Day 8, Atlantic Crossing

1230Z 25DEC18, Day 8, Atlantic Crossing. Merry Christmas!!! The winds have been up and down. Yesterday we sailed with the asymmetric throughout the day. We swapped it for the genoa for the night because the winds were pushing 20kts around sunset. However, after dark the winds fell back down and have largely been 10-15kts. It's all fine as the seas are very mild and easy. We just go slower without the asymmetric up in these conditions. After sunrise, the winds were back to 15kts more consistently, so we have picked up some speed. We are broad reaching making a westerly course.

Current Position: 18 02.7N 030 42.5W
24 hour progress: 123nm, 5.1kts avg SOG, 1134nm total progress, approximately 1700nm to go. Another lovely weather day.

Christmas Eve afternoon saw us baking some cookies. Dinner was left overs as the baking encroached into dinner preparation time, but the food was delicious especially with sweet potato muffins and Christmas cookies. We exchanged gifts (as is our tradition) in the evening. Gifts were minor as the sailing adventure and all of our travel experiences are the real gift. There is, however, a new swing for the boat that everyone is excited about and that has been tried out in the cockpit this morning.

Christmas morning included LEGO sets from Santa and treats in stockings (which were the kids oversized socks that we bought when we went up to the snow on Mount Etna). Fishing line is out and the day is off to a good start.

Merry Christmas everyone from the Zephyros Crew!!!

Day 7, Atlantic Crossing

1230Z 24DEC18, Day 7, Atlantic Crossing. Christmas Eve and 1 full week at sea! Yesterday afternoon the winds continued to drop and hung around 5-10kts before falling below 5kts after dark. We really tried to keep sailing, which was rather slow, but in the end our batteries needed a charge and we turned on the motor just before 2200Z. We were back to sailing around 0730Z this morning. We are sailing a reach with the asymmetric and full main in 10-12kts true wind and making good speed again on a course of 265T.

Current Position: 18 17.4N 028 35.6W
24 hour progress: 107nm, 4.5kts avg SOG, 1011nm total progress, approximately 1820nm to go. Yesterday was a very grey day, but today is warm and sunny.

Yesterday was an eventful day - we all swam in the ocean! There was a baking disaster with butter, sugar and egg everywhere! Then there was a successful baking attempt for take 2 without further incident.

We had very little wind for a large part of the day which allowed us to bring in the sail, put a line out with fenders and jump off the bow. Everyone took a turn and the water was quite pleasant, around 72F. We tried to keep sailing but by nighttime our batteries were too low and the wind fell to 3kts so we motored for about 10 hours rather than bobbing in the dark like a discarded cork.

While it was disappointing that we needed to turn on the engine: we have the fuel, we just didn't have the wind, and the batteries needed a charge. Everything else is good and everyone is in high Christmas spirits. No real change on the refrigerator, we run it, give it breaks, and keep an eye on it.

Merry Christmas!!!

Day 6, Atlantic Crossing

1230Z 23DEC18, Day 6, Atlantic Crossing. The winds have been around 10-15kts, but continue to drop. We put up the asymmetric spinnaker yesterday afternoon. In the late afternoon we gybed west. We brought down the main overnight and are now sailing downwind on the asymmetric alone, making a westerly course and 3-5kts.

Current Position: 18 29.9N 026 45.5W
24 hour progress: 123nm, 5.1kts avg SOG, 904nm total progress, approximately 1925nm to go. Clouds and haze rolled in yesterday so it was a starless night and it is a very grey day.

While our progress has slowed we are still sailing and the engine has not been on at all since leaving La Gomera. Everyone is doing well though a bit tired, even the kids. Our refrigerator continues to need to be triaged but is staying cold thanks to Jon's continued work and oversight. The next 24 hours or so will likely be slow forward progress for Zephyros. We will see how many baking projects we can tackle to boost morale.

We can see comments to the blog; we just can't reply to them. Dad, we are still thinking 18-20 days is very possible but too early to say how probable.

Day 5, Atlantic Crossing

1230Z 22DEC18, Day 5, Atlantic Crossing. The winds have continued to hold about 15-20kts with comfortable seas. We continue to sail a broad reach with 2 reefs in the main and full jib. We haven't touched the sails at all the last 48 hours! We have been making a course over ground between 200-230T.

Current Position: 18 45.4N 024 51.2W
24 hour progress: 143nm, 6kts avg SOG, 781nm total progress, approximately 2035nm to go. Weather continues to be warm and sunny with some scattered clouds and some haze overnight.

We continue to make good time and are all doing fine. Our refrigerator is getting cold again, and we have decided to press on towards the Caribbean without a stop in the Cape Verdes. We plan to make our second turn west around 18 15N, later today. We are hoping to stay in wind but it looks like the 23rd & 24th will be light winds. We figure that is ok and plan to make the most of it, but are optimistically hoping that comes with calm seas (not confused or rolly seas).

Yesterday we snagged a small Mahi Mahi, but he jumped off the line before we got him aboard. Then around noon today we caught and landed another Mahi Mahi - so off to get sushi ready for lunch. Otherwise things have been rather uneventful.

Day 4, Atlantic Crossing

1230Z 21DEC18, Day 4, Atlantic Crossing. The winds settled a bit yesterday afternoon but have come back up some. We continue to sail a broad reach with 2 reefs in the main and full jib. We continue to watch the weather and are analyzing when to turn west again. We have been making a course over ground between 200-230T.

