Crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat provided me with the opportunity to really feel freedom. I didn’t need to be anywhere or do anything. One never knows what to expect when they embark on such a trip. Here are my thoughts as I reflect on the foredeck.
Crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat day 6 – Sitting on the foredeck reflecting on the trip
At the beginning of the trip I made notes on my phone to remind me about what we did each day. My notes were mainly in bullet form. As the trip progressed I started to write more and more about our experiences.
So..from this point on you’ll read what I thought and noted exactly as I noted it:
I am sitting on my beanbag on the forward deck shaded by the genoa (poled out) and the gennaker blue and white sail (also poled out). Our main is down and I’d like to keep it that way – those accidental jibes are terrible. We’re going around 3 knots and the larger sail is flapping quite a bit (not enough wind).
Kenny and Andrew are doing the rubbish – cutting plastics into tiny pieces and cramming the scraps into used plastic water bottles. They push the trash into the bottles with the end of a spoon. Last night I saw no boats. Today I can see two with cruising sails out. This morning I played with Sienna for a while, cleaned the saloon, and managed a load of laundry (hand towels and sticky matts) while the water maker was going.
Today we’re having leftovers and ceviche for lunch – that’s coming soon!
I might even shower today as it’s so calm. The boat is still rocking side to side but not as drastic. It’s day six and I have to say that my expectations have seriously been surpassed…I’m enjoying every moment of this experience. The 360 views of different shades of blue, the smells of fresh air, the sounds of wind, sails, waves, the bubbling wake, conversation in the background, THE FOOD, interacting with all my crewmates, playing with Sienna… Do I miss not having internet, news or contact with other people?! No. When Kenny caught the fish a wanted to post a picture on FB but otherwise, I haven’t even had the urge to use the Internet!
I started reading the book Dove. It’s about a 16-year-old boy that set out to sail around the world
Just noticed… For days now I have not seen a plane of the trail of a plane. I have, however, seen loads of flying fish (one pictured above – they landed on our deck every day).
We were going 8 to 9 knots and now that we’re down to 2 to 4 knots moral has slightly dipped.
Everyone had hoped that we’d fly across. For me, however, I feel indifferent. Getting to land a day or two sooner doesn’t seem a worthy focus.
Andrew and Kenny are working AIS again trying to get both plotters working. Currently, there is the only downstairs on. We saw a boat on the horizon, looked them up on AIS and discovered it was s/v Skylark, an ARC participant. Simon gave them a call on the VHF and we enjoyed listing to the skippers from both boats discuss weather, sail configuration, general wellbeing of the crews and of course, the menu for the day. It was great to hear that both boats were enjoying fresh fish!
Still reading? You could be reading this article in book form (paperback or Kindle) and gain access to many of the other articles within the website. There are over 400 🙂 This article about the Atlantic crossing is in my book ‘Changing Lifestyles – Trading in the Rat Race for a sail around the world!‘ The book is almost 400 pages long and details our life on land before we sold up and sailed away, our transition from living on land to living at sea, our voyage around the Mediterranean, Atlantic Crossing and our sail up the Caribbean. It’s a great book for anyone that has ever dreamed of sailing around the world.
What’s Next in our Crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat guide?
- In the next article, find how it feels to sail for one full week. Did I miss land? Was life difficult? Read on to find out how life felt aboard Britican after one week of being at sea: Ocean Sailing.
- In the previous article, day 5, we celebrated American Thanksgiving Day. We had a long discussion about how we needed to handing night watches as we crossed time zones. It was something that I hadn’t even thought about! And we finally caught our first fish. It was a beautiful Mahi-Mahi. Check it out here. Transatlantic Sailing.
- Click here for a general overview of our Atlantic Crossing