Settled in beautifully.  Breathtaking conditions.  Breeze picked up yesterday afternoon and after 20 hours of unpleasant and slow motorsailing we shut down the engine and shook the last reef.  Fair winds back!

Now pointing straight for Azores, hope to arrive Sunday.  Need to go on 8-noon solo watch, so here are some pictures from yesterday.  Keep the comments coming, we read every single one.  Love to all, MJ.

Bill gave a fascinating Ted talk on clouds and weather yesterday.  Entire crew hung on every well-delivered phrase.  He has a gift for making the complex understandable.  Great diagram too (see below, our shp’s lawyer says it is not copywrited)!. Winds now coming from the East, exactly on our nose,  We are motorsailing with main only to keep closer to course, waiting for the wind to clock south.  This is slow going!  We are however enjoying the comparative calm and getting a bit of housecleaning done.

Yesterday lunch was tuna salad on homemade boat bread.  Also had homemade cinnamon raisin bread.  Wow Jackie.  Jackie just now gave me a bowl of rice for after-lunch and I asked for butter on it, which she thinks is totally bizarre.  Someone back me up here.

Mary’s prep of the laundry, bedding and towels for everyone was amazing.  We all talk about how her little touches made this a better trip.  Like the little clips for our water bottles, so perfect.  You can see them in the picture, snug at the binnacle in all weather, instead of constantly tossing about.  Thanks and love you.  And by the way, you were so right on the towels, the one I hated is definitely my favorite.  Everyone also has Mary to thank for insisting on the tracker.

Today I took a series of day-in-the-life photos.  Please note that this was prior to housecleaning.  Also note the view behind Tom, which is typical of our empty horizons.

MJ

Hi All, Matt and Jackie here! Here are some more pics from our trip:

To all of you who are wondering about life in the galley, it is a rodeo! Cooking at sea is a mix between juggling, self-defense, and yoga. We are now on port tack which makes doing dishes a breeze, but with a heel, I can’t quite open up the fridge or any of the port side food cabinets without their contents trying to fly out across the galley. It has been really fun to make homemade sandwich bread at sea. The gimbaled stove is my favorite tool in the kitchen.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, we love you!

Jackie + Matt

We have passed the halfway point to Horta.  We are 1000 miles from Newport and roughly 1000 miles from Horta.  You would think a big celebration in order, but my trial announcement with one crew member drew a response of “only halfway?”, so I have opted to celebrate quietly.  Most crew are acutely aware of our precise location in any event.

The youngsters having failed to post enough pictures, I finally learned how to compress, save and post, so hopefully this will become more visual.

The 30 knot gusts never materialized last night.  We were undercanvassed and a little slower for it, but better to err on the side of caution.  Cam gave the Ted talk yesterday, on cancer research and apoptosis.  It was eloquent and impressive and more than a little humbling.  What, you do something important, like curing cancer?  He does research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  Way to go Cam.

Liz and I took the 2-5 am watch.  We have kept ship’s time on Eastern Standard so this watch gets better and better, except your alarm goes off at 1:40 am. Our autopilot only works from below so with any real breeze we hand steer, taking 45  minute mini-shifts.  It is quite enjoyable.  At one point Liz looked North and deadpannned “It’s about to rain, a lot”.  And rain it did, but only for about 30 min.  Sunrise at 3:30 am was breathtaking (see photo).  Then a rainbow appeared behind us , so vivid it startled you when you looked over your shoulder.  A small pod of small dolphins came up to say hello, Liz laughing at their playful ways.

Matt and Dana came on watch at 5 am, cheerful.  We shook out reef 2 and soldiered on.  Cloudy skys and winds variable.

One of the biggest surprises of the trip is how busy we are.  Chores abound: cooking, cleaning, making water, charging batteries, navigating, steering, changing sail configuration, fixing broken stuff.  Though our watches are spaced nicely, you nevertheless feel an important urge to grab sleep ahead of a late-night watch.  (The crew wishes you to appreciate this so as to explain their slovenly posting habits.)

The wind has now moved to the ENE and the swells have picked up.  We just took a wave over the bow that dribbled saltwater through the dogged-down hatch in the main cabin.  Tom’s  IPAD, objecting to the sudden heel, just launched itself from the setee and wedged neatly under the cabin chair.  Jackie just made two loaves of bread, one cinnamon raisin.  Time for lunch, Bill’s Ted talk at 1:00.

MJ

Latest weather indicating gusts to 30 knots possible tonight.  Back on deck, harden up jib, head up to luff main, drop main halyard and put second reef back in.  FIve people working in smooth harmony, a delight to see.  Ready for 30 knot gusts, no worries.  Cookies in the oven.

