In our Sailing over Atlantic guide entry, we created a design your own hat contest, I had a fright with the moon, and I start getting sentimental.
Sailing over Atlantic day 16 – Design Your Own Hat Contest
Sienna woke at 5:30 local time at 9:30 Las Palmas time. She’s been getting long sleeps – we all go to bed once the sun sets and dinner is done – sometimes as early as 7 pm. That is, all of us that are not on watch. Last night was quite wet – Simon said his watch was full of rain.
While lying in bed I thought up an idea to have a ‘design your hat’ contest. I pulled out colored paper, glue, scissors, string, stickers and other odds and sods. I placed everything on the table and said the judging will be at 5 pm before dinner.
Everyone spent quite a bit of time doing the hats. Andrew, however, took all-day.
At 5 we all met up in the cockpit while sailing over Atlantic. The hats were all fantastic (see pictures). Kenny won the competition with his fisherman fishing entry with Murray coming in second place with his hat housing a replica of Britican made from a plastic bottle, tissue paper, string and pipe cleaners.
Everyone enjoyed the task and there were lots of laughs
Kenny won a much sought after Twix candy bar and was as happy as could be. Just before the hat competition, we came across another boat. It was the first boat in 18 days that we got close enough to see the crew, wave and take pictures.
Before our meeting on the sea, Simon called the boat on VHF to say Hi. The crew was Italian so we all shouted Bonjourno, and any other Italian words we could come up with. The Italian boat left Lanzorate (a Canary Island) on the 18th (4 days before we left).
They were only flying a genoa and had no poles so progress for them was slow. I think they mentioned an average of 100 miles per day. While passing we all shouted our hello’s.
I just had a fright sailing over Atlantic!
I’m on night watch alone (I’m letting Kenny sleep) and after getting up to survey the horizon for boats (there’s one coming up on our port side) I turned around to see a large line of orange on where the sea meets the sky. When such a splash of color makes an appearance in an otherwise black backdrop one takes notice.
In fact, any time something out of the ordinary happens a sea I seem to get a little surge of adrenalin. In this particular case, it’s the moon coming up – it’s 3:31 am local time. So I’ve got a boat and the moon to watch.
I do love being alone on a night watch.
The stars, constellations, planets, satellites, and comets truly come alive. The amazing thing I’ve noted that’s different in the Atlantic is that stars appear just above the horizon.
In the Med, you’d have to look up quite a distance above the horizon to start seeing stars. I wish I could take a picture of the moon for you right now. Venus is just above it and it looks as if the crescent shape of the moon is chasing the planet so it can eat it. The planet is big, bold and solid. The moon is soft, small and yellow-orange.
The air is humid – I’m in shorts and a t-shirt and am very comfortable.
The breeze is perfect. We’re sailing at 6 knots with our genoa and staysail poled out. The sea is so calm. There’s still a swell and a substantial rolling back and forth motion but overall it’s such an easy sail sailing over Atlantic.
Have I missed anything from the day’s occurrences?
Well… Eve made pancakes and bacon for lunch, Simon heated up a curry he made before we left (and froze), Sienna and I did a Xmas painting decoration, Sim did Sienna’s homeschooling (letter ‘g’ and Ocean occupations), sails were swapped around due to the changing direction of the wind, discussions were held about whose winning and losing at the ‘guess our mileage in 24 hours game,’ and I finished the book ‘Dove.’
I just got up to check the position of the boat on our port side.
At first, I couldn’t find them so I stood up higher and found relief in a faint white light. The boat is not on AIS (shows up on out navigation screen) so I like to keep an eye on it. It’s much more comforting when there are other boats to look at. Otherwise, it’s just darkness for 360 along the horizon sailing over Atlantic.
We had one cargo ship pass us today so it’s been a busy day for spottings. Also, the guys saw a whale – they think it was a pilot whale. Murray and Simon saw a dorsal fin and a blowhole blow. I was so disappointed when I came on deck to find nothing but waves 🙁
After our curry, we all sat up in the cockpit for a chat.
In the darkness, we enjoyed talking about the trip and how well everything has gone. Even though I had various issues, and did want to die a few times, overall this trip has been an exceptional experience.
I couldn’t have asked for a better mix of crew – everyone has been kind, helpful and fun. Our daughter Sienna has been amazing. In two weeks she’s only had one breakdown and that was due to her being overtired. Aside from constantly wanting to eat or have a sweetie, she’s been busy with homeschooling, crafts, games, movies, playing and helping with some chores. Over the weeks I’ve watched her gain more confidence with everyone around her – she contributed to discussions and is treated like a little adult.
(It’s 4 am and I should wake Kenny but he’s been very tired lately. I want to let him get more sleep). Before my battery dies is there anything else to comment on? Nope. Going to play on the iPad for a while…
What’s Next in our sailing over Atlantic sailing guide?
- In the next article, we fly our spinnaker. Find out how it goes with our Atlantic Crossing with Spinnaker.
- In the previous article, I discuss how our Oyster 56′, an ocean cruising yacht did us proud while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We might have bent a stanchion, ripped a sail and damaged a few other cosmetic things but overall the yacht was wonderful (and fast)! Check out Ocean Cruising Yacht.
- Click here for a general overview of our Atlantic Crossing