After two wonderful weeks on the small island of Ascension in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, we are on our way again towards the Caribbean. We have to sail 3.100 nautical miles across the Atlantic until we can walk on land again. Our longest passage so far.
A few days before we left Ascension the provisioning vessel RMS St. Helena came in and we were able to buy some fresh fruits and vegetables, even though the prices are very high. And on Green Mountain we were allowed to pick a bunch of bananas, which are growing there wild by now.
Another four boats are sailing the same route and we hope to have fair winds to sail across the equator again, were there usually is not a lot of wind or none at all - or sometimes too much in thundery sqalls. First we sail towards the west to get close to the coast of Brazil, where we hope the wind will be better, and then turn towards the north hoping to catch the Guyana current. This should be the way to go! In the meantime we already sailed for 1.200 nm and in the last two days observed lots of sea birds. Yesterday we were even visited by a group of spotted dolphins, our first ones. Tomorrow we reach a low pressure area with lots of rain, but we hope the rain will at least clean our salty deck. Hopefully there will not be any thunderstorms which are regularly in the regions around the equator. Another sailing boat had a strong squall a few days ago with up to 45 knots and their main sail ripped. Such strong squalls happen often and we will take care to look out for them. Better to reef the sails one time too often, because our sails aren't in the best condition anymore due to UV damage - but they should last until we reach Panama.
Watch out for short daily updates at "current position" (link at the right column).
>>planned route - join us ...