stopped by the waves. We are motoring out around Gabo de Palos, counting the liters of diesel we have left, hoping for favorable winds beyond. The coast is rugged, a great change after the lago like tourist constructions on the southern coast. The seas are mostly empty other than the cargos and a rare sail boat - very rare. 400M to go!!!

38°49N 00°19E at 2100 270608

2009-09-21T11:11:00.004+02:00

On the move, one of those days of perfect beating, 30 AWA, cooking NNE at 6kts with our little genoa, one of those days of intense pleasure, even if we’re beat... Getting some more sleep these last couple of nights, back to doing yoga (or some new swinging, bucking version) in the morning. We stopped into Moraira to fill the tank and an extra 20 liter can with diesel and sailed out past the rock head walls of Cabo de la Nao... direction HOME. We had our crossing favorite: rice cooked in tomatos, beans, onions, garlic, ginger and carrots - heavy but solid for the long haul. Dominique gave me the recipe, Dominique who just hit the Cape Verdi islands after 25 days at sea from Cape Town. Now its dark and we’re back in the shipping lanes with the cargos, the containerships, the ferries... tracking the CPAs and haggling over the VHF. We’re in light winds over a steep swell throwing us all over the place - miss the powerhouse 135%. Anne left Paris tonight to come and meet us, oh boy oh boy. Time to go to sleep, the engine is so loud I have to take the mike up in the cockpit to haggle over the VHF, but we all seem to sleep right through it. Oh, and the weather files I was getting in the Atlantic were pretty close to the reality, the ones for the Med are totally off - all of them.

39°57N 01°22E at 1100 280608

2009-09-21T11:09:00.002+02:00

Engine grinding away, no wind to speak of, repairing the toilet floor, screwing down loose genoa track bolts, trying to figure out if i can sew the 135% back together... 200M to go!!!

42°18N 03°20W at 1800 290608

2009-09-21T11:08:00.004+02:00

Last leg, from 30° to 332° kite up wing on wing, been motoring for too long, passing the formidable Capo Creus, Canet, Anne and the end of the journey are among all those flickering lights in distance.

42°42.8N 03°02.2E at 0030 300608

2009-09-21T11:04:00.005+02:00

ARRIVED ! We are alone here, the lights of civilization are spread blinking out before us, Anne is watching from somewhere, another unknown harbor to enter at night. At 0300 we clear the breakwater and glide over a mirror, Anne is waving her lit up mobile phone, we maneuver into a tight spot at the guest dock, tie up Naomi and jump into open arms.

42°42N 03°01E at 2200 010708

2009-09-21T11:03:00.000+02:00

Jorgen and Juha off by plane after a great lunch in the arms of family Ferrer, Then a nap and back to Naomi, all of us to wash off caked salt, clean up the fridge, and take off an impressive amount of peanut butter, rusty cans of asparagus, tomato paste, salmon, baked beans, bags of other beans, oat meal, ketchup, lard, a kilo of butter, another of ginger... from the looks of what we took off, it is a good thing we didn’t have to make all that edible for another week. I spent the day my hands back in the engine oil, transmission fluid, washing sheets and sails... We took the 135% to get sown back together, and the life raft to be inspected.

48°52N 02°22E at 0830 060708

2009-09-21T10:49:00.006+02:00

Paris after 2 months is intense, I was protected in Perpignan in Anne’s care, here the real decalage is violent, spaced out Pippo in the hysterical city, my unused legs hurt from walking, my head is filled with dust from the office and pollen from the trees... Finding my kids makes it worth it Luca is in and out once in a while, he is partying heavy after doing very well on his Bac exams, graduating, getting to a hot prepa and moving out into his own apt. i went to see his concert on Friday - sounded good, much more complex than before, but there weren’t enough people. Alix is more present, working for her oral exams on Monday and helping me sort out all my junk from the past in the new office. The new office is beautiful but a real mess, the same mess of rue des haudriettes at a grander scale - moving must have been epic. All in all, it is weird to be back, weird to be alone in this big apt, weird to be on solid ground, weird all this silence at home, weird all this aggressivity and noise in the street, weird...
Also strange to carry around inside oneself the reality of this long and intense adventure incomprehensible to most of those around you. Like a dream that comes to sound banal when externalized, this experience is like an insiders joke, rites of a secret society, the moments of love...

I can’t just continue these mails, this adventure has to have an end, a conclusion. Most sailing adventures end with a few chapters of conclusion: technical annexes with boat specifications, arguments about wind-vane design, lists of equipment, tricks of the trade for keeping eggs, routes, dos and don’ts… These are the pages I always seem to come back to. We are all organization nuts, the fear of forgetting the most important of items keeps us constantly in our lists, attentive to detail, checking and rechecking piles, labeling…, So here is a conclusion in the form of a list, because I’m sure there will be items to add in the days to come… and I don’t want to forget anything in this new adventure on dry land.

