Atlantic Crossing Photos

Washed fruit and veggies drying before we stow it all away. The planning and preparation efforts don't really show in the  photos to follow, suffice to say it was a lot of work to get a month or so of food aboard, check and recheck the rigging, sails, steering, and myriad of other systems to make sure it all worked.

 The docks in Mindelo.. lots of cruising boats, nearly all were en-route to cross in the weeks to come.

 Fab Five the day before sailing

Porter sorting out the trawling rigs, he used two most days and was a dedicated fisherman for the whole crossing
And off we go... Note the harnesses. Even in calm weather we use them and really prefer the basic ones to the fancy auto-magic-inflating ones as they are light weight, cool, have no moving parts, and the increase in safety from being connected to the boat is significant

Christopher's sister Mary sailed us out of the Mindelo harbor. She was a fabulous addition, having a third adult made the watch schedule easier and the whole crossing a bit more relaxing for everyone. In the early 1970's Mary crossed from the UK to the USA via the Shetlands and Iceland (very much the hard way to go), so she was the experienced off shore sailor amongst us. Above we are leaving the Cape Verdes.

Aunt Mary came with art projects and the this was the first of several

For the first few days we had light winds and sailed the asymmetrical spinnaker most of the time with no mainsail up

 Calm seas, light winds, and Mary taking a break on the foredeck

 Backgammon on the foredeck

 For a few days we set up awnings in the daytime for shade

 DJ mixmaster Rabbit

 Sunset in the middle of the ocean

 Oh yeah... tuna for lunch

 We let the tuna fillets look at a hot frying pan of butter and drizzled with lemon... tasty

 Fresh bread from Christopher

 Every two hours we recorded our location, heading, speed, sail plan, etc...

 Christopher and Mary

 P-man relaxing in the cockpit cockpit on a light wind day

 Swimming 700 miles from shore in 3,500m deep water...

 Clear and beautiful below the surface too

 We even scrubbed the sides a bit

 Post swim the winds started to pickup

 Clay art projects with Aunt Mary

 You know he is concentrating when the tongue pokes out...

 This one too!

 Mary's first attempt at a selfie during her night watch.

A better selfie- Mary on watch at 4am

 Mary took this picture of Porter during their early morning watch together.

 The three boys

We ate well most nights- including potato lasagne a la Mary, Molly's baked pizza, and Christopher's fresh bread and soup.

The Rabbit cracking up as Porter tells knock-knock jokes

It was a big deal for Porter to get his sea legs so much that he could read, by the end he was reading below in rough seas. This was a first for the kid who usually gets sick at sea. Not once this time!

 The second half we had lots of wind

 Three goofies in the cockpit.

 Plenty of fast moving and high intensity squalls, not hard in the daytime but they are harder to foresee at night

 Mary during her early morning watch

 Flying fish

We saw several rainbows after squalls went through. There was one in particular that was from horizon to horizon- so beautiful!

 Target practice

 The venerable and vital "Wizard" that steered much of the way

Land Ho! Antigua in sight.  The crew on the last day as we were sailing into Antigua.