Archiv

CW38 2001

16.09.2001 - 23.09.2001

Today is Sunday, September 19, and we're still in Gibraltar. Judging by the morning's first weather forecast it seems we'll spend another day here.
Around noon there's another weather forecast and this one sounds a lot better, so we'll leave today! Crossing through the Straight of Gibraltar one has to pay attention to high tide and the next high tide is at 2.30 p.m., and that's when we can leave.
3 p.m., we're ready, we leave Gibraltar behind us and start our journey to the Canary Islands. 650 nautic miles lie ahead of us. Let's go.
During the first miles we already spot our first dolphin.
We've been on our way for three hours and we've hardly moved. Our engine is doing 2500 revs/min and we're barely making 3.5 knots.
Due to the storm of the last days the sea is still very lashed up and we're not only fighting against the current but also against a very high swell. It's rather useless fighting it any longer, so we change our course and head towards Tarifa. We drop anchor at an old mole and have a safe place for the night.


The night ends at 4.30 am Monday morning. After a good breakfast we weight anchor and an hour later we're on our way.
Today our progress is slow again at first. We're barely making 9 N.M. in three hours, due to the never-ending current. But after 5 hours of fighting the current we can finally set sail and turn of the engine.
What unfortunately doesn't work is the course we chose. The wind is not in our favour. So we change course in order to be able to sail.
This change of course is fortunate for someone. In the late afternoon we're 4 aboard!

A tiny, totally exhausted little birds sits on our deck. A titmouse or something of that kind. The little one is rather lost, so far from the coast. To strengthen him we put a small bowl of water and a few breadcrumbs towards him. It takes a while, then he picks at the water bowl, but he ignores the breadcrumbs. A little later the small bird takes off again is disappears. But not long and he's back, sitting in the rear, eating a moth. A lot of insects are caught in the white sails and the bird flys up there to get his dinner. So he fetches one insect after the other and munches them happily. Then something which is hard to believe happens: the little bird lets himself be touched and stroked. And not just that, Andi even has him sitting on his hand.

Thomas also holds that cute thing on his hand. From there he crawls up Toms arm and finally actually cuddles himself against Thomas.
And Thomas is sitting there, cuddling with the little bird.
Unbelievable that a wild bird gets so trusting in such a short time.
Well, in that case the little one needs a bed, or rather a nest. Out of a small towel and zaisings (those are strings used to tie the sail together when not in use) we make a nest and Thomas puts the little bird in there and he really stays sitting in there. The little darling sleeps in there the whole night. Cute! We're not as lucky as the little bird, we have to stand guard all night, but unfortunately not while sailing. No wind!
Tom and Andi take the first shift until 1 am, then we change and Andi and I take the next two hours together and then Andi can also get some sleep.
There are plenty of fatsos around which means paying attention and above all, to make way. But between those manoeuvres there's plenty of time to admire the amazing night sky with all those stars.


It's almost 6 am on Tuesday morning and we set sail and change guard, it's Thomas turn again to stand guard.
From today on we'll change guard every 3 hours and that, of course, around the clock.
Unfortunately the wind doesn't stay for long and after barely one hour we take the sails down again and start the engine.
The little bird is also awake and comes flapping out of his nest. As if he wanted to say „good-bye" he flys directly to Thomas, sits next to him, lets himself get stroked again and flys to the binoculars. He leaves a farewell note on the binoculars and disappears.
A little later something bigger is to be seen. Andi spots a whale coming up not far from us!
The wind's really not doing much for us today, only blowing from the Southwest and that's not good for us at all. In the afternoon, around 3pm, the wind turns and we can set sail, and actually we should change guard, but that gets delayed since the fishing line is running out - a fish! A nice Dorade hangs from the hook. Anglers luck!

After taking care of the fish we set sail and cruise along nicely, making quite good progress. Unfortunately it doesn't stay that way through the night. We have to motor-cruise again. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, around 4.30 am, there's wind again and we set sail. This time the wind stays a little longer and we can sail until noon. Then we have to turn the engine on and later we can sail again nicely. Turning on the engine now and again isn't too bad, after all we do need some electricity. Today we have visitors again for a few hours. There are 2 birds aboard again. But these only sit on the railing and travel with us for a few miles.

