tisdag 28 januari 2014

The Atlantic cross

Finally in Tobago


At 11:03 am yesterday, 28 days after take off in Las Palmas we have finally reached our destination, Charlotteville, Tobago

Since we left the only sign of humanity we have seen is one other sailing boat in the horizon. Other than that we have been forced to inhale the appearance of our own bad smelling community.

Though no other people were around as company, we have been visited by some other beautiful creatures. A couple of whales, far bigger than our own home. A lot of fish in different sizes, dolphins and birds, in the middle of Atlantic!?

Some of the fish had the splendid opportunity to step on board Yoldia but unlucky for them they ended up in a pan to provide four crazy sailors with fresh food. During one night shift a flying fish flew right into Martins knee, knocked himself out and suited perfectly well for a lunch the following day. 

When fish were not served, tin food spiced up in all different ways did the job. Not to forget the every day porridge for breakfast. Can't complain on the food served on board. For example the last dinner before hitting shore was fresh tuna fillets fried together wit potatoes and a tomato sauce. 

For some reason the days weren't that boring and long at sea in my point of view. The fact that cooking, go to the toilet and even move two meters takes about double time on board, combined with reading, chatting and a lot of thinking made your day linger on until it was time for your night shift.

The weather though was a bit worse than I thought it would be. Good winds and mostly very easy sailing but a lot of rain. For a couple of days we had really band wind unfortunately and for 24 hours we had none.

The frustration and loneliness during that day is hard to describe. The boat, your life, your responsibility for three other dudes lives are stuck in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the Atlantic. With no chance of getting out of there until Ägir has decided your fate. Questions as, did I take us too far north, have we got enough of water for a couple of extra weeks?, are eating your brain. Sound in this text like the captain freaked out and panicked which wasn't the case at all but a little concerned by the turning point of the situation I was.

Anyway, the wind started to blow again, I headed south, just to be sure and soon we were back on track.

Among a lot of beautiful sun sets and sun rises and other creations of nature, the star bright nights were the best. Like a firework in the sky the milkyway looked down on us while the ocean along the boat was full of plankton which made a fantastic gloom. It was times like these I think we all wished a mermaid would show herself among the green shiny dots.

The new crew had a rather though first week fighting the sea sickness and were probably wondering what they were doing in a small boat crossing the Atlantic. To me it felt like when you show your favorite movie to a friend who doesn't pay attention at all and are on the phone during the best bits. But what can you do, just enjoy it yourself, and that I did. 

They got better though and were an awesome crew during the rest of the travel.

You know your sense of distance is a bit crazy when you look at the Gps and utter: Its only 1000 nautical miles left, (1852 km). Atlantic is pretty big and the travel was long enough to think through a whole lotta things in life. 

Thank you Martin, Antonia and Benoît for sharing this experience with me, now it's time for a couple of days consuming ice-cream beer and the wild nature of Paradise.

Cheers mate!