Author: Ulrich Fingscheidt

I made it half way around the world! I crossed 169° of longitude which is on the opposite side of the globe from home. Easy was racing across the meridian in 25-30 kn of wind, surfing down the waves with a max. speed of 11 kn. All with windvane steering.

This is my twin headsail configuration. It is nicely balanced and works well with the windvane. The main advantage for singlehanded sailing is that reefing is very easy. Just furl in one or both sails. Works well for all courses from 160° port to 160° starbord. Each pole is held firmly in place with three fixed lines. So you don’t have to touch the poles when adjusting the sails. The only disadvantage is the lack of lateral stability. So you really get used to a lot of rolling.

The morning was awful. At noon, it got really awful. Low winds, flogging sail and chaotic waves from at least three directions. Easy was rolling up to 25°. A reasonable life on board was nearly impossible. I could only move around in the boat with great difficulty. Truely nerve-racking conditions. In the afternoon, the wind increased a little. I set both poles, one to each side. So far I have only uset the one on starboard for the genoa. Now, everything feels much better!

Welcome to the team, little B&G H5000 autohelm controller number three. Sadly, your first two brothers passed away drowning. Lots of water inside. This is the list of B&G components that died during the last 19 000 nm: Zeus2 chartplotter (one, was kindly replaced by B&G in no time), masthead unit (two, one was replaced by B&G), autohelm controller (two), depth/temperature sensor (one), Wifi-1 router (one). Don’t get me wrong, I like the B&G H5000 System a lot and profoundly depend on it for singlehanded ocean sailing.

This cold front kept my busy for 10 hours. Easy and I performed reasonably well. The low passed south of me.

I did not order this system when I left Tahiti. The forecast shows the expected gusts, the scale on the bottom translates colours to knots of wind. But as the great philosopher Jagger said: “You can’t always get what you want”. Next night and tomorrow I will be quite busy. I will struggle with big waves from the south and strong winds on the nose, directly from the direction where I want to go. Easy is well preared and so am I. I might not find the time for my daily update. Follow my progress which is updated in hourly intervals on www.sveasy.de . Don’t worry if the track will even lead to the east for a couple of hours. I might just be running downwind when things get too rough here. See you later, thank you for following me! Btw, I highly recommend the album “Hot Rocks 1964-1971, digitally remastered, The Rolling Stones, 1986” Put on your best set of headphones, ignore the high volume warning on your device. Cures all sorts of fears and north European autumn blues.

At night it’s pitchblack when there is no moon. The waxing moon rises late at night. When working on deck, I switch on the floodlight down. So you can see Easy on the photo. The brown bag on the right side of the cockpit contains potatoes and onions. Before they went outside, I had to kill tiny moths in the cabin for three days, one every day. Now there are no more hitchhikers in the cabin.

Yesterday, I was on office duty. It was 14:00 h, and the battery was not full yet. Too many clouds.

The wind canges all the time, between 5 and 20 kn today, direction from 0° to 90°. Looks easy but keeps me really busy. Temperature of 32°C in the cabin.

It’s always the same: I have to get used to the crazy movements. Nothing special, just rolling while sailing downwind in 2-3 m high seas. I bought so nice fruit and veggies in Tahiti, but no appetite to eat the fresh stuff.