noooo don’t goooo what am I gonna do without youuu @tuvaanine ❤️
Feeling very recharged after catching up with a friend!! Crazy how chatting with someone other than your 3 crew mates for the first time in months does that 😅
Leaving Tuva hereee 😢😢
Do i even need to say it? Anyways- was at the helm while anchoring but picked a terrible spot bc there were super yacht people on jet skis and SUPs in the more protected spot… oh whale. Feeling down today.
No wind all day (for the first time ever)!! Grey day… hot at first but cooled down thankfully. Read a book and napped lots. Anchored just after dark xx
Was exhausted after our dive this morning but had a gorgeous sunset on arrival!!
Excited to finally be in Guadeloupe! Had an early departure with no wind at all so we motored part of the way, but it was beautiful nonetheless!
The winds are so shifty in between the islands so this was a bit swelly but quite nice otherwise! Settled into a rolly but very breezy anchorage, feels cozy and should be a good nights sleep 🫶
Girlie needs to go to the doctors 😬😬 first overnight hop since the crossing… all went well except for this massive motor yacht which wasn’t on the AIS and came at us at 20knots while we were sailing. mean :(
At the helm the whole time. The entrance into this bay is terrifying, you can see the breaks on all the shoals… much busier in the anchorage than last time we were here but significantly less windy so that’s good!! Time to swim with turtles again 🥰🥰
Woahh I think this was our longest sailing day since the Atlantic?? Upwind slog but there wasn’t too much swell so it was actually very chill… rested a lot and enjoyed the breeze on the foredeck 🥰
Starting to loose my creativity with these captions… this was another sail and again it was lovely because sailing always is :)
Did a random MOB drill for John, checked out a spot we might go back to later, and had a lovely lil sail. Excited to check this place out :))
This was fun until it was time to anchor… girl’s got some learning to do 😅 step by step though. One day this won’t be totally terrifying surely? 🫣
Title says it all… turtle time!!
More MOD drills that were kind of chaotic… big sweep, good sail, water here is gorgeous, and Koru is at our anchorage once again…
I think I might be broken because these short sails still feel so weird after the crossing 😅anyways… somehow ended up in the same anchorage as Jeff Bezos’ boat for the third time in a row 🤷♀️ apparently if we wanna be famous we should go swim in some billionaires’ private pool? maybe not this time 😉 oh also we did some MOB drills before this sail :))
Promptly exiting Saint Lucia 🫡 as breathing air here costs money and we’ve got places to see! This was bit of a tedious sail and we ended up motoring the last few miles but overall very lovely conditions once again. Studied for my VHF cert and brushed up on the phonetic alphabet… off the the grenadines tomorrow!! Oh how I do love this life 💗
Wow, this boat sails well towards the wind… we were quite heeled but I think that’s fun!! Sailed onto and off the anchor, prettyyy class if you ask me ;) xx
Lovely upwind sail, very heeled but still managed to take a nap on the windward bench of the cockpit… at the helm while anchoring, should be set for a quiet night! ⚓️😃 (oh and i made cookies)
Was working on my laptop for most of this sail ugh… but the conditions are beautiful and we had a delicious lunch!
Wow does it feel good to be back out and sailing! A week on anchorage feels like a loooong time, even after an Atlantic crossing… we were definitely starting to get itchy feet. This was a lovely little sail under genoa, calm seas, good breeze. No complaints 😉🫶
The first few days of the passage were so incredibly peaceful. We were going 9knots downwind and the boat was the most comfortable it’s been since I got on in Madeira. We quickly got into a routine and it was so nice being able to get so much done while also having time to hang out and share meals as a crew. I especially enjoyed my night watches, during which I would - read (I loooved the two books I read: “Les choses humaines” by Karine Tuil, and “Intermezzo” by Salley Rooney) - work out (with dive weights, to the few musical soundtracks I had downloaded which proceeded to get irritatingly stuck in my head: My fair lady and The sound of music) - record little voice diaries for my best friend - study my sailing theory In the middle of our 5th night, ~700 nautical miles off of Cape Verde, we had a serious accident. Everything was going smoothly until our spinnaker suddenly ripped in half (we think it caught on the top spreader) and started dragging behind the boat, bending the pole 90 degrees and causing it to swing uncontrollably forward and back. In the midst of this, the chafing of lines caused the preventer on the boom to snap and the boom swept across the deck and hit our captain Roy in the head. Roy was unconscious on the deck for ~5 mins… we all assumed the worst but jumped into action: our first mate got the boat back to safety while I provided first aid to the captain. It suddenly felt terrifyingly real that we were in the middle of the Atlantic, several days away from helicopter range or any kind of medical help, and with limited means of communication. Thankfully Roy regained consciousness and didn’t seem to have any major problems other than some short-term memory loss, which is normal after a concussion. We got him inside and monitored him while using the satellite phone to get in contact with the Martinique coast guard doctor. Since Roy was stable, we decided the safest decision was to keep going towards Martinique (~1400nm) and try and make landfall as soon as possible (hell of a mission without a spinnaker). Our first mate took over as acting captain and did a wonderful job. He reorganized the watch schedule between the three of us, which was manageable but definitely more intense. We were all a bit traumatized by what had happened and found the night shifts particularly stressful. Two days later the wind picked up to force 7, and our night watches became busy reefing up and down for squalls that came towards us at full speed. The sea state worsened and the boat was extremely rolly and uncomfortable. As the days passed, Roy got better and we all started to calm down and trust the boat again. The end was in sight, and we would soon enter helicopter range (100nm) where it seemed like all our problems would be solved. The last night was a lot calmer, the sky was beautiful, and I was finally able to take a breath and feel the realness of it all. We had made it. Through the ups and downs, and the fear, and the weather, we crossed the damn Atlantic Ocean. It’s not the Pacific, it’s not high latitude sailing, it’s not what my plan was when I first decided to spend this year sailing around the world, but it is still a crazy accomplishment and I feel so so proud and grateful for it all ❤️Plus 12.5 days is prettyyy damn good! 🥂 To my first ocean crossing!! (many more to come I’m sure xx) PS: as much as I complain about not having starlink onboard, it was actually kind of wonderful to be offline for 2 weeks hehe (not ready to be back to reality 🥲).