I had no memorable fundamental thoughts
I had a very clear cut goal, and that was about all I was capable of concentrating on.
I didn’t make or imagine any art - I even had a hard time justifying what I create.
I found the scenery incredibly diversified and captivating, but I had a difficult time finding the words to describe it.
I didn’t come up with any major changes in my life.
I did decide to spend more time making the people around me happier, though I doubt that I can do much to help.
I didn’t write the book about sailing I had wanted to.
I didn’t correct my spelling errors in my mails
I spent very little time in front of my laptop, the track pad didn’t always agree with my saltwater damp fingers
I didn’t desire any food we didn’t have other than ice cream once or twice.
We ate well but a lot less than normal.
We had a lot of food left over.
I never though I would ever eat corned beef, but in curry it is hidden.
Most of the cooking we ate was great, some was really bad.
I didn’t miss any places, or activities
I missed people, but not violently, I felt they were with me (the mails were a great help).
I remained very conscious of the effort others were making to permit me to do this trip.
I had a few moments of regret of not being with my loved ones in their times of difficulty.
I did not fear for my own life.
I often feared for the life of my crew
I didn’t desire any other boat
I didn’t get enough physical exercise of the aerobic kind.
I tried to do yoga but fell over, I had books of poses but not the patience to look figure them out.
I did some push ups and sit ups once in a while, but didn’t feel I needed to.
I got sun burned too often
I didn’t use most of my clothes, they were packed in plastic bags in a locker in Trinidad and opened in Perpignan.
I didn’t miss any garment.
I read about 20 pages of a novel in 2 months – when not sailing, navigating or fixing something, I slept.
I was happy to wash in salt water with a bit of fresh water rinse once a day.
I didn’t much worry about how I looked.
I didn’t lack for making love at all but I did think very often about Anne.
I figured out most of the equipment on Naomi, though I never got anything useful out of the SSB.
Many advised me to use a weather router, but I wanted to do it myself and did.
I did regret that the wind instruments on Naomi were not connectible to my laptop.
I would have liked her not to leak water and diesel into the bilge.
I would like to have had symmetric spinnaker, and a newer 135% genoa.
The asymmetric spinnaker is a super sail.
The standing rigging is great, the running rigging however old, did the job.
Having different colored halyards etc. would have been helpful for some of the crew to remember what was what.
I didn’t know anything about diesel engines before this trip, I still don’t know much but I was able to fix what went wrong without knowing how I did it.
I confirmed my interest in weather routing but found the Med too light winded for my taste and the grib files for the Med way off.
The AIS positioning system was a must but I had to learn to turn it off or restrict the range because avoiding collision became an obsession.
Having the Iridium phone and sending out, getting news back and knowing people were interested in our trip was a very important encouragement.

The 3 hour on 6 hours off watch system, with me on call all the time, seemed to work well off shore and in good weather.
In bad weather and near land falls I didn’t get much sleep because 4 hands were necessary for maneuvers, navigation and avoiding collision.
Sometimes, it was just too beautiful out on deck to go to sleep.
As in life, people tend to see sailing as either a work/rest dichotomy or as one integrated activity.
Some crew look do the least possible while on duty and little or nothing for the community when off, while others are enthusiastic at all times and see all activities on board as part of the process.
With normal cycles disrupted, crew tend to think they are tired all the time.
There is more to sailing than being on watch.
Cooking is a real problem, most people can’t cook very well. So if one wants to eat well either you have to have a cook or you have to screen crew for their cooking capacities and compatibilities.

Considering 4 guys together in a very little space in the middle of a very big ocean for 2 months - we all got along pretty well together. There was a job to do and we did it.
I kept the rhythm closer to racing than to cruising so there was a need to keep focused.
There were affinities between some crew and non between others, but this didn’t seem to matter much.
Even in the roughest moments when the engine broke in Trinidad, or in the rougher weather before Horta, or in the variable weather in the cargo lanes before Gibraltar I was certain I could count on them. The chaffing that did arise was about style, communication malfunction or just plain attitude difference. I got very little flack as captain, but it pasted over with out much to do.
All in all the crew was very dedicated to the trip and to our common objective.
There were no major accidents, one medium accident when I was hit by the mainsail sheet block, and almost no minor ones.
We all stayed healthy, washed often, ate well and slept enough (I didn’t get enough sleep during the Horta to Malaga leg).
This kind of life suits my body well. With some small changes in watch system and the competence of the crew I could have done an even longer trip.

