Ocean Passage

After I arrive on the island of Gran Canaria we have a couple of weeks of preparations left before we can set sail. Over Xmas and New Year we climb masts, organise the communications so we will be able to receive weather charts, Karel installs a new anchor winch and Truus and I go the the market to buy stacks of fresh supplies. We make sure that we have enough for a minimum of 3 up to 6 weeks supplies. On the 5th of January we leave the port of Las Palmas, but twice we have to go into port to settle some last technical problems before we can really set sail for the Atlantic Ocean without any further possible port of call for 2700 nautical Miles. When we finally leave the port of San Sebastian on the island of La Gomera on January 15th we have got strong winds and smooth sailing to start off with. The first few days we settle into a daily routine, but then the rocking and rolling starts… big time! Much further north on the Atlantic Ocean there are big gales and hurricains blowing, those winds don´t bother us, except for the HUGE swell that comes through. We have got 5 meters significant wave height, which means an average of 5 meteres but also with enormous waves of 6 or 7 meters coming through. And that is somewhat much, at least for a 15 meter yacht it is. Nunki surfs the waves smoothly but rolls with 35 degrees to either side almost continuously. This means for us that also coninuously you have to hold on to everything you use, and grab hold tight to remain standing or walk without toppling over. Everything becomes a challenge because otherwise everything goes flying including yourself. While cooking a meal it is a sport to refrain the onions on your cutting board from flying throught the galley and also to have the clutched eggs land in the frying pan rather then on your pants. Outside you need to be locked to the boat with a safety line at all times, which makes handling the sails more difficult. Also some minor things keep breaking down. Luckily our skilled Captain Karel is also an excellent mechanical, electrical and hydraulics engineer and he is able to repair everything even in these very uncomfortable conditions. Truus is our First Mate and even more importantly our unofficial Health and Safety Officer. She keeps and eye on valves being closed off after use, preventing lines from going overboard and landing in the propellor and reminding us of all little things you need to do on board to keep it going and keep it safe. Meanwhile after many years of not sailing very much at all I´m quickly catching up on all those skills and trying to keep the communications and weather reports going. Hans and Lars keep us via sailmail (emails via the radio) up to date of all things going on on land and Wim is our supporting weather man. We give fishing a go; we first catch a beautiful 1,5 kg Amber Jack, second catch is a 4 kg Amber Jack, third catch an enromous 8 kg Amber Jack coming in with a fight, and tasting great! During the whole passage we have winds of about 5 to 6 Beaufort with squals of 7 to 8 Beaufort. The amazing, but quite heavy Nunki loves these big winds and we are making nice daily averages of about 140 nautical Miles. And the winds keep steadily coming from the right direction, so after 19 pretty exhasuting days we diminish sails to a minimum for the last night, as to slow down, so we will arrive by daylight on the island Antigua. The next day at 10 o´clock in the morning we are finally calmly berthed in the beautiful port of Nelsons Dockyard in English Harbour, Antigua. We call Hans and Lars that we have arrived safely and open up the bottle of Champagne! We all agree it was a pretty rough and exhausting ride with all the rockin´ and the rollin´, but Nunki has performed brilliantly and to cross in just under 20 days we think we have done pretty well. Karel and Truus are very humble of their achievement, but building a ship like Nunki all by yourself and then have it perform that well on an ocean crossing is pretty awesome!

And after 2 weeks on Antigua Hans arrives by plane to join us for some Caraibic sailing. Reunited at the other end of the world again after 10 long weeks. Since then we have explored the islands of Antigua, Montserrat and Nevis and are now heading for St, Kitts, St. Eustacius and Saba. Lars will join us the 15th of March on St. Maarten, after which we will set sail for the Virgin Islands. Beginning of April ends the Caribbean dream for us, while Nunki with Captain Karel and First Mate Truus will keep exploring the other very friendly and beautiful Caribbean Islands of which there are many more.