Archiv
CW49 2001
02.12.2001 - 08.12.2001
Today is Sunday, December 2, 2001 and the first Advent. We leave Las Palmas
at 11.18 am. Today our Atlantic crossing begins. With us are Petra and Martin
from Hildesheim (Germany).
Approximately 2780 nautical miles lie ahead of us, which means we're be sailing
night and day. Of course our guard system is already figured out. Everyone
gets 3 hours night watch and 4 hours day-watch. That way everyone gets his
turn at the dog watch from 3.00 am to 6.00 am, and everyone gets to watch
a sunrise and a moon-rise.
We can actually sail for the first 20 miles, but then the wind dies down and
the diesel-sail is needed for the first time.
It's shortly after 2 am and the last lights of Gran Canaries are fading away
on the horizon.
Monday, the 111th day of our journey, begins with an always-fascinating adventure:
dolphin.
First there were only 3. If you like, one for everyone on deck - I was still
in my bunk, had the dogwatch! But one hour after their first appearance they
returned, coming from all directions, playing all around the ship, with the
waves, they even played around the rear drive. Quite a show.
For a while we lay in the nets between the ships hulls, so close to the dolphin
we thought we could touch them any moment.
And where there are dolphins there are also fish, so the men went to through
out their fishing rods. But they only let the bait go for a swim. Nothing
happening today, no fish! Well, tomorrow is another day and we'll be travelling
for quite a while and hopefully with better weather then what we have today.
Rain-clouds draw up again and again and we do catch a few showers. The weather
conditions stay the same all day and finally, in the early hours of Tuesday
morning, escalates into a strong thunderstorm with rain, lightning and thunder,
not to forget plenty of wind from all directions! On the radar one could already
have seen what was coming towards us from our port side. Amazing, how much
energy there is in those clouds.
At 6.45 a.m. our log shows that it's still 2500 nautical miles to Antigua.
There will be a few more sunrises before we arrive.
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Speaking of arriving, what arriving on our boat over there? A small
black bird is circling the ship and is already gone again. Now, where
did he come from?! We've got nice wind again, and we do know where that comes from. It comes out of those huge clouds over us, but with it we can sail nicely. With the main- and foresail reefed we're doing 7 knots. That last for only 3 hours and then the next thunderstorm is over us. In the afternoon it stays very cloudy and it seems there's more to come. And that's right! At 3 am the wind starts getting stronger, bringing in the next thunderstorm. This time all "men" are on deck. The foresail is reefed to a minimum, but still we get dragged through the water with 8 knots. |
So our Wednesday also started quite wild.
With the sunrise our little black bird also returns. And this time, luckily,
Thomas also sees it. I was already been suspected of having hallucinations.
After all that action we earned ourselves a good breakfast. Along with our
watch system we decided who has to make breakfast and who dinner.
Whoever has the 6-10 am watch makes breakfast. And we all have breakfast in
the cockpit with the beautiful view of the endless Atlantic. There isn't anything
else around to see anyway.
Wait a minute, there is something else to see after all. Our friends the dolphins
are visiting us again. Like every day we throw out our fishing rods today.
But unlike the previous days we do catch something. We hear someone calling
"FISH" as his line starts running out.
We even minimised the sail, because otherwise we're too fast to bring in our
catch. So it's turning, turning, turning, and there it is: a big, beautiful,
colourful Dorade. There is only one small Problem: the two fishing lines got
entangled and suddenly one line snaps and the fish is gone! And not just that.
The stupid fish even took the bait!
All we're left with is a picture of the fish - and that doesn't look too good
in the frying pan. Apparently our Anglers luck is running out today. Just
a little later a fish escapes off Martins hook. Thanks!
Setting the sail properly again we cruise along. We're sailing day and night,
with at time slightly unstable winds, but sailable!
So today we sail into a clear starlight night and stand watch in the moonshine.
The stars in the sky are extremely beautiful!
