The Atlantic Crossing

18 days. 18 very long days. We left Los Cristianos in Teneriffe heading south west until we hit the trade winds then due east. The sun came up the sun went down and we kept on heading east.

We were very lucky with the weather. Pretty constant winds around 20kts with only 2 days when the wind died and we motored. When we arrived in St Lucia we spoke to people who had been hit by squalls of 60kts (a gale is around 50kts) which had lasted for 5 hours. Hardly any rain - when it did fall it was a case of standing under the bimini until it passed a couple of minutes later. And the huge seas I was worried about never materialised. Apart from one day we had long rolling waves of 3-4 meters which you hardly noticed.

But it was still bloody awful! And I'm not doing it again. Even in those light conditions the boat rocked and rolled, rocked and rolled. You could just about put up with the rocking but once the rolling set it in it was a challenge doing the simplist of things like brushing your teeth. Making lunch or worse dinner was for heroes and Mark and Hayden (one of our crew) did more than their fair share. I felt queasy for the first 6 days then very average for the rest especially in the galley.

We had 3 crew join us in Gibraltar for the 5 week trip. 5 days to the Canaries, a week in the Canary Islands, 18 days to Barbados, 2 days in Barbados then on to St Lucia. We arrived at the same time as the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) which has been a lot of fun hearing about other passages. One boat lost it's rudder and sank. Another was abandoned. But several hundred made it. The rum parties have left their mark and we are leaving St Lucia tomorrow for a rest before Christmas.

Some photos from the crossing attached. Fishing was a major occupation and we caught around 12 fish - tuna, dorada and one unidentified. They were very expensive fish given the amount of lures, line, etc that they took. We kept a tally and I think it was 18 to the fish for the 12 we actually caught. We also had a mid atlantic stop for swimming and for Hayden to do some kitesurfing on his birthday which was followed by a lamb roast and a couple of bottles of red wine - went to our heads as it was the only alcohol we had on an otherwise dry passage. The other crew were Dave from Chester and his girlfriend Hazel from Bucks. Dave had done a couple of transatlantic crossings before and was our weather and comms man. Hazel's parents have a house on St Lucia so we got expert local knowledge of where to go when we got here - more rum was inevitably involved.

Thats more like it

DODs Portugal

Couple of Photos of new Zenna newly polished and with the canvas work done in Lisbon. Inside is the new generator sadly not visible considering what it cost...

Drama of the Day (DOD)
We have been noticing for some time that each day there is a DOD. This can strike at any time and ranges in severity. There is generally no warning and there are always repercussions.

Yesterday we managed a triple DOD. We were enjoying our first really relaxing day on the boat. We had rounded Capo de Sao Vincent, the most south westerly point in Europe. This meant we were away from the colder NW swell of the west coast of Portugal and were suddenly in an almost Mediterranean climate. The sun was warm, we were anchored in a lovely bay, we even had our first swim of the trip (although still a bit chilly). We took the dingy ashore, wandered around the timeshare town and sat and had a beer in the little bar on the beach.

Coming onto the beach in the dingy had been easy, but the waves were getting bigger, so launching her for our return journey provided hilarious entertainment for the stragglers on the beach. When Mark finally hopped into to boat and we headed off, the applause was audible. DOD we thought (always dangerous). On board we planned to put on the generator, heat the water, have showers, and some supper and, as it was Sunday, watch Gavin and Stacey on video. Although we have the complete set, we only watch the show on Sundays as a bit of a treat. The brand new generator (more about that later) went on. I waited for Mark to come back on deck to help me get the dingy on the boat. But instead a stony face announced there was a problem as no water was getting through to the generator motor. Second DOD. An hour later Mark had fixed the problem, installing a new part in the water pump. Although it was now 9 o’clock (almost our bed time) we decided to have showers before eating. Half an hour later the generator had heated the water enough to attempt a shower. I even managed to get my hair washed but then discovered I couldn’t pump out the shower tray. Third DOD. Mark managed to fix the problem - a hose that was dodgy. Then whilst I made supper, Mark disappeared for his well earned shower. This was shortly followed by yells for a screw driver. The hose had now become detatched and was dispensing all the waste water into the engine room.

