A fantastic adventure!

After 21 days at sea, here I am in St Martin, an island of the Caribbean, half French half Dutch. My feelings are mixed when I think of touching land. I am happy to have at last a good night of sleep without rocking or rolling, but I am sad too as it means the end of this adventure, and a bit anxious too to find again the noise, pollution of the civilization and to tell the truth, to face the preoccupations of life on earth.
Life on board is really simple, without other responsibility than sail the boat. Back to simple things, eat, sleep, listen to the music, read, be on watch, fish, write, talk to crew mates and look around…

21 days of happiness at sea. Blue, blue, only blue! Some people asked me before I left: ‘but aren’t you afraid of getting bored?’ I never got fed up with the immensity of the ocean, its beauty, calmness and endless flow! I have known moments of internal peace, serenity, looking at this never ending wave of blue, spreading on a 360 degrees angle, moments of euphoria too when the swell was big and that Lola was surfing and speeding up fantastically, or when she was laying on one side… making me freak out… but always coming back!

Sunrises, awesome sunsets, phosphorescent plankton making like a bride’s veil at the back of the boat and sparkling explosions on its sides, beautiful nights with stars, especially on the night of Friday the 14th of December, with a fireworks show, heaps of green shooting stars starting in the sky like fireworks and leaving well marked tracks in the sky !

Mother Nature is really surprising. This same Friday, we spotted fish jumping out of the water, finally recognized tuna… and suddenly saw some of them, massive, swimming just below the water… certainly hunt by bigger fish… something none of us ever saw in our lives!!! They might have been hunt by our friends the dolphins as these ones turned up later on, offering us a fantastic festival! Around a dozen stayed with us for one hour, swimming at the front, going from one side to the other, competing to be the fastest, for our biggest pleasure! The best moment was when some mothers swam along with their baby under their tummy, the mothers having a different color, like a tiger instead of being just grey like other adults… we were all at the front enjoying the show and one of the babies made us crack up! He offered us a one man show, swimming on its back and showing us its white tummy as if to say: ‘Look Mummy, I can do it even on my back!’… Magical moment I will never forget…

The same day, we caught a small tuna, then getting greedy as it bit small and excited after seeing the tuna in the water, we put the line back in the water… to finally loose our lucky calamari… then the rest of our line! Too greedy on that one, we had different hooks on the line and guess the weight of the tunas on the line was too much and broke it! Too bad…! We caught up later on during the crossing with heaps of dorado’s, the last one caught being the biggest and most beautiful with blue bright spots, a coryphée one…
Dorado marinated in coco milk, grilled with garlic, cooked in the oven wrapped in foil paper with veggies, in the casserole, with curry… we ate it of all manners… and loved it however cooked!
Talking of dorado’s, one of them really saved us some troubles… on the 21st of December, just after finishing our lunch, the bell put on the fishing line rang, we hurry up to roll in the gen and suddenly got caught in a squall… reacting quickly, Christophe keeps the fishing line in one hand, his plate on the other one, and finally takes the dorado back inside the boat, and ends up killing it to our big surprise slamming it with the winch handle… violent but efficient! To his defense, we have to say that we did not have time to mock around… with 30 knots of wind, Rachel steering to face the wind, we take a first riff … and suddenly here we are, bent on one side, Rachel stressed out with all her weight on the wheel to get the boat back, us tensed too, praying for Lola to come back… and at last… the relief, the boat finally decides to obey us and comes back to the horizontal position… We quickly take another riff in the main sail and look at each other, cracking up, still under shock and happy to be back to normal !
What an awesome team, well coordinated on maneuvers! This adventure really made us closer, and when looking back, we will always remember this moment with a lot of pleasure… adrenaline hard out… thanks my dear dorado who enabled us to roll in the gen and then have less sails when we’ve been hit by the squall ! What a great gift for Christophe on his birthday! Sure he won’t forget that one!!!