While we sail along and while the weather gets better and better Petra and
I make something sweet in the kitchen. We're baking a cake. (Our culinary
tip for today)
But that's not the highlight of the day. Shortly after 1 p.m. we hear a call:
"FISH" ! Since we're sailing with the Genaker we simply bring that down.
|
What Thomas pulls aboard is really worth a scream: two Dorades on
one bait. Have you seen something like that before? And if we do fish,
we do it right: half an hour later Martin pulls another Dorade aboard.
On Friday it's Martins turn with the early watch and what does an
angler do - exactly, he puts his fishing line out, and that successfully.
Early bird catches the fish … or how was that saying?! His catch:
one Dorade. |
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And therefore what we're having for dinner today is decided: Dorade. Dorade
cooked in tin foil with fresh vegetables. Mmmmm!
By now we're in a different time zone, which means that we are 2 hours behind,
compared to Central European Daylight Saving Time. That also means that one
of us will have to be on guard for one hour longer. Since we've been sailing
with the spinnaker since this morning and the wind that is growing stronger
isn't good for sailing all night with that thin sail we change sails and use
the foresail for the night.
Saturday morning and we wake up to a horrible surprise. The whole ship is
covered in something greyish-blackish. Oil or soot must have been hanging
in the air and been washed down by the rain, turning into a horrible slime.
Great!
We attach a pipe to the salt-water-pump and clean the deck.
It's pretty cloudy again today and that probably wasn't the last rain we had.
With so much water around us one would imagine there are other people around,
besides us. But apparently not. During the whole 655 miles we've covered so
far we haven't met more than 5 ships. A few sailing boats and one or two freighters.
So we're almost alone in this huge bathtub. Bathtub because the Atlantic already
has a water temperature of 25°C here. Quite warm! There's someone else who
seems to be getting pretty warm, a small black bird. He seems to be lost and
is sitting in the dinghy now, unable to get out again. Thomas helps the little
one, puts him down and after pecking at Thomas' glove he flies away again.
Even though we're not flying, we are making pretty good time. We have the
Genaker set and use it through the hole night, until at 5 am the wind comes
up with more than 20 knots and that's just too much for the Genaker. So we
change sails and carry on.
Our culinary tip from the on-board bakery:
Poppy-seed marble cake with cherries
Ingredients:
1 glass of morello cherries (370g without fluids)
1 apple
1 Tablespoonful of lemon juice
350g flour
1 packet baking powder (approx. 2 teaspoon)
1 packet vanilla sugar (approx. 2 teaspoon)
150g sugar
4 eggs (medium size)
175g melted butter or margarine (cooled down)
150 ml milk
30 g poppy seeds
2 Tablespoonfuls icing sugar to sprinkle over the cake
Drain the cherries well in a sieve, if necessary pat dry with a kitchen towel.
Peel the apple, take the seeds out, rasp it and sprinkle it with the lemon
juice.
For the dough, mix the baking powder with the flour by sieving them into a
bowl, mix the sugar and vanilla sugar in. Add the eggs, butter or margarine
and the milk and stir until you get an even dough.
Split the dough into two portions. Add the rasped apple to the one half and
the poppy seeds to the other half. Put the apple-dough into a round baking
form (that was previously lined with a little butter and flour), put the poppy
seed dough on top And spread the cherries over it. Put the form into the oven
on a grill.
Heat coming from top and bottom: 180°C (preheated)
Hot air: 160°C (not preheated)
Gas: 2-3 (not preheated)
Baking time: approx. 50 minutes
After baking let the cake stand for a short time, then remove from form, topple
over onto a cooling grill, let it cool down and then sprinkle liberally with
icing sugar.
Tip: if you don't like poppy seeds you can also add cocoa powder to the one
half of dough instead!
Enjoy!
And what happens next and what the new week held for us …
Next week here:
Same time same place!
So long
Diana + Thomas
Petra + Martin