„Our" little bird was absolutely unique!
Today we're baking bread aboard, full-grain bread. And for dinner we're having the nice fish we caught with potato salad.
What we're not having today: the culinary excursion. Cancelled!
Since we can sail through the night and part of the day we prepare ourselves for the night and reef the main sail.
In this night you can't see much of the stars since the sky is clouded. But then, there are plenty of stars in the water, right behind and under us.
Plankton, phosphorescent plankton is sparkling as if it were raining stars. How can I describe that? You could also compare it to a firework, with one of those rockets that produce a shower of stars. And we're kind of sailing in a permanent firework, around the stern, on the left and right of the ship, well, everywhere where the water is moved and this plankton is close to the surface.
And then there are a few dolphins. Dolphins at night. And they are also followed by a long, bright trail, diving and reappearing right next to us. Only for a short while, but incredibly beautiful!
Less beautiful: around 4 am on Thursday morning the wind starts coming from all directions, getting weaker and weaker and finally vanishes, so we're hardly moving. So we start the engine, bring down the sails and that's how it stays until the afternoon.

And here's a first for today: Andi caught his first fish, a nice tuna fish! Anglers luck! Well, if the men continue fishing like that our food supplies will last forever. It's seems the Americans are doing something with the GPS. Looking at the display of our GPS we see that we are travelling at a speed of more than 300 knots, and nothing else is correct either. Why might that be? One thing is for sure: it's not over yet. By listening to the news on „Deutsche Welle" (a German radio program) we're trying to stay up-to-date on what's happening in the world since this terrible catastrophe in New York. After 2 hours the GPS is working just fine again. So apparently somebody was tampering with it.

Sailing doesn't work out to well today. Only in the evening do we get enough wind to sail again. And to prevent the night from getting too hectic we reef the main sail again and are prepared for the night.
But it doesn't last all night, at 3 am it's over and we're motor-cruising again.


Friday and there are still 183 N.M. ahead of us, but 16 knots wind against us, coming straight at us. That's really not nice. We're crossing back and forth, but hardly any progress. Almost like the tortoise drifting past us - it's also only paddling along.
What we're also not getting is a proper weather forecast. Around noon we meet the container freighter MONTE ROSA from Hamburg and Tom asks them via radio if they have a proper weather forecast. The captain, answering the radio himself, tells us that they also only have the forecast we've been getting for the last few days, and which isn't correct. After all, they're predicting the wind we'd really like to have and that usually blows here at this time of the year, which is wind from the Northeast with wind force up to 5. Mumble jumble, nothing's happening!
Nevertheless we will sail and if we have to cross all the time. By now we're actually picking up speed, even though we're meeting pretty rough seas.
This morning at 7am we set sail again and they stay up all day until night falls. We even added a second reef.
Around midnight the wind gets so strong we have to put a third reef into the main sail and all three of us are on deck. There, and with a rather small sail we travel through the night. And what a night!
The increasing wind has produced quite a swell and in addition there's a thunderstorm forming in front of us. It's 2 am on Saturday morning as I detect the storm on the radar and there's no way of avoiding it. Hardly one hour later the night is over for Thomas because we're right in the middle of the thunderstorm. We quickly reduce the genua even further and the hell brakes loose.
The rain is pouring, water is just falling out of the sky and the wind is howling around us with up to 30 knots, not to mention the several meters high waves we have to cross through. At 4.30 am Andi also has to leave his bunk and we're all on deck again. At least it's an opportunity for Andi to test his oilcloth - and to test it thoroughly!
Having started the engine and taken down the sail it's hard work to keep the ship on course.
Around 5.30 the worst is over and we've come through the thunderstorm. That was it!
And that's how the 95th day of our journey started, Saturday, September 22.
After this night we all need a huge breakfast and I need some extra sleep. And another extra: the starboard engine dies on us. The extreme up- and down motion has probably loosened dirt in the diesel tanks and that's now clogging the diesel pipe. Which means that Thomas has to go to the engine room!
In the afternoon he's finished with that and the engine is purring again. Then we fill diesel form the canisters into the tanks and everything's fine.
It's 5 p.m. and we still have 100 N.M. ahead of us. So we prepare for the night, reef the main sail and also empty the water closets into the pan and now we're ready for the night and say bye for today and this week.

Our arrival at the Canary Islands and everything the new week offered us … next week here!
Same place, same time!
So long
Greetings from
Diana + Tom
and Andi