Unfortunately we were not in the mood of either photographing or shooting videos in the stormiest part of the crossing as we had hard to eat, sleep or anything else for that matter, plus the cameras we got are non waterproof and as both the deck and the cockpit constantly got washed over with waves that made it hard too. Poor Alex could barely sleep for the whole last seven days, he was constantly worried for me. During my watches he woke up every 15 minutes checking: "do you have your lifejacket on?" "are you sure you're fasten in the clip?" "don't you go out of the cockpit whatever you do!!" I think that he might have been the slightly happier one of us two when we finally could see land on the morning of the 25th day. Finally proper sleep in sight.

Either way, on the last week of that ocean passage we came to realize that an ocean crossing could bring not only good and positive feelings, but also a lot of inner speculations and retrospective confrontations which one hadn't had the time to reflect upon when we've been busy running around on land in that typical wheal we all know of. One day it was like our brains opened up and we began to reflect upon millions of things which gave us reasons to discuss and discuss and analyze our lives over and over again. Nothing bad for the relationship or anything else for that matter, it was just things in our individual pasts, about our life stories, about things we've done, things we hadn't done etc which we might not have fully made peace with. We're extremely happy to have gone through it all on that lonely ocean though, especially with each other's support during those dark and cold days and nights as one most possibly would have gone totally crazy in case any of us would have done this crossing alone. This trip was more needed for us as partners but also for us as individuals than we could have ever imagined beforehand.

As we were so late in time to cross that damn ocean, we were quite sure to get good help by the established tradewinds for our passage. We couldn't have been more wrong. There was no wind for half of the time and for one full week, the last week, we had loads of more wind waves and rain than we've ever heard of anyone experiencing during their Atlantic crossing. We had imagined the max wind speed to be around 25 knots as many books and people informed us so, but when having had to dealt with near gale, +30 knots plus loads of gusts up to 46 knots, for almost a week, we were quite sure that this wasn't no longer a typical Atlantic passage. Were we scared sometimes, people ask us? Yes we were, or at least I was at a few minutes here and there, not maybe for our lives too much as I trust in the safety equipment, life raft, my destiny etc but much more for the boat, our home. It is a terrible feeling having to hear the rigging screaming and shaking like the shrouds would fall down any second, or experiencing your home banging from one side to another while you're getting 6 meter (19 foot) waves covering the whole boat over and over and almost knocking you down from the beam. There were moments where you thought you had it all under control and others when you simply said, this is it, it is all up to the nature now.  Imagine yourself putting all of your most precious belongings into one container and then trow it into an enormous washing machine and all you can do is to hope for the best. Obviously it is a bit stressful.

Of course it wasn't that bad every day. Many days were the total contrary of what I just described and we had loads of fun - fishing, cooking, discussing life and its wonders, reading, baking, making plans for our future and even dancing - but what I will remember the most will definitely be those nights of inner contemplations and hourly sessions of therapy conversations along with the stormy days and nights and those tremendous waves we surfed upon. Waves which I never seen in my life before except in movies and youtube clips. Waves almost as tall as our mast for christ sake - and all of those memories which at the time for their appearance might have been quite painful, have now turned into something extremely positive. I will always remember it all as something to be proud and happy for, glad that we were strong and confident enough to go it all through. It might have been hard and quite painful at many occasions both mentally and physically, but the strong feeling of proudness and the reward we got which was to finally arrive in the Caribbean and establish a new sort of life here, and from time to time being able to look at our boat and each other and say we made it - is much stronger than any pain we felt out there on the ocean. 25 days is a pretty long time if you think of it from one perspective, but such a very short period in comparison to how many days we'll be able to enjoy what we came here for. 

It also felt extremely good to be up in that airplane the other day, it gave me another perspective to what we've just gone through and a warm feeling of thankfulness and proudness washed over me once again when I looked down from above, 10.000 miles over those waves which we just had been fighting with. /Taru

It has been quite a busy year for me, therefore the lack of writings from my part. They are quite a high maintenance both my woman and the boat and most of these last fifteen months has meant to make these two women of my life happy and ready for this journey we have now embarked on. Finally I can see a little bit of relief on both the maintenance and stress and we all look forward to get some well deserved vacation once we get to the Caribbean.

I want to share with you my toerail to toerail rolling dish even though I am sure most of you sailors already are familiar with it. Some days at sea are just not meant for gourmet cookings as the 15 foot following seas and strong winds doesn't allow you to much more than boiling pasta opening a can ... you got the picture. This is how you do it.

