we did it!!!!!!!!!

yipieeeehhhhh, after 23 days, 3010 NM (5580 KM or 3460 Miles) with an average speed of 5.5 knots we arrived save and happy at the beautiful island "islas cies". we are anchored direct at a nice white beach with a little bar. tomorrow we are continuing sailing to vigo (only on the other side 10 NM from here!! we had already our san miguel and are longing for a full night sleep. the last two day we had to handsteer the boat and that is exhausting with only two persons on board.

trey and axel

ole ole ole oleeeeeeee

we are motoring since yesterday and have no wind but we are happy to have only 64 NM to go. tomorrow morning we will be in spain....

390 to go....

since yesterday afternoon we have favorable winds from the SW and are doing good mileages. if the wind blows its always strong and variable so we have to be careful. the waves are choppy and its a tough ride, but we are happy to get closer and closer...
everything fine on board,
axel

506 NM to go

the last 500 miles!! thats good, we are exhausted and would like to have a good nightsleep.
the last 20 h we had almost no wind but just enough to get her going with around 4 knots, not worth to turn on the engine! The sails were flapping and it was not too nice. just 30 min ago the wind picked up and we are goosewinging now with around 6 knots towards vigo. hope we have wind for the last little bit of the passage, then we will see land on the 31. of july...fingers crossed.
everything is fine on board,
axel

wind change

we had two days of good weather and wind from SW with good milage! 640 NM to go!! but yesterday afternoon from one to the other minute the wind changed from SW to NNE and we had the whole night rain. now the wind is still from N but the rain just stopped and i can see the front moving from us and the blue sky is coming. we are sailing close haul at the moment but i hope that the wind turns a bit to NNW and we can sail easy to spain...
everything is fine on board,
axel

heading east...

we have nice wind and i think we got around that low...everything is fine, 850 NM to vigo, axel

low

two nights ago i checked the weather forecast and had a not so good feeling with a low building in the west. so we decided to go south. we ran away from the depression. we did that for 30 h although we have lost a day because of that. but when i checked the weather fax yesterday and they had storm force winds in this depression of more than 60 knots, i was no more sad about the lost day...
at the moment it looks like we just got around the depression and i hope it will not get to bad for the next hours. we are not on course for vigo right now, but we are going ESE for the moment and are getting closer to spain. 925 NM to go.
everything is fine,

axel

some wind...

we did not motor too much this morning and have had a light breeze for the day, sailing with around 5 knots, now its nice wind, and we do 6-7 knots, would be nice if we would have that a bit longer...
we said hello to warship 42 today, who were on the way to florida...thats all,
axel

motoring again

its unbelieable, the gale stops and now we have no wind again and are motoring!!
rest is fine,
axel

no between...

the calm days are over and the gale days are back...triple reef, little cutter sail and we are getting blown away...during the night the wind was getting stronger and stronger and now we are again in the upper 30, lower forties...i wish we would get sometimes wind around 20 knots but nothing yet. the wind is blowing from NW and we are surfing down the waves with 10+ knots! the fastest surf so far was 14.2 knots! its bumpy and unpleasant but we are doing progress.
i wonder who is doing the weather forecast, it hasn´t once been right yet...

everything else is fine,
axel

motoring

hmmmm, still no wind so we turned on the motor and are moving with around 5 knots towards spain...no sun, humid and 25°C. we ran over a turtle she was not so happy and was flapping around when she came out at the back of the boat...she was probably sleeping and i hope she didn´t got into the prob.
everything else is fine..
axel

Halftime

We did sail now 1430 NM and have another 1410 NM to go!! its halftime. yipieheee...
we will have a little glas of wine on that and have hopefully a good and peaceful night. not much wind at the moment. this morning there was almost nothing and we were doing between 3-4.5 KN. now we are around 5 knots and its easy sailing. no sun today, only clouds and little rainshowers..
axel

update: we had no wind for the night and still have none! at the moment we are not motoring because the wind is coming from the west and we only would move away from the wind...hope we get some wind soon!
axel

Halftime

We did sail now 1430 NM and have another 1410 NM to go!! its halftime. yipieheee...
we will have a little glas of wine on that and have hopefully a good and peaceful night. not much wind at the moment. this morning there was almost nothing and we were doing between 3-4.5 KN. now we are around 5 knots and its easy sailing. no sun today, only clouds and little rainshowers..
axel

update: we had no wind for the night and still have none! at the moment we are not motoring because the wind is coming from the west and we only would move away from the wind...hope we get some wind soon!
axel

we got the westerlies

finally we got the westerlies, very light though but better than nothing. after an raining start yesterday, the weather was getting better. the wind was changing from east to west and now we are sailing butterfly to the right direction. the pole is out for the first time on this voyage...and we are fishing. but i think for fishing the wind is too low and we are not fast enough. 1450 NM to go to Spain! in 20 NM its halftime...and we both hope that the second half will be better than the first.
rest is fine on board,
axel