If I were to redo it what would I do otherwise?
I would know more about diesel engines – celestial navigation was more romantic but much less useful.
I should have gone over each and every nut and bolt before leaving Trinidad.
I might not have stopped in Horta or Malaga - the stops were great but each time we lost wind.
Better tools would have been great.
I would install the wind/water electrical generator so we could use the instruments and the autopilot more freely and the engine less.
I would have had more easily prepared food, less cans of beer, corned beef and asparagus.

Now that I’m back, I wonder when I can leave again.
I feel that i am just now learning how to do sail long distances.
The maps are open on my bed, Esa, call me when your ready, xxxxx p

ANNEX

2009-09-21T10:41:00.004+02:00

ROUTES AND PREDICTIONS
For the Atlantic there were 3 main approaches :
- Classical route : Trinidad to St Martaan to Bermuda to Horta : 3100M / 5kts / 24H = 26 days; 3100M / 6kts = 22 days; 3100M / 7kts = 18 days - This would have been the most secure route with the most company. The advantage of favorable winds might have been counter balanced by the risk of calms (confirmed by boats in Horta) so 6kts was more likely than 7kts. Also I didn’t want to be tempted by more land falls and was definitely not into classical.
- Impossible direct route : Trinidad to Horta : 2500M / 5kts = 21 days - this was very optimistic considering the high percentage of calms and head winds, so I think we would be closer to 25 days or more. This was my fist choice of a route. I would have liked to cut it as tights as possible up to the bottom of the high and tack our way E till we hit the winds from the N, but doubts about the engine and the trades oscillating to ENE made this difficult.
- Optimal route Trinidad to St Martaan to 38°N44°W to Horta 2600M / 6kts = 18 days. This was my final choice. It felt me a lot of latitude, complicated meteorological navigation and the possibility to make up for lost time. The risks of calms persisted but we could always fall back to the W. I estimated 24 days
From the Azores to Perpignan as complicated more by the unpredictability of the weather. 1700M in 12 days

STATS
Overall distance traveled: 4600M
Sailed: 4000M
Motored: 600M
Trinidad to Horta: 2660M / 18.5 days = 144M / day = 6kts
Horta to Malaga: 1267M / 9.5 days = 133M / day = 5.5kts
Malaga to Perpignan: 651M / 5 days = 130M / day = 5.4kts
Trinidad to Perpignan: 4578M / 33 days = 140M / day = 5.8kts

CREW
Pippo Lionni, owner and skipper, USA, France
Founding partner in Parisian design firm: L Design; education in philosophy and mathematics; extensive mountain climbing experience, 53 years old; fluent in English, French and Italian.
French BPPPN training (CFIST, TIS, CAEERS…); French Coastal and Off Shore Navigation Licenses; VHF/BLU license CRR and CRO; Member Union Nationale pour la Course au Large
Racing skipper Gotland Runt 2003, 05, 06; Blue water skipper over 9000 miles in the Atlantic, Baltic, North Sea…
Navigator with skipper Lionel Peon Antonisa LAO 124’ – Cannes-St Tropez (1st in compensated time) and Voiles de St Tropez (7th in group Spirit of Tradition) 2002

Esa Vesmanen, Finland
Founding partner in Pure Design, great cook, 42 years old, Finish Coastal Navigation Licenses, Blue water skipper Baltic, North Seas, Racing skipper Dragon and Folkbot class. Esa was responsible for food.

Jörgen Wallin, Sweden
Fluent in English and Swedish, 66 years old, Naval Architect - Yacht Designer - Boat builder - Surveyor. 50 years of cruising experience in the Baltic and North Sea., Off Shore racing since 1965, Gotland Runt; Baltic Race; Horn Cup, Skaw Race; Fastnet Race; Chanel Race; Plymoth - Ta Rochelle Race. Presently the owner of a 6MR yacht of my own design.

Juha Myöhänen, Finland
Fluent in English, Spanish and Finish, 35 years old

Jean-Loup Thiers, France (from Malaga to Perpignan)
Fluent in French, English and German; 37 years old, French caostal and Off shore nav licences. 4 years in the French Navy. Currently Aircraft structure Engineer and instructor; Light sailing boats practice, day and coastal cruise, some experience around Britany and on Mediteranean Sea. Currently co-owner of an Hobie Cat 18.

