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Breakfast with Fred, after making landfall in Grenada
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Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands and some of the market place
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Anyone for Fresh Tuna?
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Fresh veggie market in Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands
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People looking to sail across the Atlantic Ocean as crew, along with things to sell in Las Palmas, Canarie Islands
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Savannah Sky's intrepid crew at the dock in Las Palmas Canary Islands. Before setting sail across the Atlantic Ocean
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Now that's a Wahoo! Fisherman Fred with Charlie showing the fish we released back into the Ocean.
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Fred still fishing. What else was there to do?
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Captain Steve sailing along, sailing along
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Fred and Anina, mid-Atlantic Ocean
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Maria, Mid-Atlantic Ocean
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Anina coming to the rescue of a bird in the Cape Verde Islands
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Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands. Notice all the Sahara sand we are walking along!
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Local Cape Verde Rum
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Mindelo's fantastic shoreline
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Maria and Charlie being tourists on a bus. The guy on the left might just be Fred or a stalker, ha ha
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Our tour bus in the Cape Verde Islands
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Anina enjoying her coffee in mid-Atlantic Ocean. So happy we didn't run out of coffee!
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Fisherman Fred still trying to catch the big one
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Captain Steve and Fred reeling an empty line in
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Savannah Sky's missing lifeline after the crash gybe
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Maria enjoying having Starlink along for the ride. Just not the position Starlink was initially mounted!
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Fred, waiting to leave for our voyage
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Anina, Steve and Charlie, also ready to leave on the journey
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Maria also looks ready to leave!
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Colorful Las Palmas, Canary Islands
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Steve and Fred still fishing. Notice the yellow yo yo that was donated to the sea, one stormy night
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Arrival at Grenada, Caribbean. The crew still looks happy!
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S/Y Savannah Sky – December
23, 2023 – Log #15
Savannah Sky Position: 13 degrees 00’ N, 061 degrees 24’ W
Bequia, St. Vincent/Grenadines, Caribbean
Christmas
in da Caribbean
Oh, so
much water has passed under Savannah Sky since the last blog. Sorry it has taken so long to write anything.
We’ve
been a bit busy, as you can imagine.
Yes, we
completed the ARC+ sailing Rally, sailing safely across the Atlantic Ocean.
Here
are a few highlights of our long journey to the Caribbean:
We left
Las Palmas, Canary Islands on November 5, 2023 and sailed for five days,
arriving in verdant, Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands.
Well,
the Cape Verde Islands are not really green, that’s for sure. Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands is African, with
a Portuguese twist in a mostly barren and dry landscape.
Yet the
local people were so friendly and happy to see all of us sailors.
The
sail from the Canary Islands to Mindelo had a bit of drama.
After
the starting line cannon went off at Las Palmas, we sailed for about 20 minutes
before our autopilot went crazy, headed off in the wrong direction and quit
working.
I
immediately did a u-turn and headed back toward the marina.
Then
the autopilot decided it was happy and began working, much to everyone’s
surprise.
So then
we did another u-turn and set course for Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands once again.
There
was no wind at the beginning of our voyage, so we drifted along for what seemed
forever, before Maria decided 3 knots was slow enough. Captain Steve turned the
engine on and picked up speed dramatically.
The
second night of the passage, winds finally increased too much but we were able
to sail downwind toward the Cape Verde Islands.
Luckily
(?), when Captain Steve was on watch, with Maria sitting right next to him, a
strong microburst suddenly hit Savanna Sky with 40+ knots of wind and big seas.
The
autopilot decided to quickly go into hiding, causing Savanna Sky to violently
and immediately gybe, triggering the boom to switch sides of the boat, despite
being stopped from doing so by what is called a preventer.
The
preventer does not allow the boom to switch sides of the boat, in an
uncontrolled gype, or so the theory goes.
Unfortunately
for us, the preventer catastrophically destroyed the incredibly strong dyneema
line holding the boom on the correct side of the boat, sending our powerful
boom hurtling to the other side of the boat in an uncontrolled gybe.
Oh, I
should mention that when the preventer destroyed our dyneema line, it shattered
our wire lifelines with the boom attachments, ripping the lifelines off the
side of the boat, as it traveled to the other side of Savannah Sky.
We were
incredibly lucky the preventer didn’t take our mast and wire rigging with it as
well.
Our
other three crew members rushed out into the cockpit, hearing the explosions
from rupturing dyneema and lifelines.
We were
all shocked to say the least.
Quickly
securing everything and assessing the damage, we continued on our way to
Mindelo, never trusting the autopilot nor dyneema lines again.
Mindelo,
Cape Verde Islands was packed with 94 ARC+ boats, all ready to party, once
repairs were done to nearly every boat.
Torn
sails, shattered lifelines, broken rigging, you name it and it happened to the
group of 94 ARC+ boats during the extremely difficult passage from the Canary
Islands to Mindelo.
Support
facilities in the Cape Verde Islands were unmatched in their ability to get the
fleet repaired and on our way again.
In such
a poor and remote country as the Cape Verdes, who could have imagined the
fantastic level of expertise for sailing vessels that existed. Wow.
