Not what I expected to see after 10,000 miles of ocean passages.
Already in June, I had committed to Chris and Amy, owners of "Saffron Star", to help them sail their Sun Odyssey 46, from Gibraltar to the Canaries and onwards to the Caribbean. Late June, my friend, work colleague and sailing partner since 30 years, Mats, had bought Manami II, a 46 ft Oceanis. He had set his goal to sail transatlantic in January, and asked me to join him.
I thought: "Ok, this is not what I had in mind, but that seems do-able", and to be honest, sailing two transats in one season is kinda special, something that would challenge me. And I like challenges.
Came August, and Mats had his boat almost ready. But not quite...: Manami II being in Vigo - NW Spain - in the holiday season, was not the best place to get the last preparations/repairs done: technicians were on holiday until September, and spare parts were difficult to import... So, when Mats asked me, early August, to "come and sail with him", I thought he meant some day sailing around Vigo... But, no, tired of endless delays in repairs, Mats wanted to sail the boat to the UK early September, do the work there, and sail back South, to the Canaries, a month later.
We both knew that was going to be a bit of a challenge: as of September, the North Atlantic depressions start rolling in, making the Spain-UK stretch (and vice-versa) a potential challenge: I could see, timing (and weather) would be an issue, and that would have me sailing open ocean passages continuously from September until February. "But so be it", I thought, "time to push my 65-year old body a bit...!".
Vigo to Hamble:
It was a rough passage, to say the least: as predicted, we had either no wind, or 30 knots from the nose. We pushed on, with watches rotating 4 hours on and 4 hours off, over Biscay, around Bretagne, through the English Channel and the Solent, to arrive in the Solent 6 days later, at 4:30 AM. This turned out to be probably my roughest passage ever...
Gibraltar to Lanzarote:
We arrived in the anchorage of La Graciosa, in the Canaries on October 5th, the birthday of skipper Chris and myself. We had a relaxed day with a nice lunch onshore, and the next day, I flew to the UK to re-join Mats.
Hamble to the Canaries (again):
So I found myself at the entrance door of the Hamble Royal Southern Yacht Club, at 9 PM, in the rain, with my sandals and T-shirt, poorly covered by a rain jacket, knocking on the locked door, trying to get into the hostel, while nobody answered.
That was probably my "low" moment in the past 7 months. In my sandals, and ample clothes on, just trying to get into the hostel and shelter, before embarking on a 1,700 Nmiles (3,000 km) trip, back to warmth of the Canaries....
And embarking we did. Two days of prep on Manami II, and we left Port Hamble at 3:30 AM (which was the only tide/weather window we had in the next days), with an air temperature of 3°C, and a "frost warning" on Predictwind.
On Predictwind, I had previously seen gale/high seas/gusts/lightning/fog warnings before, but never a "frost warning")... Knowing that for the next days, we would have to negotiate the Southampton cargo traffic and the Solent's complex navigation markers in the dark, the Solent and Needles tides (which we had planned JUST right!), the English Channel traffic (the busiest and most chaotic maritime spot in the world), onto the Bay of Biscay (one of the most notorious sailing areas in the world), past Finesterra and the Spanish/Portuguese West coast, notorious for its recent orca attacks on yachts....
All while sailing in 4 hours on, 4 hours off watches, again, with two sea sick crew, one freezing crew, and chaotic cargo/fishing vessels traffic all around us.
But we did it. Mats prepared the boat just right. Anne prepared the provisioning just right. And it was a pleasure to share my watches with Alf...
But not my idea of champaign sailing. Not close to anyone's perception of the romantic idea of sailing. Until 2 weeks later, we reached the island of Graciosa in the North of the Canaries, where I left Saffron Star, just one month ago...Déjà vu!
But in the midst of it, leaving the UK and passing the Channel, I was thinking.. "what the fudge"?!. It was a rough passage, again... I had more clothing layers on than I had during my past two Antarctic expeditions. It was bitter bitter cold. It was wet. It was windy. And the sea was pretty wild.
Each time I pulled myself up from the passage way, after a short sleep, into the pitch dark cockpit at 8 PM, or midnight or 4 AM, only to faintly see two frozen-stiff figures (Mats and Anne, who did the watch before me) in the dimmed lights, knowing that would be my life for the next 4 hours, together with Alf.... In the dark, cold and wet open air....
I thought "what the fudge" at that moment... Why the fu(dge) are we doing this for? Where is the fun in all of this?!
