Day 22 at sea

Days passes fast. You probably won't believe this to be so - but you get into a routine,
Do your daily chores, have your meals, read books, chat on the radio, read mails, check and plan the sail for the coming days etc. We have lots of time to think and talk about politics and the time ahead.

We really look forward to come home to meet our new grandson Tobias and the rest of our family.
Hopefully the Corona restrictions will be a little lighter by the time we arrive Farsund and we can travel to see our family.

We are now getting close to Horta. We have 220 nautical miles left.
With 5 knot speed we will be there Wednesday (27. May) in the afternoon/evening.

But the downside is, we will have wind from the north on Wednesday that will slow us down.
So chances are we won't arrive until in the morning on Thursday.

The past 48 hours wind has been very light and from E to SE and we have had to motor sail
to keep the speed above 5 knots. We have to run the engine at low speed not to burn too much diesel.
We now have 90+ liters left in the tank - which should be enough to reach Horta.
We look forward to arrive, anchor and get some good rest.

We have prepared a long shopping list for various foods & provisions.
Fresh bread and meats is on the top of our list + cold beer ;)

The Azores is officially closed for tourists. But Horta and the capital Punta Delgada have adapted to have made facilities in order to serve arriving yachts that has crossed the Atlantic. We will not be allowed to go ashore.
But we can come alongside the fuel pontoon to fill our diesel and water tanks.
We will order food/provisions from a local store which will be deliver to us at the anchorage.
They even can bring take-away food - if we would want that.

Running on motor in light winds makes things a little difficult to use our SSB radio.
The radio interferes with the autopilot - and Grete hand steers while Geir is on the air - checking in on sailers radio network or sending/receiving emails.

Having email capability is very nice, as it makes a long crossing less boring and also lets us receive weather data
from friends and weather service agencies. We even get an ocational news letter - that our daughter Synne compiles.

Will write more and update the blog with pictures when we arrive in Horta. We will be online via our mobiles/4G from there.

Kind regards to you all
Grete & Geir

Day 17 - at sea

Our voyage is turning out to be a long one.
We are having to dodge a weathersystem with high winds.
We are at 31N and the weather system is passing to the north of us.
We have had nice sailing wind the past 20 hrs. and it looks as it will continue like this for
at least another 24 hrs. We have approx 870nm left to Horta. ETA is now 28. May.

We have been in company with S/Y Fathom. A 28 foot UK sailboat also bound for Horta.
He was very low on diesel and we gave him 20L. The transfere was easy as we had 2 empty 25 liter cans. 10L in each and a rope between them and over the side. Thom on Fathom fished them out with his boat-hook.

Grete ready to drop the diesel cans.

Thom fishing out the cans.

Thom is on the way home to Yarmouth harbor on the Isle of Wight - returning from a 4 year trip around the world.

This morning we were passed by a large norwegian LNG (gas) tanker.
She was M/T Arctic Princess under way to USA to load LNG for Europe.
Normally they are on contract with Equinor and transport LNG from Snøhvit/Malkøya gass terminal ved Hammerfest.

The mate we talked to on the VHF was a sailer aswell and his boat was in a marina in Grenada.
He was very frustrated with the fact that Grenada is closed by the Covid-19 restrictions - and he can't get to his boat.

We are both well, boat is all OK - but we look forward to reach Horta.

Still on 14.328 SSB/CW at 1900Z and 2130Z - and condx to N.Europe been very good.

Grete & Geir

Day 14 - at sea :)

Time for another update on our voyage.

First of all Congratulations to all Norwegians. May 17th is our independence day.
Normally a day of celebration with friends and family, parades and parties.
But as so much more the pandemic problem has made that most arrangements have had to be cancelled.

However, people was asked to sing our national anthem in unison at 13:02 Norwegian time.
We on Ocean Viking did the same ( at 08:02 our local time) - on the aft deck.

We have a video to proove it ;) But its too large to upload from out here at sea.

We have had various weather.
But sadly not the perfect wind that has given us the speed we had hoped for.
We had a strategy staying below 30 degrees North. That made us sail towards the east for a while. But sadly the wind died late in the evening and we found ourselves rocking around in swell/confusing seas with no speed and a consecuence of that, no steering speed. All sails down, engine started and we finally managed to point the boat in the right direction and the autopilot took care of the rest.

The day after we decided to sail above 30N - to put us in a better position for change in the wind direction.
This morning the wind swung around from the East to South West and increased to 15 knots.
We are now sailing happily doing 6 knots.Looks like we will have this wind for a few days.
We are steering 080 degrees - towards the Azores.
Distance to our destination, Horta, is now 1000 nm and we hope to arrive by the 27.05 (Geirs birthday).

We both go to sleep at night.
We take turn in waking up to check, sails, speed/course and for any eventual traffic in the area.
We have radar with a guard ring and an AIS system. They will warn us if any conflicting traffic.
Out in the ocean you don't see much traffic. On average 3-5 ships a week.
Those that come close know what they are doing and they always keep a safe distance to us.

