Author: Ulrich Fingscheidt

This is the big bed in the aft cabin, called bunk in nautical jargon. The waves are gentle and I have a good sleep at the moment. The longest sleep interval is 99 minutes. This the maximum I can set on my two alarm clocks. With dense traffic or difficult weather conditions these intervals can be as short as 15 minutes. In some conditions I even have to stay awake for several hours. The trick is to use every opportunity to get some sleep, and train to fall asleep instantly. Stop worrying, stop thinking, release all muscle tension and off you go ….

I just put up all sail area I have to sail as fast as possible upwind. Later I will get swallowed by the calm lying in front of me. This is one of the very rare moments on this whole trip the Swan 44 performs really good: Upwind sailing at an apparent wind angle of 32° in moderate waves. Feels like flying over soft clouds with a speed of 6 kn in winds of 9 kn. Very pleasant!

My first night at sea was very dark. It was new moon. All I could see were some stars and the sky lit by the lights of Antigua and Barbuda. As a consequence of my several technical failures on the previous trip I felt pretty chickenhearted when I was back all by myself on the open sea.

2300 nm lie in front of me. The weather is instable, hardly predictable. I carry diesel for five days of motoring if I get stuck in the Azores High. The first week will be upwind sailing, not so nice. Thank you all for following me.

Kirsten and I arrived at the same time in Falmouth Harbour in Antigua. Happy time!

Still no wind. I am trying to reach Antigua on my last drop of diesel. Today I transfered the diesel from the spare canisters into the main tank.

The wind dropped to 7 kn and less. The motor is running. This means ample electrical energy. So I switched on the watermaker. I have used a lot of water, about 7 l per day. This includes the drinking water and my daily freshwater rinse after the seawater shower. I have two freshwater tanks with a capacity of 190 l each. For emergencies I carry several canisters of freshwater. The watermaker produces 95-100 l of freshwater per hour.

In calm conditions I have time to take some photos ans show you the details if my provisional rig.

I think I have survived the worst. The winds are light now, the sea state is calm. I am trying to relax a little and so can you at home.

It has been hazy since four days, and the water is murky. A lot of dust is blown across the Atlantic, as you can see on the chart on the Windy app.