The long way across

It took 18 painful days of rolling and drifting, but we finally made it - we sailed into Antigua on Saturday morning under the sun, which was kind enough to put up an appearance in between 3 days of otherwise uninterrupted rain. We couldn't have wished for a better crew, and we ate pretty well, but the weather did not cooperate and gave us in turn no wind at all and up to 65 knots of wind, with choppy seas and a long swell that didn't make it easy to sail in light air. Here are some bits and pieces of the passage to give you an idea of what spending such a long time at sea feels like...

Leaving Tenerife

Rainbow over Tenerife

A few things we do when bored at sea:

 - Following the decomposition of the squid that got stuck in one of the deck drains on day 1 of the crossing. It went through all shades of yellow and brown before finally disintegrating on day 14. In case you are eating while reading that, I will not post any pictures of the said squid.

 - Exercising on deck during night watches. Who else would do crunches and push-ups under the stars at 4am?

 - Chatting on the VHF with people on nearby boats, who always turned out to be French. We had extended conversations with solo sailors on their 6.5 meter boats who were taking part in the Mini Transat race. Once they found out that there were 2 French girls on board they had a hard time letting go of the radio!

Mini Transat boat Chasseur de Primes

Mini Transat boat Senor Blu

 - Reading many, many books, and then talking about the many books we read. I'd estimate a total of over 30 books were read between all of us. My personal favorite were Escobar (the true story of Pablo Escobar told by his brother), Kitchen Confidential (by the famous American chef Anthony Bourdain) and Gone Girl (the best-seller everyone was reading last year, which actually turned out to be good).

 - Going through cooking magazines. Since there is another foodie on board, it always ended in excited discussions about recipes and wine, before we remembered that the nearest food market was about 2000 miles away from us.

 - Boom swinging. We decided we needed a swim on an especially hot day, but the sea was too rough to just stop the boat and dive in, so we rigged the bosun's chair under the boom and got dipped and out of the water at 8 knots. A normal day in the middle of the Atlantic.

Boom-swinging Captain

Upside down Angus

 - Watching hundreds of movies. We even had a family movie night watching Skyfall on the Salon TV, while Camille popped her head up on deck every 10 minutes to make sure we were not about to crash into a mini transat boat...

 - Cleaning the whole boat every 3rd day. When I'm really bored at sea, I clean, cook and do laundry. The boys haven't complained.

 -Catching a 6ft swordfish and a 4ft mahi mahi, then spending half the day cleaning it, cutting it and putting it away in the fridge and freezer. The rest of the day was spent discussing how we should prepare them.

That one took some work to bring up on deck

Oh hello there, dinner!

 - Watching lightning storms at night. You know that moment when you see lightning and wonder what the tallest thing nearby would be? Well, it doesn't take long to figure out what the tallest object is when you have an 86ft mast and absolutely nothing else around. Scary times. (Oh, and by the way, yes we do instinctively duck when lightning strikes. As if it would help.)

 - Rushing to the bow when we see dolphins. And giving a name to one of them. Even after so many times at sea, watching dolphins play in the bow wave never gets old.

 Some things I miss while in the middle of the ocean:

 - Running after work. I broke a toe two days out of Antigua so I'll have to wait a bit longer for it...

 - Wine. I don't want to sound like an alcoholic, but it's nice to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. We made an exception to the dry boat rule and opened a bottle of cava for my birthday though...

Plop! (look for the cork on the picture)

Birthday drink!

 - Not being able to check in with friends and family any time you want to. Not cellphone signal out there!

 - Eating fresh fruit. After a week we're usually down to bananas and apples... You really start looking forward to those Caribbean mangoes and papayas!

- Not having to brace myself for the next roll, even unconsciously in my sleep.

- Being able to leave a glass of juice unattended on the table for more than 2 seconds. Spilling stuff really gets old after the tenth time.

- Getting a full night of sleep without having to wake up for your 4 to 7am watch. Sunrises are cool, but I don't need to see them every morning, thanks.

As I said, sunrises are cool.

Some things I miss once I'm back on land:

 - Looking at the night sky and the shooting stars. Even if you're looking for them, there is always one shooting through the patch of sky you're looking at at that moment.

  - Not having to worry about checking emails, phones or Facebook. At all. For 18 days.

 - Watching movies in bed in the middle of the day, and not feeling guilty about it. Because anyway, there isn't much else to do.

 - Looking at the sea, the waves, the sky, and all the colors always changing in them.

Taking a picture of the sunset

After the squall

Sky, or painting?

Last sunset at sea

And... we made it!