We Did It!

It took a little under 17 days, but we did it, we crossed the Atlantic!

Wow, that is a big ocean.

Here is our VERY happy crew just as we arrived in St. Lucia.

As the day of the start approached (Sunday, Nov 21), we were monitoring the weather models and growing increasingly concerned. There was a 1500 mile wide storm barreling down on the Canaries that was predicted to make for an upwind start (this crossing is supposed to be downwind all the way!). If you didn't play your cards right, it could also mean potentially some very rough or even dangerous sailing. So we decided to leave a day early, on the 20th. We left at dawn under calm winds and flat seas:

Avoiding any potential of the storm or upwind sailing, however, meant crossing a 500 mile wide high-pressure system that lay between the SW'erly storm winds and the NE'erly trade winds further south. So we steered a course more or less due south from the Canaries, east of the rhumb line between the Canaries & the Cape Verde Islands. That added a lot of extra distance to the 2700 NM course (we probably sailed about 3500 NM), but despite the frustration of no wind, we were happy to be in calm seas given Ryan's previous propensity for seasickness.

It also meant we motored for the better part of the first 5 days, at a painfully slow 4.5 knots in order to conserve fuel. We brought 13 extra jerry cans of fuel aboard, but needing it to charge batteries and for emergencies, we needed to be very stingy about our fuel usage. Or plan was to continue straight through to St. Lucia if we could conserve enough fuel, but we also had the option to make a detour and stop and refuel in the Cape Verde Islands if need be.

Ryan helped us make the most of calm conditions, leading yoga sessions and guided meditations (notice the bowl for ringing).

Ryan executing the little known yoga pose "strechy starfish":

The lighter winds also meant we got visited by lots of dolphins:

Fortunately, by being conservative with our fuel usage we were able to skip the detour to the Cape Verdes and continue straight on to St. Lucia. Around Day 6, we started to get some light N'erly winds that eventually built into the typical NE and E trade winds, and off we were across the ocean! From that point, it was more or less straight downwind for 10 more days, riding big ocean swells and 15-25 knots of wind all the way:

We also had a few things to celebrate along the way. Nov 22nd was Jason's birthday, and the 26th was Thanksgiving, of course.

Ryan got creative, and made uncle Jason feel special on his birthday. It was great to have the girls decorating the boat and thinking about holidays and birthdays to give some sense of time when it was day after day at sea.

Now many of you will be wondering how Ryan did with her seasickness. She did great! We got her started on the seasickness meds early and we were religious about her taking them on time, every time. She did get sick one time, in the middle of the trip, but other than that she was doing fine and being her usual entertaining, all-consuming self.

Kenning took it upon herself to be the one providing creature comforts while we were at sea. She laid out snacks for the overnight watches every night after dinner she baked cookies! That's right, we had fresh baked cookies every night on the crossing, as well as some tasty banana bread and zucchini bread, too. I can't tell you how great it is when you're out there in the elements to have fresh, warm cookies. It was amazing.

We did have a few breakdowns along the way, but nothing too major. The spinnaker that we ripped on the way down from Gibraltar to the Canaries blew out again after just a few more hours in the air. Not really a surprise there, but definitely a disappointment, as it meant that we sailed the vast majority of the time with spinnakers that weren't made for our boat and were very undersized. And then we blew out another spinnaker, which left one of our two spinnaker halyards at the top of the mast. We decided not to send someone up the rig in the open ocean (due to risk of injury) and instead rigged a retriever line for the second halyard in case a spinnaker should blow out again. But we made it work. And Kenning and Katie were key to keeping our constantly-ripping spinnakers in good working order:

Overall, it was an incredible, difficult, beautiful, trying, exhilarating and monotonouse experience all wrapped in one. Katie & Jason were amazing -- honestly, I don't think we could have done it without their experience and unwavering positivity. Sailing across thousands of miles of ocean came with a fair bit of stress (so many 'what-ifs' to anticipate and plan for), but no where else could you experience the serenity of the rolling ocean, the intensity of the stars every night, and feeling that no matter what, you're out there and it's up to you come what may.

Next up, you'll hear from the girls on what they thought, and we'll start to share what we've been up to in St. Lucia, and where we're going next!