Die letzten Tage waren recht ereignislos. Mal abgesehen von einem dicken Tief, das am vergangenen Mittwoch über uns hinweg gezogen ist und der Crew ein paar Sorgesfalten auf die Stirn gebracht hat. Der Wind war gar nicht so schlimm, only until about 35 Knots and in a gust just over 40 Knots. But the associated sea and ship movements were unusual and even frightening. One night Sammy showed up to the station a quarter of an hour early. On the question, Why doesn't he sleep a little longer?, he replied shortly. “I don’t want to be down there, if it breaks apart..."
Sammy and Jens sleep in the forward cabins and experience the waves even more intensely, as we in the aft cabins. Jens is always amazed by the G forces, that occur. “When you lie there in the bunk and realize, how the bow takes off...then it crashes onto the wave and you notice, how air is pushed up past the mattress to the right and left... Then, as you go downhill, it suddenly pushes you back into the pillow with a thump, only to briefly take off again three seconds later on the crest of the wave... Crazy.” He thinks it's great too, “when you are at the emergency exit hatch on the toilet land and you can see the bow under the water.
The wind has been coming at an angle of incidence for days 70 to 120 degrees from starboard, the waves keep crashing over the ship from the side, so that we immerse ourselves in the structure. The water washes past both sides and goes back into the sea aft. Everything on deck is constantly wet. But there are no leaks below deck. Toll, that the ship and all the sealants are still really tight after all these years in the sun.
Sammy is always developing new tactics, how to best position the two pillows, so that he doesn't get hit too often by a sideways sea. “It would be good, “to nail the second pillow to the ceiling” He recently reported, as he lies in the bunk and there is a loud bang on the side of the ship. “Shortly afterwards the hatch above me was completely covered with water, until it became completely dark in my cabin. Through the window all I see is water, Water, water and think: Now it's coming to an end. But then, after what felt like an eternity, I see, how the sun shines through the water. What a liberating feeling. We escaped again.”

Otherwise it's going really great. The autopilot has been steering continuously since leaving Bermuda and the ship has not caused any problems at all. The electricity balance is also good, the batteries are always full and the Watermaker produces water continuously for free. Seems, as if all the work paid off. The day before yesterday we routinely ran the machines, um sicher zu gehen, that they didn't get any water through the exhaust systems. But everything in butter.
The fair winds between 18 and 25 Knots give us fast travel. The etmales are excellent. In the last few days 184, 162, 168 and 169 NM, without blowing up the boat. Im Gegenteil, we sail with reduced sail area, third reef in the main and half genoa, to protect the material. Nevertheless, the log usually shows between 7 and 8 Knots.
The crew reads a lot, listens to audio books, blogs (Michis Blog: ueberdenatlantik.blogspot.com) or looks out to sea with growing enthusiasm. Because that's the beauty of crossing the Atlantic like this: To be away from everyone. In the middle of the ocean. Thousands of kilometers in each direction at most a few single people on ships, but no country, no civilization. A great time, to switch off and think. For Jens it is the second Atlantic crossing and he recently spoke from experience: “You never come back from a trip like that the same.”
We have now gotten used to the night vigils and are even slowly waking up without an alarm clock. We have a large glass in the pantry (definitely one liter content!) Broth powder found, that Cati sometimes needs for cooking. It is now almost empty, because we drink a few cups of it every night we watch. I'm starting to worry, how I get off the stuff after reaching Horta... 😉
Now the Bahamas are almost there 2000 Miles behind us and only 707 Nautical miles to Horta ahead of us. Two low pressure areas have announced themselves in the last few days, but are now moving further north, so that we can reach a maximum of 30 Knots of wind can be expected from diagonally astern. Perfectly, to continue driving quickly to the destination. As it stands we should be there on Thursday morning. We look forward to arriving and having our first beer in Peters Cafe Sport. We'll probably sit there on the promenade, everything will turn and rock and we will immediately have one in the boat, because at sea there is no alcohol on board...
Cati is already booking flights, to join us again in Horta. I am excited, what she has to say about her time in Germany and how big her stomach has become.
Many greetings from “Maverick XL”. 36, 28 N and 043, 15 In!
John