December 2014: Crossing the Atlantic

Departure

Monday December 1st, 2014, it's the big day. During the morning, we still have a lot to do.
Loïc buys some more fresh veggies and fruits at the covered market (bananas, oranges, apples, cabage, carots, tomatoes).
Lolo is uploading the last news on the website.
We also have to clean the boat and prepare everything we will need during the navigation (because it will difficult for us to go down at the begining of the trip, we are not used to the sea anymore).
During this time, the kids still enjoy playing with their "pontoon's friends". This time they found a lot of kids to play with.
On Sunday we cooked some dishes in order to eat them during the navigation. It is easier this way for the beginning.

We eat a last pizza in front of the harbor with 44.com who will leave like us in the afternoon.
It is now time to go. Méléos offers us a homemade brioche! Yummy what a delicious present!!!
Hobo is also here to say goodbye.
What a strange feeling to see everybody on the pontoon while we leave for this big navigation! See you on the other side!!!

Even Jack and Françoise from Quincy IIIcome with their dinghy for a last goodbye!

The navigation

We put the main sail and the genoa. We follow 44.com and discuss with them on chanel 68 of the VHF to know how they are doing. After a while Maël and Tristan begin a naval battle!

Night is coming. We have diner and begin our shifts.
8pm - 11pm : It's Maël and Louise's turn while Loïc is sleeping next to them.
They watch a movie on the computer with an alarm in order to check the wind, the sails, the AIS and the sea.
11pm - 3am : Loïc takes his shift.
3am -7am : Lolo finishes the night.
Then each one is taking a nap during the day when necessary.

During the day, when the swell is not too strong, we read, play games, Maël and Lucie play legos (they create a Christmas tree), Lucie plays with the barbies...
When the swells are too strong, the kids lay down inside and listen to stories on CDs...

Fishing

We catch 3 dolphinfishes and one of them is 74 cm. It is great for lunch!
Then with lose a lot of lures even with metallic cables. We go too fast and the fishes are probably too big. So we stop fishing for a while.

Meeting

First meet with a whale very close to the boat. We are a little bit frightened but also happy. We are really impressed!

During our first night of navigation, we pass the other four boats which have left Mindelo at the same time we did, we have the main sail on + the big genoa and genoa nb 2, our speed is 7 to 8 kts.
At the begin we see some cargos but quickly we are alone... Just the sea around us!
On the morning of day 6 we hear some noise on the VHF. Louise thinks that somebody should be close by... A few secondes later we hear "Sailing boat aproximate position ...N 38º...W, do you read me ?". We didn't pay good attention on the position... "Sailing boat aproximate position 15º02N 38º57W, do you read me ?" It's us !!!
They asked us to come close to them in order to take pictures. It's wird we see nothing on the sea but we see them on our AIS... Suddendly we see a small white dot with 2 men rawing! They are english and left the Canary Islands 28 days ago. They should reach Barbados after 45 days rawing. Incredible!
Their website www.atlanticchallenge14.org
We are not so crazy !!!
The days after we won't see anybody else... What an unforgettable meeting!

Others

As Lucie asked, we celebrate Nicolas day on December 6th with some "brioche-man".

We enjoyed the outdoors showers!

The moon was with us every night, it was great for in order to get some light !
The kids learned to find some constellations. And we saw a lot of shooting stars. Great moments !
We also like to see the sunrise over the sea on the early mornings.

After a while, we don't have fresh fruits and veggies anymore. Maël discovers the cans. It's so good the Mont Blanc cream!

The day before arriving, the dolphins play in front of the boat and do a great show ! It's magic!

Tobago

During the passage, the wind was good and with the goose winged sails with a boom for the genoa, we sailed quite fast. So after exactly 2 weeks we see the land again!!!! Yeeehhh!!!! It's Tobago!
We still need some hours to reach the island and it's after the sunset that we are anchoring in Man of War Bay, in front of Charlotteville. It smells the green!
We are happy to stop here!!!