Boil pasta, panfry one can of corned beef, add fried and dry onions, mix all together and enjoy. This is very good. If you ask Taru she maybe will say that the smell and consistence of corned beef reminds her of the smell and consistence of cat food coming from cans with obscure names like "pussy" or "mjau" but who said life on sea always should be easy? Bon Appétit. 

Alex

Back on track. I fell asleep after that philosophy session we had the other night and slept all those hours I missed in the last two weeks. Man, that was some good sleep. Although extremely rolly and bouncy (25 knots of wind here now for the last 15 hours). Alex woke me up today around lunch and said: "Baby, get up now, you're boring when you're sleeping - let's make some corned beef and pasta!" That must seriously have been the most hilarious thing I've ever heard in a similar kind of situation. Just woke up after dreaming of dinosaurs, this blog, christianity and all kinds of other strange stuff and when I wake up I see my man in front of me asking for corned beef. Ha!! It made my day and also it somehow made me realize, once again, how amusingly disturbed this world is with all its paradoxes. What to worry about when you have love and corned beef, eh? 

Now 1359 nm left to Barbados. If we keep up with this tempo we will be there in no time. 135 nm made today and finally finally we're inside of that much longed for tradewind belt.

/Taru

If we weren’t confused before this trip we certainly may become. Our discussions in the dark, moonless nights consists of topics such as: was there human beings in the times of the dinosaurs and did they try fighting them? what exactly is the consistence of the lava inside of our world and is the lava really neccesary to keep the world in motion? Does all planets have this type of burning substance within them? Why do you think religions were founded, besides of making money and keeping people in order and under control? Why are some of the stars above us more lit than others? If love is the strongest of powers, why aren’t the world a better place and what would happen to the world and it’s citizens if, hypotetically, all the value of money and trade was gone? Would it even be possible to survive and what would be the strongest forces then in war, politics, international relations and over all in the world? Those things wouldn’t even had to exist?

We might think we have came to a whole lot of conclusions but I fear that it all just’ve made us even more puzzled. Dangerous topics to even begin with as one might as well realize that nothing really makes sense in the end. Who are we to question such fundamental things anyway: two people in love, sailing on a boat towards what they believe is right and easily avoiding everything which aren’t, utterly convinced that they found the right religion and faith already. Our contemplations would probably not make much difference in the end and that is more or less how our midnight discussions ends, most of the times. We always end up saying: ah, fuck it, we don’t get anywhere with this so what’s the point? Let’s focus on our own happiness instead. And so we do. Going to bed, feeling happy and content that we at least have a free will and the possibility to think, act, feel, reflect and question all by our selves without too much of influence by any God, norms made by the society, other peoples values and opinions and so on. That’s what must count the most in the end and that is, I believe, what makes us feel so endlessly much more for this beautiful thing called life.

Now: 1580 nm to Barbados. /Taru

It was a Mahi Mahi of course. I had it grilled with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Served it with basmati rice cooked in garlic and coriander. Delicious!

Some stats of today:

1899 nm to go to Martinique. 

Position: N 14°02. W 28°42.

Water temp: 30°. I'm soon in. 

Amount of fish caught so far: 1 only! Catastrophe.

Knots of wind in this very moment: 5-7. Engine on. We can see some stronger tradewinds on the grib a bit further West and we have around 200 nm to go to be able to pick them up. Hoping this will be the end of motoring for this journey. 

Amount of flying fish landed on deck: 1

Squalls encountered so far on this crossing: 5? 6? Luckily we got stuck in a big one last night which gave us some good speed forward for a couple of hours. And it also gave a good wash of the teak, thank you weather gods for that one.

And that would be all for now. Don't forget to check out our position and route on the Spotwalla website. /T

I was speaking a bit too fast. Just when I had uploaded last post for you with the information of that we will not have to stop in Cape Verde, Alex came down to show me his new discovery from the new grib file. Now the trades seemed to have died out and the further down South we would get, the lighter winds would we encounter. And would we make a turn to the West now, the trades and some stronger winds would equally not appear for at least the next five-six days or so. 5 knots of wind where it was supposed to be established tradewinds for weeks ago? And how is it possible that the whole goddamn ocean is dead calm in every reachable direction of our route? The tradewinds are conspiring against us! Not much else to do than reroute, make that annoying turn back to the East and refuel in Cape Verde. We really had romanticized a picture of making this crossing in around 20 days and we were so happy to have waited until January for the trades to have the time to fully establish, but obviously they are still not at all in balance and once again we're getting hold back by higher forces. The elements does what they want in the end, and we are just a couple of people sailing on a small sailing vessel, desperately waiting for the right winds to arrive. 