weather

i never had some many weather changes in one week during a long passage! yesterday afternoon we were cruising along, before we were hitting a second time the cold labrador current. fog fog fog and no wind! we are motoring now since yesterday evening for the last 17 h. it is unbelievable cold and most of the night the visibility was around 10-20 m. good to have a radar. the sea is flat like a mirror with a bit of movement. quite nice and strange. since two hours the fog is gone and we have beautiful sunshine but still no wind.
The first 8 days of that trip we had all kind of wind blowing or not blowing, but we couldn´t find the westerlies yet, which should blow here constantly and make it a nice passage. The good thing is, the trip is not boring and eventful and time is running quicker.
The autopilot during motoring is not working so we are changing shifts on the helm.
everything is fine on board,
axel

better weather

since yesterday the gales are gone and the wind died down. last night we had no wind and a good sleep and sailed very slow...this morning we could see the sun and the wind picked up and we are sailing nice! would be relaxing if that would keep a while! first time that the cutter is in and the genoa out! we are happy and i am trying to sleep now for a while...
axel

we are getting used to it!!!!!

still shitty weather out there, but we are getting more into that weather...night full of rain and gusts, with winds up to 45+...freefall is doing a fine job. rest is fine, happy to have good rain gear...
axel

rock and roll

the wind is a bit more constant and we do not have so many rain squalls, but i still do not trust the weather so we are sailing with 3 reefs in the main and only the little cuttersail...thats a good setup for the big winds in the rain squalls. everybody is a bit tired on board from getting bumped around while trying to sleep but the rest is fine. i am still not thinking of fishing...lets see when this is happening...
axel

rainy and windy

its cloudy out there with lots of rain-gusts...little sails are set, everything fine on board...
weather should be better in one day...
axel

restless night...

after we had an afternoon of ok winds and i was thinking we are threw the worst, we had a tough evening and night. just before sunset we came in a front and had thunderstorm and high winds. the shitty weather lasted for the whole night, it was rainy and gusty....not nice...so again i am hoping we get better winds and can sail nice to europe...
axel

Got the Golf Stream

I think we got a good current with us now, so we are doing fine in choppy waters with big waves from the side. the wind changed and is coming from the south now, its warm and cloudy. we are bumping around with 7 -8 knots...thats freefall....the log is on 500 NM for the trip and I am happy that we are speeding up. with an average speed of 4.7 for the first 4 days this is the slowest start of a long distance cruise i ever had...hope it changed now and we can make the 150NM average of a day. than it should be 10 more days to the azores or 16 more days to spain or portugal...
axel

from NE to SE

The wind changed from NE to SE so we had to tack, but we still have no westerlies...the wind also picked up so the trip is more unpleasant and rough! at least we can hold our course and go east. the temperature is rising and we can take off some of our layers. everything else is fine on board. no whales since we left the coast. no fishing yet, maybe when we get the westerlies...

still east winds

we are still having east winds and i hope tomorrow it will change. at the moment we are following a low what is SE of us and passing by. When that low has passed we should get favorable winds to get to the azores. our total average speed for that trip is 4.7 knots so far...what is very slow for freefall, but concerning we are beating the wind the hole time its ok. i am getting used to all the noises on the boat and am listening again to every strange noise and try to figure out where its coming from. last night there was such a noise. i was lying in the bed an listening to a clack clack. it took me a long time to find the reason. it was a litte screw on the windvane! i tightend it and now the noise is gone... the windvane is the most important things for long cruises and i am always getting nervous when there are sounds from it. after repairing it, i was happy and had a good sleep.
Trey is getting normal, he is eating, singing and reading and more important, he can hold his shifts!
rest is fine, no fishing yet, i think i am starting fishing tomorrow...

axel

sunny and cold

we had a calm night with very light winds but current to our favor so it was nice. i could rest a littlebit and trey eat and watch a bit.
its cold and sunny, temperatures around 15C, but much colder with the wind so we are wearing thick foul weather gear.
I am happy to get out of the shallow water into the deep ocean and hope the current is better there. the first half of today we had current against us, now its nicer. lots of dolphins around, who are jumping in our waves...

axel

tough night, nice day

the first night was a bit tough with choppy seas and wind and current against us! but today it was much nicer although the wind is still from ENE but much lighter and good to sail. All sails are up (genoa, cutter and main) and tray could eat his first meal without giving it to the fish...hope it will be better tomorrow and he can help me a littlebit. we have seen already some humpback wales, dolphins and seals! that makes the lack of sleap forget....
i haven´t start fishing, am a bit to tired and there is nobody who would eat the fish except myself. preparing everything for the night.
have to go out now, there are some fishing vessels in the way, because we are close to the georges banks.

hello to you all,
axel

Wind and Current on the nose!

so far we are beating against the wind, for 3 hours also against a big current...winds are around 15-20. everything fine on board, tray hasn´t start eating, but had a good night rest. lots of wales around, humbacks.

axel

on the way

Hello Everybody,

we got out of York Harbour this morning at 0730! beating against the wind and trying to get east. wind is 8-10 kn from ese, so exactly where we want to go. but forecast for later is ne, so that will be better. Tray is trying to become a sailor but at the moment he is leaning over the side....will get better.
everything is fine, bit rainy and cold, i am happy to have my good foul weather gear.

axel