Talking about squalls, we saw heaps of them… to tell the truth, our sailing conditions at the start were pretty calm. We had to go down south to catch the alizes, getting closer to the Cape Verde islands, ashore from Senegal. We then had tougher conditions at the end, sailing downwind with wind between 20 and 35 knots… enough to get sensations and freak out too… even with 2 riffs in the main sail, I remember some tough watches at night when Lola was heeling from one side to another, filling up the cockpit with water… white nights, where everybody finished up on deck, not being able to sleep, and finally cracking up, a little bit hysterical really because of the tiredness… difficult moments which brought us closer… so much for those who thing crossing the Atlantic is a nice cruise…!

One of the interesting aspects of this crossing was to sail with other boats. We left on Wednesday the 12th of December, Mistral, my previous boat left first, then Lata Pata with Jordi and Carlos, 2 Catalans, Eazy 3 with Vincent, Peter and Olaf, 3 Dutch guys, and then Lola with Rachel, Jordi’s girlfriend, Christophe and I. What a great moment when we left the marina of Las Palmas… a little bit sad not to have Mike and George with me but happy to know they would be sailing with us… we finally lost them 3 days later as we had to keep moving and deliver the boat in time… what a pity… I had the chance to talk to George the night before on the VHF and it was really cool to be in contact with her… I have no regrets on that one as I was so happy to sail with a cool captain, open minded and respectful like Rachel. We really got on well us two and had a good time together. No need to say that we’ll keep in touch in the future!

It was nice then to have some company, to look at the other boats sailing, to call them on the radio to give each other information, joke… and to race… we had a mini regatta with Eazy 3 who tried to overtake us… with no success as Rachel and I trimmed the sails like crazy to stay ahead… another fun moment!
Another positive aspect of sailing together was the exchanges…potatoes and onions against batteries and fishing line… and not to forget the moral support when one had to face problems.
Eazy 3 had a problem with the gen, whose shackle got loose and broke off, freeing the sail. When it happened, they were quite far from us and we had to go towards them just in case. We could watch Vincent climbing up the mast to fix things… how impressive to see this black dot up the mast, swinging with the swell…

10 days later, on the 28th of December, it was our turn… sailing with the gen only with a strong wind, the auto pilot went off which did not resist the pressure and went down the mast to reach the water!
Here again, we had to handle the situation and stress involved. .. wind blowing around 30 knots… making it impossible to do anything in those conditions, with squalls coming and going and a big swell… we took advantage of the first wind window with the wind blowing only at 22 knots: Rachel puts her harness on, and climbs up the mast, lifted by Christophe, stressed out on the winch, aware of his responsibilities. I, Rachel asked me to steer the boat, and I have the delicate mission to avoid the rolling of the boat… what a stress! I kept on looking behind me to know how the waves were coming, as it was a real mess… nice work anyway for all the team… except for 2 waves who were a little bit messy, Lola surfed the waves, Christophe did not drop Rachel who went down the mast safe and sound after releasing the part blocked at the top…
Mutual congratulations of the team about how we handled the situation, and relief… as another squall was coming, just as Rachel was back down the mast! We then put the gen up the mast, taking advantage of another wind window, and went back on course. The other boats watched us during the whole process and told is it was really impressive to see Rachel swinging up the mast… like a grain of salt in the sea…
What a great experience it’s been for me… I will never forget it… I’ve never been that stressed out by the fact that I was responsible for somebody’s safety and I thank Rachel for trusting me… she told me later than I had done a great job as steering in these conditions was the most scary position and she confessed that she had preferred going up the mast rather than having to steer and being responsible for somebody’s safety… … waouah…

We had other freaky moments, like when all the navigation instruments stopped working… I had to steer the boat while we tried to fix it… we finally found out it was the anchor switch which had messed up everything… electronic mysteries…

Nothing will ever match Mother Nature’s mysteries… on the 23rd of December, after gibing several times, involuntarily (drastic change on wind direction) and on purpose, Rachel shows us a point on the horizon… a whale… we then watch in the direction indicated and live maybe the most fabulous moment of the whole crossing… a whale of several tons propelling itself out of the water at a height of 2m…! An unforgettable moment!!! Hard to believe… I have seen lots of whales in the Dom Rep, but nothing like it! It was certainly a playful one, enjoying the big swell and trying to break records!!! … Thanks thanks so much Mother Nature for this magical moment!!!

