Author: Ulrich Fingscheidt

If I don’t make any mistakes overloading the rig, and with a bit of luck, I should be able to make it to Antigua.

My rig survived a night of gusts (28 kn max.) and waves (4 m max.). Today it is hazy. Can you spot the tanker 3,4 nm in front of my bow?

With the spinnaker pole (left circle) and three Dyneema lines (right circles) I managed to stabilise the mast. The leeward lower shroud (x) is relatively tight in waves up to 3 m high.

I heard a loud bang on deck in the morning. The starboard lower shroud (D1) was broken, just at the terminal. The mast was bending and swinging in the waves. Prior to my circumnavigation, I had the standing rigging replaced. In New Zealand the rig had been inspected, and the terminals of the upper shrouds were replaced (V1). It took me over five hours to construct a stable bracing of the mast using several dyneema lines and the spinnaker pole. This will get me to Antigua. What a day of horror.

I have set a waypoint a bit further east of the great circle line. When in two days the wind and the waves will increase, I will be able to change my course to a beam reach or broad reach. This is slightly more comfortable than the current close reach.

The most striking feature of the tropical weather system is the formation of cumulus clouds during the afternoon. The wind intensifies, the direction changes with every passing cloud, rainshowers and squalls with strong gusts develop. At around midnight this instable situation stabilises. The wind becomes more continuous. This cycle repeats itself every day.

These nice clouds really lift my spirits today. I had three weeks of rainclouds and squalls. This is the first sign of the north-east passat wind of the northern hemisphere.

I am on the wrong side of a giant circular current north of Brazil. So I gave to tack again, head back southeast and make use of the current in my favour.

I’m back on my home hemisphere after crossing the equator for the second time.

When I stood on the sugarscoop to lift the water paddle of the windvane, I was scared by a big brown shark directly under me. It was still dark, but I saw him very good in the beam of my deck light. When I returned with a flashlight and my camera he had left. So you have to be content with a picture of the Sargassum seaweed which is drifting in the sea in large quantities in this area of the ocean.