NAOMI
Sparkman and Stephens, Swan 411/22, made by Nautor, Finland 1978.
LOA: 12.44m, LWL: 10.33m, Beam: 3.64m, Draft: 2.22m, Displacement:10 800kg, Ballast: 5200kg, Mast height above water: 17.53 + 1.3 = 18.83 m, Engine: 47 HP 4 Cylinder Perkins 4.108 Marine Diesel;

SAILS INVENTORY
Mainsail - 33 m2 - Doyle 5 batten sets of reef points () 5 Mainsail battens
Stackpack, Doyle (Carib vs) 2 Doyle stackpack battens
Genoa 2 - 135% - 65 m2 - UK Kevlar tape drive RF
Genoa 3 – 95 % xx m2 - UK Carbon Fiber Tape Drive
Gennaker - 124 m2 - Northsails G-AP2 Norlon 150
Storm trysail
Storm jib 5 -

WATCH SYSTEM
After studying different possible watch systems and talking them over with my friend Claudio Stampi Chronobiology Research Institute, we settled on all of us doing a 4 hour watch system with the possibility of breaking the 4 hour watch into 2 hour watches in rough conditions. This went well for the first few days but I was up for my watches and up to solve problems during the other watch so i was starting to accumulate fatigue. We switched to a 3 hour on and 6 hour off one person watch with me on call. I got more sleep and in the middle of the sea we all got used to being alone at night. The other big problem was the tendency to consider ones off hours as off meaning that not much community work was getting done while crew members were resting 18 hours a day. For the most part the 3 hour system seems preferable.
COMMUNICATIONS
While in Trinidad, Horta and off the coast of Spain and France we used our mobile phones and wifi in harbors for email and weather maps. While offshore, we carried an Iridium satellite telephone, mostly to down load weather gribs and transfer email. To keep the spam from filling our mail box. We have all forgotten what the world was like at the beginning of email when the smallest letter took hours to down load - this is what it will be like for us. To keep the pipe clean of spam, images, logos etc. we sent out a combined email every couple of days and down load an email sent by Raffaella at L design. We called a couple of times while at sea but kept it at a minimum.

WEATHER DATA
Off shore I used Maxsea gribs once a day, down loaded through the Iridium phone, the barameter, and our eyes. In ports I down wifi downloaded NOAA ATLANTIC SURFACE FORCAST, ATLANTIC WIND AND WAVE FORCAST and ATLANTIC 500MB FORCAST maps. While in the Med the Maxsea gribs were useless.

WATER
We left Trinidad with 3 full tanks = 250 liters, plus 2 20 liter cans on the SB rail and 2 20 liter cans ready for abandoning ship in the cockpit locker. Total: 330 liters. We ran the water desalinator once to test it. We consumed : 2.5 liters of water per person from Trinidad to the Azores. From the Azores to Perpignan we had all the water we needed.

FUEL
We left Trinidad with 130 liters in the tank plus 10 20 liter cans in the fore and aft cabins. We consumed .....

MEDICAL
Other than a few rashes, a bit of constipation and a broken inlay we had no chronic sickness. I had one accident when I was hit by the main sail block during an accidental gybe. Nothing was broken, i disinfected and covered the bruises with Homoplasmine, took an Aspirin, slept for 3 hours and forgot about it. We carried an extensive medical chest which we luckily did not use.

FOOD
We carried about 1 kg of food per person per day which turned out to be too much. We had fresh food for the full crossing.

CLOTHES
I carried the following clothes in air tight plastic bags in the clothes locker which I never used :
Foundation garments: Underpants 4 pair, Long under pants shirts 1 pair, Light socks 4 pair, Heavy socks 1 pair, Undershirts cotton 6, Light shirts 2, Heavy shirts 2, Long pants 1, Bandana, Bathing suit; Intermediate layer: Insulation pants, Insulation sweaters 1, Wool sweaters; Outer layer: Musto Gloves: boat and wool, Glove liners, Goggles ski, Boat shoes
My foil weather gear close at hand: Outer layer: Musto Parka and pants, Warm hat, Boots Gortex, Heavy socks 1 pair
I Also had the following items in my bunk locker which i used and washed as needed : Foundation garments: Underpants 2 pair, Long under pants 1 pair, Undershirts cotton 2, Sun hat, Long pants 1, Short pants 2, Belt; Intermediate layer: Insulation sweaters 1, Crooks

BUDGET
The deal was to divide the following costs: Iridium rental and communications; food; cooking gas; fuel; life-raft inspection: charts, yard preparation other that regular upkeep and new installations; harbor fees, taxes, along the trip till final destination; eventual boat and sail repair :
estimated to be about 2000 euros per person. Total common costs came to about 6 250€.
I paid for boat costs, plus fuel costs in for the last leg of the journey.