And yet, we survived. We dodged the Southampton and Solent cargo traffic, the Needles, the English Channel, Biscay, Finesterra, and beyond. We had everything from "no wind", to 35 knots, from totally flat seas to beating into 4 meter waves... Only to arrive back and anchor at Graciosa, one month after I left Saffron Star, anchoring on the exact same spot. Though this time, with winds blowing at 25 knots in the anchorage, which is a different story by itself. But the next day, we beached the dinghy, had a gorgeous sea food lunch on shore again.
And all hardship was forgotten in an instance....
Canaries to Barbados:
Again with 4 people onboard (Chris and Amy, the owners, Nikki, a new crew member and myself). This time, we sailed 4 hours on and 12 hours off - what a luxury.
We had a nice passage with rather low winds up to Mindelo, on the island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde. We cleaned the boat, took one day off to tour the island, one day of provisioning and off we went again.
We had a dream passage to Barbados with very steady winds and hardly any squalls. The only challenge I had, is that we had been delayed for 3 weeks in Tenerife. During the waiting period, I saw my planned 1 week off-time in Barbados disappear, and my planned 2 weeks Christmas holidays at home in Italy vaporized too. So we arrived in Barbados in the afternoon of December 22nd. I took one day off, and flew back to Rome on the 24th, to arrive back home in the late evening of Christmas day.
I had two days to do my laundry, get a hair-cut, catch up on some sleep, and spent four days of New Year's in Madrid with friends, after which, I flew to the Canaries to join Manami II, again.
Canaries to Grenada:
I arrived in Las Palmas on the evening of January 2nd, where Mats and Anne were waiting. We were joined by Alex, our new 4th crew the next day, and took 2 days to re-provision and prep the boat. We left for Cape Verde (again), on Jan 6th, as part of the Viking Explorers flotilla of 20 boats.
It felt like "déjà vu": I had left the Canaries for the Caribbean, a month ago, and here I was, sailing the same stretch again.
But we had gorgeous weather to Cape Verde. Steady winds, with 4 days and 4 nights without a single cloud in the sky. Talking about champaign sailing! And doing 4 hours on, 8 hours off watches, made it a nice and relaxed passage.
Despite the fact that it was an easy passage, I felt my body started to protest. I hurt my back, pinching a muscle, and my body started to feel real stiff. I did daily stretching exercises, which are not easy on a moving boat :-)
We arrived in Mindelo (again) after 6 days sailing and had about 5 days in the marina. We toured the island (again), and did a day tour to the neighouring island of Sao Antao. We reprovisioned, took fuel, prepped the boat and off we went to Grenada.
Just as, a month ago, the passage from Mindelo to the Caribbean had been relaxed champaign sailing, this passage was much rougher. We hit squalls as of 4 days out of Mindelo - which is rather exceptional. The prevailing winds were stronger, with an average of 25+ knots. The sea state was quite aggitated. Two transats within a month, and such a different weather and sea!
But, it was quite fun. We had a great time chatting with the other boats in the Viking Explorers' flotilla, via our Starlink satellite connection. And overall, it was a good passage...
During the passage, though, I felt like my body started to get weaker. At times, it felt like I was going to flip through my knees, as if no strength was left...
Grenada:
And at the moment I write this, we're 4 weeks and 6 physiotherapist sessions later. What happened became clear: I had lost about 7 kgs of muscle weight, mostly on my legs. Pretty obvious why, as while sailing passages, you hardly use your legs: Most of the work is done by your upper body.
That is fine for one transat passage of 2-3 weeks, but by the time we arrived in Grenada, I had been sailing 10,000 Nmiles (or 18,000 km) in 5-6 months, with a constant strain on my body..
While passage sailing, you are constantly "holding on" to something: while moving around the boat, taking a shower or going to pee. Even while sleeping, your body is working, trying not to move around too much in your bunk.
The result on my legs, and how much of my leg muscles had disappeared, you can actually see in the picture on top of this post. You can also see that my left leg lost much more muscle than the right one, causing the left knee to do "overtime". Thus my issues with my knee.
Now, one month after after arriving in Grenada, I am still recovering slowly, with my knee taped up to give it extra support. And I am doing exercises to regain my legs' muscle mass.
Now I get it, how competition sailors doing non-stop around the globe races, can hardly walk on shore after arriving... Not what I had expected to see or feel after my 6 months of ocean passages, but something I can clearly understand now.
Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
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