Wind has steadied at 12-15 knots, broad reaching now.  Shook out second reef, left in first reef for the night. Gliding along at 7.5 knots, pretty calm seas.

Dinner was veggie tangine and delicious homemade bread.  Hats off to the chef!  Now she is baking chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  Cam and I want to make homemade ice cream sandwiches.  Not too shabby.

 

 

We motorsailed for about 15 hours overnight, waiting for the north breeze to fill in.  Much cooler now, chilly on deck and perfect below, the front doing some magic.  Great sleeping conditions, thuds notwithstanding. Delicious pancakes for breakfast!  Matt’s special recipe.  An hour ago the north breeze came in strong, from the NNE at 24-27 knots.  We are back to 9 knots under double-reefed main and a 1/3 unfurled jib.  Glad we left the reef in.

During the “break” we did a bit of clean up/dry out.  Things accumulate in pile-etts and strew themselves about.  We worked on the autopilot, which was working flawlessly when we didn’t need it and now has a gremlin.  Tom has been at the helm for his 4-hour solo watch, half easy, half not.  I went to shut down the engine and found it dead.  Came below and was told the generator also shut itself off.  Strong pang of uh-oh, right there in my stomach. Relieved in 5 minutes by switching fuel tanks and restarting the engine, all good..  We were drawing from tank 3 which was very low, and believe the strong sudden heel let the diesel gulp a snippet of air, which it detests.  Events like this become routine, but consume much time and thought.

Jackie kneaded and rolled dough for homemade bread, now rising proudly (the bread). Matt was about to put on Pirates of the Caribbean (he and Cam whistling the theme song in anticipation, their combined whistles striking an odd dis-chord).  The blast of wind brought us to attention on deck, trimming sails and stuff.  Movie cancelled. Now Liz is napping in the main setee in what would be a sitting position except the angel of heel has her comfortably nestled, looking peaceful.

The wind is in kind of a good direction, letting us go towards Horta, but at a closer angle than ideal, mostly a comfort thing.  Acclimating to our new pitch.  Now the fridge erupts its contents upon opening.

About to go on noon-4pm watch, with Cam. Foulies on as squalls still passing.   Love to all. MJ

Today was such a fun day.  You have all become an integral part of our journey.  We sat together in the cockpit and read all of the comments out loud. (Liz did the reading, she is delightfully expressive.)  After each comment, someone would say “who is that” and then we would hear a story or two about you.  We would reflect on each comment and the reader’s perspective.  Are they a worrier?  Are they funny?  Is this a typical comment?  Much laughter ensued and it brought us all closer. A personal comment would bring a slight mist to the eye of the recipient, while we all quietly reflected and waited. You can imagine the pregnant pause as we reflected on the notion of each one of our names being mentioned in prayer at our church.  We are so moved by your spirit of love and care.

I forgot to mention that last night Cam really nailed the steering.  It was hard to keep the boat on course, but a groove existed and if you were very adroit at the wheel movements you could reduce rudder-induced drag and just let the boat fly down the waves.The feeling when that happens is similar to the first time you catch a good wave as a kid on a boogie board and just feel that lift.  He grinned the whole watch.

Also, my generous and always fun son Matt spotted me for half of the hand steering of my 8:00am-noon solo watch.  Thanks Matty J, I owe you.

After my post today about singing in the cockpit the weather got very squally and all watches were in full “foulies”. Matt took advantage of the “free shower’, of course.  His happy engagement with the world is contagious. Every one of us is very happy in our foul weather gear.  There is no bad weather, just bad gear. The much anticipated wind shift from SW to NE happened almost exactly as predicted by Bill and the good folks at Commander’s Weather, so we jibed at about 6:30 and finally got on port tack.  Except for a brief  stint in the shipping lanes, we had not been on port tack since we sailed past Castle Hill and waved to our loved ones.  You all know what happened next: all of the doodads which were happily resting on the downhill side of the boat now got promoted to the uphill side of the boat, where they could resume projectiling at us, their most favorite game.  Luckily we are a savvy crew and, mostly, stow in anticipation of this.

The wind, which was to have come from the N or NE, is now coming from the ENE, which is kind of where we are trying to go.  Oh my gosh, nature is in on this.  I promise, exactly as I typed the last line, the bow lifted and crashed into a wave, with an abrupt THUD that probably awoke anyone ahead of the mast.  More zigging.  Oh well, we have had five wondrous and spectacular days of 20-35 knot winds abaft of the beam, and they cannot take that away.

I have to go suit up for the 11:00pm-2:00am watch. I relish the opportunity.  Sleep well, we love you.