So there you have it. An idyllic day cruising.

Frustrating

Doing this blog is proving more difficult than we thought. Will try to upload some photos of Ze nna after her recent work. New canvas and paint/polish on the outside. Looking very good butnot sure how long this will last. Even got a posing spot in the last marina we were in - along with all the super yachts. Felt a bit cheap doing the laundry and hanging it out to dry...

Here´s hoping this works. I have acatually written a huge piece but can´t copy and paste onthis public computer site.

Nope didn´t work. Will try again somewhere else...

Swanick - washing machine at last

Now in Portugal, looking to get more work done on Zenna......will it ever stop! Have WiFi on the boat so we can try and keep in contact more often. Photos to upload now of some highlights of the trip so far.

Beginning of the washing machine episode...will it fit!

Baiona - Northern Spain

We are on the verge of leaving Spàin for Portugal. It´s posed some interesting challenges, not least trying to update this blog when all the instructions are in Spanish!

Hopefully this post will work - sitting in Baiona just north of the border. Zenna is moored near to a replica of the boat Columbus sailed when he discovered America. Baiona is the port he landed in on his return. Inspiring stuff for our next big passage across the Atlantic.

We have given ourselves a couple of weeks holiday in the Spanish Rias - if you ever get the chance think about a visit. Like a succession of mini Sydney harbours with lovely towns, bays, islands and further south the weather in very warm. We have met some people who plan to spend the whole summer here.

We went to Santiago do Compestello - Medieval town with fabulously ornate Cathedral where St James is meant to be incacerated. We had a huge lunch (3 courses and a 1/2 carafe of wine) for Euro 18.50... I think it must have been a pilgrimms rate. We particularly enjoyed the journey from the harbour via the town of Noya. We had to keep asking para noya to check we were going in the right direction. (Paranoia) in case you didn´t get my spanish joke...

But we are off on what looks like a long slog along some very uninteresting Portuguese coastline. So we are relaxing and ´partying´ (if being in bed by 10 pm counts) for the next few days as we think we will be putting in 10/12 hour days to get from port to port. No little bays for shelter. Hoping to be in the Algarve for the end of August and have a short spell in the Med before heading off to the Canary Islands.

Our frantic few weeks in the UK seem a long time ago. But we are still benefitting from all the hard work put in by everyone.

Ian´s scrubbing of the fenders and deck. We use your clean bit to compare if the rest of the deck is improving.
Mhari´s curtains (although I have to confess I haven´t got them up yet)
Tom and Katie´s provisions - still eating those M&S snacks
Karen´s car without which we would not have acheived a tenth of what we did
Iain´s tender inflating (sounds rather rude) and our tender line - all still in place amazingly
Phil´s cleaning of the anchors and most importantly the cabin hatch
Ann´s provisions, cleaning of the cooker (I´ve bought brillos now) and the all important catches on the guard rails
And of course Anchormans white paint marks on the anchor line. I think of you everytime Geoff.

Will post some photo´s of the close shave washing machine episode. I have now used it several times with great results. Hard to believe it was the hardest thing to sort out before we left. Who´d have thought 5mm would have meant so much work - taking out the entire hatch and even then not being sure it would fit. Phil´s whoops of joy as it passed through the hatch with no space to spare are etched in our minds. It´s the closest I´ve come to giving birth to anything and I´m sure it was almost as painful.

We are dressing up tonight as we are at Monte Real Club de Yates and are off for a pre dinner drink at the club. We may even try to stay up to see the restaurants open for dinner at 9pm... who knows spanish time may suit us soon.

Dover Marina, Costa del Kent

Dover castle - the view from Zenna.

Been here almost 3 weeks - just about finished cleaning, but we say that every day.

Leaving for Gosport on Monday 22 June to get the rigging done and Mark is doing his Marine Radio course there.

Still on schedule to leave mid to end July. Crossing the Bay of Biscay towards Portugal.

Still hoping to catch up with everyone at Nigel's, Julia's and Brian and Liz's.

Zenna

MandM Cruising

Watch this space