So next stop Mindelo, Cape Verde tonight and we'll be leaving from there with full fuel tanks and perhaps some fresh vegetables in the early morning of tomorrow Tuesday. Seems like we'll then have to motor our way from there a bit further down SW for at least a day or two and then, yeah then we might be in the belt of some favorable trades for the last leg towards the West.

Alex is fishing now for the first time on this trip. Sushi for lunch would be nice. Wish him luck. /Taru

Rain is gone. Although it took around 15 hours to get rid of. Fantastic how different the world can appear in different lights. We are now definitely in the tropics, with a position of N 19.20° W 24.55°, and finally have those warm nights arrived, making the watches much easier to go through. I'm thinking by the way of having a swim in the deep blue sea very soon as the heat is quite unbearable at times. Alex tells me there might be sharks and tries to scare me but I don't intend letting either him or the movie "The Reef" stand in between me and my mid Atlantic dive, for there can't be sharks in the middle of the deep Atlantic ocean, can there? And if there is, how great would the risk be to have a hungry one just around our boat when I dive in? The Reef was by the way a good movie, thanks for the tips whoever that was of our dear readers suggesting us to see it. A bit frustrating though to watch people taking such stupid decisions like the ones taken in the movie.

No flying fishes here yet as far as I am concerned, only a very strange fish swimming along with us next to the hull of our boat, just like a dog or some other type of pet following it's owner. Please let me know if anyone can identify this weird animal. Is it eatable?

We have now been out here for seven days and only two ships have we met. Definitely thought there would be a bit more traffic around here, although we do not mind the loneliness at all. Feels good to have the ocean all to ourselves. Definitely better for the tan as well, as we're able to be naked as much as we want to without curious eyes watching. Speaking of tan, the tone of my skin is slowly turning into something reminiscent of raisins, I might look like an old, dry grapefruit when we're done with this passage although everything is better than the pale white winter look I was sporting earlier.

Although we were earlier convinced that we had found those tradewinds, they quickly died out on us after a few days. It's been some slow and frustrating last 24 hours here with ultra light winds and terribly uncomfortable rolling seas. I can't believe I once was dreaming of dead calm mid Atlantic days, they are the worst to ever have to encounter. Especially when we've decided to not make a stop in Cape Verde to refuel. Will the fuel last all the way to the West Indies is the question of the day. Or no, that is actually not a question any longer, it just has to last as we do not have other options any longer. We're now heading further down SW to catch up with the established trades which we've found on the grib-files and we're having some 300 nm to go before we can turn completely to the West.

I can by the way see that we have +200 new friend requests on Facebook, unfortunately we can't accept them from here so bare with us for two more weeks, will you. Also we're sorry that we can't answer much emails and comments from the sea, will take care of it all when we're back on normal Wifi connection again.

/Taru

Our gennaker/cruising chute have graciously carried us over the ocean in lighter winds in a comfortable and non rolling fashion for the last few days. It is quite impressive thinking that this little piece of nylon of just a few kilos is able to carry our heavy (8,5 tons) ship in such a smooth and relatively fast ride.

We have by the way rediscovered how wonderful it is to actually have the time to just be and enjoy the moment without having millions of projects, schedules and appointments breathing down ones neck so we have decided to postpone our Panama Canal transit and the South Pacific tour until next season and instead we'll be staying around to discover the best of the Caribbean islands and Central American countries for at least the next 6-10 months. We're feeling much content with this decision for now and we are also looking much forward to reevaluate some of the interesting invitations and collaboration proposals we've received in the last couple of months concerning this mentioned area of the world.

Definitely on our must-visit-list besides all the beautiful Caribbean islands are: Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras and more.

Consider the Caribbean Sea as our new home for 2011.

Some statistics of the first 72 hours of this Atlantic passage:

Total route to make: 2850 Gran Canaria-Martinique

Sailed of the actual route so far: 310 nm (total sailed: approx. 360 nm)

Engine used: 18 hours.

Average speed the last 24 hours: 5,3 knots over ground.

If we keep on with the speed of the last 24 hours, we will soon get up in an average distance on 130 nm/day. Hoping that the tradewind is fully established with stronger winds the more SW we get and that the conditions will stay at least like the one of today. We haven't really had the need of using the engine since Monday night thankfully but we'll need to get in on later tonight to top up the batteries and for using the watermaker for an hour or two.