Grete baked bread and bread rolls the other day. The smell of freshly baked bread is so nice when you are out to sea. They were eaten with good layers of butter and jam ;)

The radio connection on amateur radio to Norway has been very good the past days.
It's so nice to hear the familiar voices of old ham friends ;) I am on the air every day
at 1900Z and 2130Z on 14328. I am listening for calls on both SSB and CW.

Radio sked times + more

Days are passing pretty fast out here. Keeping an eye out for the weather and adjusting sails
and our Hydrovane steering keeps us occupied.

The Hydrovane is a fantastic gadget.
It is a complete independent rudder which is controlled by the wind/direction.
As long as the winddirection is constant the rudder steers the boat at a steady heading.
If the wind changes a few degrees we wills till maintain speed as the windangle into the sails
will still be the same. So we need to keep an eye of our heading once in a while.

We now have around 1450 nautical miles left to reach Horta on the Azores.
The weather outlook looks promissing and we hope to arrive before may 25th.
Our position can be found on winlink.org - look at the links at top of this blog.

I am on the air from the boat on HAM radio on frequency 14.328 every day
at 1900 and 2130 UTC . Please feel free to give me a call.

73's Geir - LA5ZO/MM

Days 5 at sea - and more

Time for an update.

We are now well into day 5 of our 3 week crossing to Horta in the Azores.
The weather has been fine, although we would have liked a more SW wind direction.
Wind has in general been from E-SE between 10 to 15 knots. That gives us only a max speed of 5-6 knots and average around 4 knots.
We are on a course of 030 to 040 degrees sailing up to a waypoint
at 25N and 55W. Here we are hoping to find better winds, we might have to go even a little further up north. If we get too far north there is risk of running into gales, so we are watching the forecasts carefully.

Days go by by reading, Ham radio and navigation/weather for Geir.
Grete spends much of her time reading and cooking dinners. She even baked a large pan of Foccatia bread which tasted great.

Been seaching the radio for english news stations. But it looks like they have all closed down and moved to the internet. Our daughter, Synne, has started compiling news into emails, something we are very greatfull for.

It is still very hot onboard. Air temperature is 28-30 degrees and the sea 26C - that means we are being heated from all sides :)
We are sweatting all day and constantly feel like having a shower. But we have to conserve our fresh water supply as we have no water-maker. When we start to smell too bad, we have a quick rinse with soap and water - and it feels fantastic.

As mentioned above, Geir spends much of his time on the radio. Checks in on different Sail/Cruiser nets on shortwave where you can talk to other sailboats under way and get weather reports etc.
He also talk to fellow radio amateurs all over the world. Last night a long chat with Ross (ZL1WN), a friendly guy in New Zeeland, and with Mike (KX4WC/AM) who was a pilot of an airliner flying from Philadelphia to Los Angles - at the time they were overhead Cedar Rapids.
Geir also have a scheduled radio contact (@19Z on 14328kHz) with Ola (EA5/LA2PC) - a Norwegian in his summer home south of Alicante/Spain. So far only a few weak station has been heard from Norway.

Leif Molle (LA3ZH) in Kristiansand is a very faithfull and polite weather-router - and sends us the weather forecast every day
for our area. In addition we download weather info via our shortwave email system called Winlink.

AWOB (All Well On Board)

Grete & Geir

On our way accross the Atlantic

We departed from Martinique in the morning 3rd. May.

We have been at anchor at Sainte-Anne beach for a few days while fixing our steering problem.
As we immediately went in 2 weeks quarantine - we were not allowed to go ashore.
But we were hailed by othe boats who offered to go shopping, take our rubbish ashore etc.
The cruising community is very nice and helpful. We anchored near 3 Norwegian boats.
There must have been more than a hundred sailboats there.

We were also permitted to stay while we waited for a workable weather window to start our Atlantic crossing. The steering problem turned out to be an easy fix. The wires connecting to stering wheel to the rudder had become slack and that n cuased the rudde to have "play".
The wires have been tightened and steering is now working very well.

However we are now siling using the Hydrovane wind rudder.It performs very well.
The main rudder is locked in midship.

We are not happy with our main sail. We had it made in Falmouth in august
and so far never sailed upwind with it. We are struggeling to get vove 30 degrees to the wind.
That means we will use some more time to get us into the easterny going trade winds
that will take us to the Azores.

We have lots of food, drinks and freshwater so we will survive ;)
Radio, reading and knitting keeps us from boredom. We also have a few DVDs to watch.
Oh - we purchased a new portable fridge in Saint-Anne. It is so much more efficient than
the built- in we have and uses very little electricity. We have turned the built in- off.

The weather is still hot. Seatemp around 26C and air 28-30C - we look forward to
when it will drop a bit. Sea state is fine. Waves between 1.5 to 2m and an occational one a little higher.