Across the Atlantic

Not many people can say they have crossed the Atlantic on a boat from one continent to the next, in our case from South Africa to South America. It will be a first time for my three fellow crew members aboard SV Jubilee. We are not stopping at Brazil, we will be closest about fifty miles offshore and up to two hundred and fifty nautical miles when we sail across the Amazon river. Following the continental shelf we will be riding the Guiana current, which flows up to three and a half knots. It makes for fast passage times. About two thousand miles from the north eastern tip of Brazil to St.Lucia, and we often do it in ten days, quite a bit faster than fourteen days it would normally take us to cover two thousand nautical miles.

We are less than one hundred miles from Brazil, and will be arriving there early tomorrow. It will be my forty eighth time I cross the Atlantic, and I know what to expect and how to maximize the current and wind. Perfectly positioned to hook up into the Guiana current, we are already benefitting from the South Equatorial current, which flows into the Guiana.

It will also be the first time my fellow crewmembers cross the equator by boat as well, and it is quite a milestone. There are different traditions and rituals for crossing the equator. It mostly comes down to being grateful for a safe passage thus far. If you are interested in the types of initiations to welcome new members into the fold of this elite club, you can Google it.

Sailors also traditionally would have a swallow tattooed for every time they cross the equator. Often Neptune or Poseidon are also offered a swig of rum or whisky or whatever grog is aboard. We don't drink alcohol at all when we do crossings like this. We do have some on board though for various other purposes, mostly to spray into the gills of a fish we just caught. It knocks the fish out quickly, and preferable to using a knife or a club to kill the fish. Lots of blood and a fish with a hook in it's mouth can be dangerous when it is flopping all around the deck.

Currently we are sailing beautifully, and have been doing for a while now. A little different than a few days ago is that we have some rain showers, the wind increases quite a bit as the rain approaches, and sometimes changes direction. Little squalls, but big enough to let us drop our gennaker, and sail with the genoa. We don't want more than sixteen knots apparent wind in our gennaker for various reasons, and with the squalls now and then, the wind pipes up to thirty two knots true wind speed, which gives us at least twenty two knots apparent wind in the sails. We have however come a long way, and to drop the sail takes us a minute or two. Day or night, whenever required. The genoa is then furled out, and we sail the stronger spells of wind safely.

All is exceedingly well aboard SV Jubilee. I wish you a wonderful weekend.

Paul





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