The weather is excellent, it's very very hot in the days with a warm sun and no clouds as far as my eyes can see, the water is crystal clear with a beautiful indigo tone. Seen tons of dolphins. The nights are still terribly cold though and I need one sleeping bag and thick jacket in the night to keep myself warm during night watches. Routines are working good otherwise. We start our night watches at 10pm and switch every second hour until 10am the morning after. We both get 3x2 hours of sleep and equally 6 hours divided by three times of watch. This is what have worked best for us since we started to sail over-night passages together in the winter of 2009.

It feels like the sea is totally ours out here as we haven't encountered almost no other ships or yachts. Last night we saw one cargo ship and otherwise there hasn't been anything else in our close surroundings for the last two days and nights. We've seen a couple of more cargo ships on the AIS but none of them has been in closer distance for us to see them with bare eyes.

It is a strange feeling to be so many hours in total peace and quietness. In a positive way I mean. No phones, Internet, people or anything to disturb the tranquility and it gives us time to reflect and to talk about things and happenings we usually don't have the time or space for. Very interesting also what type of feelings, thoughts and memories this total peace brings with it. It has struck me how much there is inside of us to discover and/or rediscover and that can best be obtained when one cuts off the normal life in a way like this. I love the whole idea of being away from it all for a while and I'm looking forward to what more my brain will encounter during these next 19-20 days on the ocean. Also we're very happy to be just the two of us, far away from all the stress we had filled our lives with from the day one we met for 15 months ago until the very day we left for this crossing. /Taru

Hi there!

I hope you all are fine. We are. We've started to get used to this rolling now which probably is a good sign. It's been terrible little wind until now and we haven't made as much progress as we wanted to but we do hope to catch some stronger winds when we get more to the SW. Hopefully tomorrow. Wind direction has changed at least, NE now although very light, between 5-10 knots most of the times. Added to that there is a mixed swell coming from both E and N so that in total makes for a rolly ride unfortunately. One good thing is that it gets hotter and hotter for each day and we are very close to approach the tropical latitudes of the earth and today the thermometer showed above 28°C degrees already, just what we've been waiting for. It was a delightful sound to hear that Bacardi Breezer bottle(s) popping up under the warm sun earlier today. Alex was complaining: "You're drinking like a man". "Well, someone has to do it", I replied and enjoyed getting a bit tipsy three o clock in the afternoon with the beautiful navy blue water sparkling around us from every direction I turned my head. No land in sight and it will so continue for the next three weeks. Aaah those simple yet beautiful things in life. This is freedom! Then the dolphins came, the first ones we encountered on this trip. Around 30 bottle-nosed creatures jumped around us for half an hour or so.

According to our chart plotter, we have now 2653 nm left before we arrive to Martinique. That divided by an average speed of 130 nm/day (which we hope to establish very soon) would make it approx. 20 more days to go and we still think we will be able to get over to le Caribe before the 7th of Feb but we might also be one or two days delayed if the wind keeps on blowing with such a light force as it does right now.

Just like I said earlier, we are ultimately happy to not had to have used the autopilot at all, as the Sailomat windvane works fantastically also in very light winds. We have started to produce some water as well with the Power survivor and that too works just as fine and it is such great news to be able to top up the water tank whenever its starting to dry out. Shower at least every second day=paradise on the sea. And tomorrow my sprouted beans should be ready to eat, good now when we start to run out on the most of the other fresh stuff. Still a lot of fruits left though. Fishing we haven't even got started with as yet, maybe tomorrow when the meat is gone from the fridge.

Is the Spotwalla tracker working by the way? I hope so that you all can follow our (slow) ride across the Atlantic. And pray for us to get some more winds, will you. Find our position on the link to the right.

FYI: we can't answer any comments as it is from the sea, we'll take care of it all when we get to faster connection. /Taru

Not much news from here. Wind died out last night so we had to motor for a couple of hours, very frustrating. Early in the morning it picked up again and we have now been sailing with wind coming from the SE and a wind speed of 10-15 knots for the last 10 hours. We're cruising slowly towards Cape Verde and having some 650 nm left to go South before we can turn to the West and towards the Caribbean. We're not doing much at the moment. Eating, sleeping, reading and trying to get used to being on the sea again. We are btw so very happy with our Sailomat windvane, it works totally flawless. /Taru