In less
than a week, after so many parties, celebrations, repairs and island
explorations, there was another starting line and off the fleet went, sailing
across the Atlantic Ocean toward Grenada in the Caribbean.
Savannah
Sky had light winds, directly behind her, as we made slow progress each day in
the Atlantic. Crew moral was high,
mainly due to Maria’s fantastic galley preparations day and night.
Watches
were 3 hours on and then sometimes 9 hours off, depending on the person’s
schedule.
Of
course Maria didn’t take a formal watch since she prepared meals at all hours
of the day and night for us. Thank you
for that!
Fred
caught a fish the second day of the crossing, with his hand line called a yo
yo.
No one
was certain what kind of fish it was, but it wasn’t big enough to justify blood
and guts all over the boat so we released the fish back to the deep depths of
the ocean.
We then
found out the fish was a Wahoo, one of the best eating fishes one could
catch. Oh well!
Days
turned into nights, one after another after another, as an endless sea pushed
us forever forward toward our destination to the west.
Unfortunately,
Savannah Sky did not have a proper downwind sailing rig, so we were forced to carefully
gybe back and forth as we maintained a westward course toward the setting sun.
Steve
and Anina had daily discussions about the weather, with different opinions as
is customary amongst sailors, ha ha.
Luckily,
Fred decided to bring his new Starlink satellite data system along, giving us
the ability to download weather, emails and we could have even watched movies
online if we wanted. Starlink has
revolutionized data reception and transmission everywhere on Earth.
Starlink
speeds are phenomenal, much better than any broadband or cable service on
land. Elon Musk has revolutionized
communication throughout the globe we call Earth.
Starlink
does require quite a lot of power so we only turned it on three times a day, or
when anyone really wanted to use it.
Charlie
had the 10 pm to 1 am night watch.
Luckily for us, Charlie was on watch one night when he spotted something
moving next to Savannah Sky’s bow wake.
Charlie
yelled for me and I sprinted into the cockpit, knowing Charlie was our rock and
unfazed by small problems when sailing.
Sliding
by on Savannah Sky’s port sky, less than a foot away from us, was a large,
black inflatable dinghy, incredibly illuminated in the moonlight.
Charlie
said, “Did you see it?”
I
shouted yes, as the wayward 24-foot dinghy bounced in Savannah Sky’s wake.
The
rest of the crew rushed out, with Fred using his 2-mile strong flashlight to
make the object appear as if bathed in daylight.
There
was no sign of life in the wayward dinghy or adjacent waters, as far as we
could see.
Due to
rough sailing conditions and absolute darkness, as well as to keep our crew and
vessel safe, we did not turn around and investigate the abandoned vessel. It was a risk we would not accept.
That
encounter made for one exciting night watch for Charlie, and all of us too.
About
one day out of Grenada, Anina was hoping one of her ocean current predictions
would materialize. For Anina, currents
matter.
We
sailed very far south, with the island of Tobago not far off our port side when
the elusive north setting current finally appeared, shooting Savannah Sky
toward Grenada on an excellent point of sail.
It was
04:19 in the morning of our 18th day when we crossed the finish line
for the ARC+ sailing rally across the Atlantic Ocean.
Savannah
Sky brought her crew safely across the mighty Atlantic Ocean without any major
breakdowns or high drama on this leg of the journey.
Five
very tired sailors were welcomed to the dock at Port Louis Marina, St. Georges,
Grenada as a new sun brought a glimmer of light to the eastern horizon.
Thank
you all for following along with our trackers and thinking of us, out on that
big blue ocean, all alone with only endless miles of water in every direction.
Crossing
an Ocean is an incredible achievement, especially on a sailboat such as
Savannah Sky.
Fred
realized how big an adventure that was for him and got a fitting tattoo to mark
the auspicious accomplishment.
We’ve
all marveled in what it took to remain friends, being confined on a small
sailboat for 18 days, together, and sharing this journey of a lifetime.
Upon
arriving in Grenada, Charlie and Anina flew to Trinidad, where their sailboat
Prism was waiting for them.
Fred
took a taxi from the marina to unite with Dakota Dream, his catamaran, to enjoy
sailing in the warm Caribbean Sea this season.
Catamaran? Yes, that was one of our worries about
Fred. He is a catamaran sailor so how
would he adjust to sailing a monohull sailboat across an ocean?
No
worries.
Fred
did great and we even think Fred might have converted to a monohull sailor,
well, maybe not. He says he won’t ever
like rolling downwind again with his sailing adventures.
For
Maria and myself, we cleaned Savannah Sky, refueled, decompressed a bit, before
sailing north to where we are now: Bequia.
It’s
Christmas in the Caribbean.
Time to
shelve the ole log book and enjoy the holiday spirit in da islands, where we
will spend Christmas Day with Fred, Anina and Charlie, along with a few other
of our sailing friends here in Sweet Bequia, celebrating the holiday season.
Merry
Christmas one and all. And Happy New
Year!
Sail
on, sail on Savannah Sky…