Current Position: 20 47.2N 023 33.4W
24 hour progress: 160nm, 6.7kts avg SOG, 638nm total progress, approximately 2120nm to go along the great circle route from our current position to the Caribbean (but we are still pushing south which ultimately adds miles but keeps us in better wind). Weather continues to be warm and sunny with the temperature slowly rising, yesterday afternoon we started seeing some clouds in the skies and today we have high wispy clouds.

The sea state has been variable, calming when the winds are calmer and a little larger swell when the winds are a bit higher. It is still comfortable enough and we managed to clean the kitchen at a relatively more gentle time yesterday. Cooking dinner was again a full contact sport. We still expect to continue in similar conditions for a couple of days and then have a bit of slower progress just before and around Christmas.

We continue to make good time and are all doing fine. Our refrigerator is acting up - Jon worked on it some this morning and perhaps it is starting to work properly again. We are considering whether we should go to the Cape Verdes as the winds are pushing us close anyway. The question is whether we can fix it there or just triage it, like Jon is already doing aboard. For now we continue to use it as a large cooler, limit opening it, and hope our fresh meat that was solidly frozen continues to last. If/when it goes, we still have plenty of food - but we will be on potatoes, pastas and rice dishes with canned meat (tuna and chicken), and any fresh fish we may catch. Perfectly liveable but annoying. Unfortunately this refrigerator unit has been an issue and source of continued frustrations for different reasons over our 15 months onboard. Life on a boat!

Day 3, Atlantic Crossing

1230Z 20DEC18, Day 3, Atlantic Crossing. The winds have been sitting around 25kts +/- 5kts. We continue to sail a broad reach. We put a second reef in the main yesterday afternoon but continue to have the full jib out. This morning around 0820 we gybed back to the south. There is a high pressure that is pushing into the trade winds and we want to stay south of it and continue to be able to reach in the trade winds. Also the winds had started to shift more easterly which made our course about 290T and now that we gybed we are heading around 225T.

Current Position: 23 08.1N 022 17.5W
24 hour progress: 174nm!, 7.25kts avg SOG!, 478nm total progress, approximately 2210nm to go along the great circle route from our current position to the Caribbean (but we are pushing south which ultimately adds miles but keeps us in better wind). Weather continues to be warm and sunny though it is a bit hazy today.

The sea state increased due to the winds sitting around 25kts. It is still comfortable enough and we are all sleeping well. However, cleaning up and cooking has become a bit of a contact sport, and the occasional big wave from a slightly different direction makes sure you are holding on. Zephyros is sailing great and we have a new 24 hour sailing record for mileage and speed average! We expect to continue in similar conditions for a couple of days and then everything should settled down to give us some calmer days around Christmas.

The last 24 hours have been speedy but quiet. Our morning featured a visit from a large pod of spotted dolphins. The little guys didn't stay too long, but they put on a good acrobatic show. We have also seen a lone seagull. No fish, no other boat sightings.

Day 2, Atlantic Crossing

1230Z 19DEC18, Day 2, Atlantic Crossing. We have continued to sail with winds largely 15-20 kts. In the early morning hours we started seeing some gusts up to 25 and more recently closer to 30 kts. Things remain rather comfortable and we have been making good speed and progress south. After daylight, just after 9am, we decided to gybe which makes our course westerly. We may need to gybe south again at some point to stay in the trade winds, but we should be able to make some progress west for awhile. We are continuing to sail a broad reach. We reefed the main around 0940 when gusts built above 25 kts. We've made a general course of 200T and then 260T after the gybe.

Current Position: 23 46.6N 019 26.0W
24 hour progress: 154nm, 6.4kts avg SOG, 304nm total progress, approximately 2370nm to go along the great circle route from our current position to the Caribbean (we may still push further south of the great circle to stay in better wind). Current weather is warm and sunny, each day has gotten a little warmer.

The conditions continue to be pretty easy and we are excited to have maintained such good average speeds - 2 days in a row of 100% sailing and 150+nm days is a new Zephyros record. Jon and I both slept pretty deeply last night so today will hopefully include catching a bit of extra sleep as we settle into the watch schedule.

Yesterday, after sending out our update we had an exciting couple of hours. We saw a wooden pallet floating in front of us. As we came past it, we saw that there was a sea turtle swimming next to it. I was hoping the turtle wouldn't grab our fishing lure when I saw that our line had already caught a fish! We all also saw more fish under the pallet (confirming why we don't put 2 lines in - maybe if we get low on food we will consider it though). We all got excited and set to work. The fish was clearly colorful which meant we had caught a Mahi Mahi!!! Also at the same time as all this was going on we were at our closest point of approach with our sailboat companion that had showed up yesterday morning plus a new cargo ship, that we had also been tracking and watching. This ship was getting ready to pass us on a reciprocal course, fairly closely. Everyone did a great job with Ronan standing watch and lookout while Jon filleted the fish. I cleaned up the morning dishes and got the sushi rice going and Daxton helped bring the fish inside and helped with the kitchen clean up.

By 1530 everything had settled down, we all had eaten a good sized portion of Mahi poke and we haven't seen another vessel close to us since. In fact, we lost sight and contact with the other sailboat later in the afternoon and haven't seen any other contacts at all. Basically all the major excitement of the day occurred in a 15-30 minute period.

The Mahi Mahi was a good size and we had a delicious lunch and dinner out of it. The cats are still not interested though and continue to demand their dry food. Other excitement of the day was that the boys finished up creating our passage bingo chart and we already have 5 squares marked off (underway - which is the free space, sea turtle, 150nm sail day, catch a fish and trade wind turn). We are hoping to get a blackout bingo by the end of the passage.