Sail with Jenny in the fjords of Norway

Day 1: 23.01 – Variable wind

All sails set and we are saying good bye to St.Helena after lunch on Thursday 23rd January 2014 with the course set for Cabedelo in Brazil. 1770 nm have to be sailed within the next two weeks. The wind is variable and changing a lot in direction which probably is caused by the wind shadow of St.Helena. Sometimes we are doing nicely 8 knots and in the next moment we are rolling and sails are slamming doing only 5 knots

Day 2: 23.01 – Dolphins

After a noisy night with unsettled sea and wind with some showers did the day come with more or less the same conditions. This kind ov weather where you in one minute are doing good speed in the right direction and in the next does not know what way to head can sometimes be very frustrating. It is to early in the passage to start thinking about starting the engine when you have more than 1600 nm to go. We found our day rhythm fast due to the short stay at St.Helena. The radio station on St.Helena must have a very good VHF radio as we sill can hear it 200nm from the island.

In the afternoon a large school of dolphins came for a visit and they put on a nice jumping show for us and as always yu do feel happy after such a nice performance by wild animals.

Day 3: 24.01 – Dark nights

It has been a very dark night, the moon has hid itself behind some clouds and there is less light as the moon is now only half. However there is plenty stars to be seen between the clouds and the Milky way looks like a broad path with millions of stars. The Stellarium PC program helps us identify the stars and it is interesting to find the different Star constellations.

After the break of day the wind has become more favorable and after a couple of jib’s have we got Jenny pointing towards Cabedelo. The sun has today stayed behind light clouds and that has been good as the heat is strong in the cockpit without sun shade. We normally find the best shade under the sails on the foredeck but in the middle of the day the shadow is small as the sun is more or less just straight above us. Also today have we had Dolphin visitors and the “VHF voice of St.Helena” has disappeared
Today we have also started reading us up on Cabedelo, Trinidad and Tobago to be prepared for what we will meet the next few months, hence the discussions have been around what we can do in the time we have available. It is strange to think it is less than a year till we are home. Definitely a reality we have to take in over us.

Day 4 25.01 – 50.000 nm

An overcast night with rain showers has given us fine sailing conditions and the “squalls” has not been to windy and we have not had to reef down during the nights. Not often that we find night squalls favorable!

Normal days without to much excitements have come to us onboard Jenny and that feels good. The only excitement today was a kind of blue marlin that we nearly got onboard, not nearly as big as the one we got in Solomon, probably only around 50 kg. It was however a bit wild as we got it alongside Jenny and just as we were to gaff it did the hook come loose. May be just as well because the it had quite a long spike and the would have been difficult to control without the chance of getting injured. I believe even the skipper was pleased it got away and wegot some pictures of it in the water.

Last night Jenny logged 50000 nm since she started her voyage to Holland to get rigged in 2004 and we celebrated with a a little beer in the cockpit before the sun went down. I believe there will be a bigger celebration when we arrive in Brazil as we then also has crossed our track from 2009 which means we have circumnavigated the earth. It is strange to think it is 18 years since we started planning the building of Jenny and that we now has gone around the world and that we soon ar home again. It has been a long project that certainly has given us a lot of joy.

Day 5 26.01 – Fishing is expensive

Another overcast night with nice breeze and a small rain shower. The watches are short when there is 4 of us onboard and our travel westwards makes the light change every day and it is soon time to set the clock back another hour. From Cape Town to St.Helena there was a change of 2 hours and by the time we reach Brazil we have to move it back another 3 hours.
Sunbading and reading has been the pastime today as the wind has been steady and good and many miles has been cowered as the speed has been 8-10 knots. The fishing line was also out today and we got a large fish hooked on. We had however to high speed and before we managed to stop the boat all we could see was some big splashes far behind us and when most of the line (500m)was out it broke. There is now a large fish swimming around with a lure and a couple of hundred meter gut behind him. They say the fish shake it of pretty quickly

Dag 6: 27.01 – Reading day

Dark night with a few showers apart from that calm and comfortable. This passage from Cape Town has been the most enjoyable since we left Singapore in August 2013. Things are so much easier when the wind is on our side and the wear and tear on the boat is mush easier. We have now had the Yankee boomed out for tree days and that gives us some concern for wear on the sheet and we have also found another crack in the main boom, but we believe that is from the Indian Ocean.
The day has been hot and most of the day has been spent on deck with a book. In the afternoon we had less than 1000nm to go and a GT appeared in the cockpit before dinner.

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