Nov 9, 2014 | Cruising, Home |
The Plan: With a good window of weather, set off from La Rochelle on 20th November as a small crew of 4. After crossing the Bay of Biscay, head southwards for a brief stop in Madeira. Moor up in quiet harbours of Funchal or explore one of the many beautiful uninhabited islands. Next port is 300 nautical miles away so a few days sailing before coming into Las Palmas for final provisioning before the main passage and where I come on board to sail across the Atlantic ocean to Martinique.
After a short delay, the countdown begins at last for our first crossing! In the spirit of Slow Tourismo, we endeavour to rely entirely on the trade winds to travel the 4000 nautical miles in 25 to 30 days. ST factor = 10 out of 10, at least one-way. The return journey will unfortunately be a high carbon-footprint Air Caraibe flight – we do have jobs to get back to after all!
Apart from the adventure and nautical experience, we look forward to:
- Digital detox – no internet surfing, no email. Reading lots of books.
- Time – Passing. Very. Slowly. Time is irrelevant somehow. Primary focus is on the journey and surviving, come day or night.
- Beauty and wonder at the grandiosity of elements – totally tacky but you do feel so humble in a boat on the ocean
- Power of natural energy – relying on wind, the moving expanse of water, reading and responding to weather
What’s the right boat for an atlantic crossing? You can read more on the speedy trimaran in a separate post. For now its off to pack our gear and double-check those lists! Slight panic as the days race by.
Inhale. Exhale. Slow down. Only 10 days to go.
Nov 2, 2014 | Featured, Multihull |
Our vessel of choice for a transatlantic crossing was always the sleek, stylish and speedy Neel 45. We’re therefore thrilled and grateful that the brilliant charterer Autremer Concept Martinique, have allowed us to be part of the family crew bringing their brand new boat across to Martinique. Christened “Quarterback” and put into water on 18th November, this is the 10th build from the Neel Trimaran shipyard in La Rochelle, France.
It’ll also be interesting to see what has changed since we first sailed the No. 1 Neel back in 2012. At that time, a pad-eye holding one corner of the trampoline net broke, leaving me clamouring to the vertical net, dangling over the sea like a water-shy monkey. Luckily it was during a mooring attempt off St. Lucia and not on a passage – only damage being severely bruised arms.
Its a fabulous boat and though we like to travel slow, we love to sail fast! As long as there’s wind we WILL be fast!
Once delivered to Martinique, the Neel 45 will be available for charter from Autremer Concept.
Neel 45 Trimaran
Neel 45 interior
Nov 2, 2014 | Food |
With hours to fill as we sail, cooking and eating will be one of the daily highlights. And to make sure we don’t arrive starved and dehydrated, it’s essential to prepare a good provisioning list that will provide some variety. After all, we’re not sure how long we’ll be at sea exactly and you do need to consider that something you rely on may break down (fridge, water-maker…).
The last opportunity on this route for us to stock up on provisions before the long passage is Las Palmas. They’re set up very well to cater to cruisers, with a choice of fully stocked hypermarkets and local fruit and vegetable markets where everything is super fresh and can be delivered.
Once you start calculating amounts that 5 adults will consume over 25 days, you get a picture of how much space thats going to take. Here some examples of amounts we’ll be bringing on board:
- 400 litres of water
- 100 eggs
- 50 apples
- 1 whole leg of Jamon Iberico
- 20 onions
- 10 garlic bulbs
- 10 jars of nescafe
- 10 kilos tomatoes
- 50 lemons
10 litres milk- 4 bottles olive oil
Total foodies that we are, we’ve been giving a lot of thought to the meals we’ll cook. And since we’re a mainly French crew, food will certainment be a major topic of discussion. Look forward to finally meeting up with the rest of the crew and, over a good meal and bottle of wine, exchanging suggestions and putting together our definitive list. I’ll upload our provisioning list once we get back with comments on what worked or didn’t and how we got on, gastronomically-speaking!
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