Magical is also the correct word to describe my first Christmas in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean…
24th of December : tapas diner, with snacks and Spanish champagne (white sparkling wine, not bad at all !!!) just as the moon as rising, gorgeous and orange… those who know me can imagine the rest… after only 2 glasses, Miss Sophie was already a bit drunk…!!! We then had a lights and sound festival with the music hard out and our 3 crazy crew shaking their head torches on the deck… crazy guys I tell you!!!! A day full in events, with the second shower since we left the Canary Islands, the problem with the navigation instruments and the caught of our pretty Dorado coryphée…
25th of December: a very excited Sophie gets up, puts on her Santa Claus hat and opens her presents when having breakfast. Mike, George and Chris had given me some gifts to open only on Christmas day… chocolate and sweeties, mini torch and key ring, Serrano ham… funny for me to think they were opening maybe at the same time the presents I had given them before we left…
Within the crew, we also exchanged presents. Rachel offered us sweeties and chocolates, Christophe made each of us a Brazilian bracelet and on my side, I composed a poem for each of them…Believe it or not, our Sophie is a poet too… my romantic and cheesy side… never trust appearances…
Awesome lunch for Christmas with a selection of cheeses, boiled potatoes, Serrano ham and red wine…
At last, a swim in the middle of the Ocean around 4pm. The 3 boats caught up, facing the wind, engine on in neutral and here we go! We leave a line with knots behind the boat and jump into the water! Ok, it would be lying to say that I really enjoyed it… the shark we saw earlier in the morning, plus the stories told my Michel and the fact that I had my period did not enable me to enjoy this moment as I would have liked to ! … I kind of hurried up to go back on the boat after swimming for a few minutes…
We then had a relaxing afternoon, playing cards, then finished the day with a lights show… no sound for this night ‘special lightening’… here again, we’ve been lucky as Mother Nature spoiled us. I had seen lightening before in my life but never like this! They were striking everywhere, up and down, from left to right, starboard, and port side and in front of us!!! Fortunately enough, they were far away from us so we had only the benefits of the show.
26th of December : back to normal day life… with a special thought for my family having lunch together at my parents’ place in Biscarrosse… and for my pretty God daughter Jeanne who must be dressed up with the lovely Spanish clothes my sister Karine bought in Palma de Mallorca when she came to visit me !

The next days have been the toughest of the whole crossing with strong winds and big swell. One event was the sudden presence of a kitesurf board at around 200 miles from St Martin… too bad, we were going far too fast to catch it as I would have been in getting it… I just hope the guy who was riding on it is safe and sound as we also spotted a shark swimming around!!!
These hard conditions did not stop us from having a great New Year’s Eve. There again, a few snacks with what was left… sea food in tins, a leftover of cheese, crisps, artichokes and champagne… the only thing is that Rachel did not secure enough the bottle which dropped on the deck… so we had only a small glass before this drama steals us the rest of our beverage…

It was time to get there… almost no food left… we had to be careful on coffee, bread who was finished in the last days… no more veggies although they almost lasted until 2 days before our arrival, cheese, milk, butter, biscuits and chocolate, yoghourts and cereals… We also began to be short of water, fortunately we had filled up a few bottles at the marina in Las Palmas and could use them to wash the dishes...
Believe me, all along this trip, we ate like kings, everybody being a good cook! Christophe even made us pizzas 2 days before getting there … fabulous!

Not to forget the indispensable music, inside the boat, outside on the deck, or during the night for watches, while admiring the stars, with the MP3!

We had a lot of fun even if Christophe and Rachel had a few arguments, not really bad though… hard to live together on such a small space without having a few frictions!!!

All good in the hood. I will keep an unforgettable of this crossing. Not only did I learn much more about sailing which was my goal, and I now feel confident about saying that I am a competent sailor… but my head is full of images, unique moments and I shared awesome adventures with my 2 fellow crew mates !

Now, a new adventure will begin… I should have a place on board another boat to reach Guadeloupe and visit my friend Berangere who I met while living in the Dom Rep… but this is in 5 days time and within this time who knows what’s gonna happen… !!!

That’s all for now folks, stay tuned, the story is not over yet!!!