La Promesse NED7576

… species of whales live around the Acores. That is what I learned during my first visit in 2000. And at the whale research institute we visited in 2018 with the family. This morning we had one of these species just in front of us. Taking a deep breath, bend the back and dive. Beautiful.

Working our way trough a windless area which is frustrating. Swell makes the boat swing, wobble, dibble and dabble and sails slam. Wind forecasted in 2 to 3 hours. Reality outside is different from the gribs. 2 days and something left.

Wouter is longing for a huge burger, fries and coke.
I’longing for a steak, fries and beer.
Shower first.

Wouter & JanKees

Sailing into Acores high. No sun yet but bentle breeze, sky covered. Expect to tack towards islands this end of day. 41.52n 36.28w

…… take over the boat. These jellyfish have their (inflated) body above the waterline so that it works like a mainsail and move them wherever the wind goes. Their long dark blue tentacles are nasty. If touched you’ll remember this drilpudding for a couple of hours or even longer.
Thrown three of the guest over board because they couldn’t show the right tickets. There will be more on deck or in or on the sailbags stacked outside aft. Carefull. No more bare foot for now.

Good long sleeps. Steady going strong. Some 730 nm to go.
40.47n 40.35w

Wouter & JanKees

…… take over the boat. These jellyfish have their (inflated) body above the waterline so that it works like a mainsail and move them wherever the wind goes. Their long dark blue tentacles are nasty. If touched you’ll remember this drilpudding for a couple of hours or even longer.
Thrown three of the guest over board because they couldn’t show the right tickets. There will be more on deck or in or on the sailbags stacked outside aft. Carefull. No more bare foot for now.

Good long sleeps. Steady going strong. Some 730 nm to go.
40.47n 40.35w

Wouter & JanKees

38.53n 45.14w
Average sog 10.8 kts
Now doing steady 11.

We have three categories: damp, wet, soken wet.
Longing for a beer and fresh fish. But a couple of days ahead.

Spirit and atmosphere are good.

Wouter & JanKees

We clocked 23.8 kts boatspeed in another surf.
Three reefs and genoa, awa125. Brutal. Brutal.
Rough sea. High seas. Warm rain from the warmfront.
Be happy if this could just come down a little bit.

38.11n 51.45w

We brushed our teeth, mama! Don’t you worry!
Showers, showers, showers. Submarine. Everything is wet or damp.
But we are in a good mood. A bit of sunshine and a little less rough sea are welcome.

Haribo helps. It is the Ducttape for moral.

Salt hug from Wouter & JanKees

We called a MSC huge containership on VHF.

“Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe, this is sailingvessel La Promesse, over”

“La Promesse this is Ivanhoe, go ahead”

“Ivanhoe this is La Promesse, good evening captain, we are sailingvessel La Promesse, approximately 1.5 mile on your port bow. We will maintain our course and wondered if you could change your course to port so we pass starboard – starboard, sir?”

“La Promesse this is Ivanhoe, we checked our radar and that is no problem. We will change course to port and pass starboard – starboard”.

“Thank you captain, good watch!”

En zo geschiedde. Haha. Dat was leuk en het voelt goed als je zo’n reus een ommetje kan laten maken. We hebben gezwaaid om te bedanken.

We zijn ervan overtuigd dat de kapitein van de Ivanhoe ( zoek t schip maar eens op) blij was met dit verzetje op een anders hele saaie reis!?

Wouter & JanKees, over en uit. Back to sixteen.

Too rough the ride. High and higher speeds. We fell off waves regularly. From one reef and genoa to double reefed and staysail. Average over last 6 hours is 11,5 kts. Maybe not the fastest but definitely a more relaxed and (bit) more comfortable course. Not a race although I miss GeertjeMarije and Alou. Less than 1.500nm to go. If we can keep up the average we do 250nm p day.

Switched Raymarine off and on to get rid of an annoying alarm showing no gps data. Seems to have worked. Fingers crossed. Although it has no effect on the autopilot an audible alarm can drive you crazy. I asked wouter to hide the hammer.

Good sleep last night. Seven hours with only 5 min breaks every one hour. Bunks are too hot. Only in our underpants on top of the sleeping bag.

Breakfast with…..eggs, bacon, cheddar. Coffee. Hot chocolate.

Beautiful birds come by.
Wouter doing some maintenance.
Hydrogen keeps batteries at 99%. We’ll do two transat’s close to zero co2 emission. 💪⛵️

Ocean is 5.279 metres deep.

From deep blue with love,

Wouter & JanKees

Waiting for the wind to shift sw. Couple of hours suffering to go. 39.37.320n 62.28.830w
1.780nm to go.

Wouter & JanKees