Rubikon - Day 20 - Last day at sea - maybe...

We are slowly closing in on Barbados, the next stop in our journey to the Caribbean. Depending on the wind, which has already subsided quite a bit since yesterday, we might arrive there on Monday evening. With our light-wind-sail still broken, we cannot sail a direct course to our next waypoint, but instead are zig-zagging in front of the wind. To celebrate our progress, we started the day with some white sausages for breakfast, classic Bavarian style (though none of us are actually Bavarian). Yesterday afternoon, we had a bit of a scare, as we discovered that a part of the mast had become undone. Upon closer inspection however, and after hoisting our skipper up the mast, it seems the broken part was not of structural importance and hence was fixed in proper engineering style: with duct. read more...

Rubikon - Day 19 - Of wind and waves

Having broken our light-wind-sail yesterday morning, we were not too unhappy with some stronger winds throughout the day. 20-24kn of NE winds continue to push us towards the Caribbean, with what we expect to be a record VMG for us. Unfortunately the wind, and local squalls, also brought some high waves from all directions, making the overall ride a bit more bumpy than the last days.The wind outlook for Sunday onwards still looks rather weak, so we are happy to cover some distance today and hope we do not have to use our engine too much to reach Barbados. With most of the crew taking extended naps yesterday, this morning's breakfast was the first time we all sat together in a while.Predictions for today's VMG (yesterday's was 6.2kn)Kai: 7.6Markus: 7.4Chris: 7.3Max: 7.5José: 7.2Alex: 7.3. read more...

Rubikon - Day 18 - Free showers and bye, bye Gennaker

Tonight mother nature decided to grant us a free shower. Having had virtually no rain for the last weeks it was nice to get some fresh water onto the boat to wash it As predicted some nice winds arrived, which we thought would give us a nice fast ride towards St. Lucia. Unfortunately it seems that sewing the gennaker back together after we ripped in two parts in the first night has weakened the overall strength of the sail. And therefore we broke it a second time and this time -we believe- it is for good.We are now back to sailing with our main and jib, which still gives us decent speeds, but slightly limits the angles we can cruise at with full speed. With the wind forcast for the later part of Sunday and most of Monday looking rather bleak, we are considering a stop-over in Barbados. read more...

Rubikon - Day 17 - Mexican sleeping sickness

We believe we have an epidemic aboard. Yet undiscovered by leading academics, we believe to have patient 0 of the Mexican Sleeping sickness(lat. Mexicanussleepicus) right here on the Rubikon. The situation is dire, with the symptoms (over 13h of sleep per day) spreading quickly throughout the crew. While we also believe to have found an antidote, most patients simplify refuse to take the required amounts of coffee or coke to fight back. Hence this might be the last entry in our blog. As tomorrow we might well all be sleeping. When not sleeping, we spend our days eating (Bolognese, left-over Indian curry and freshly baked bread), or playing cards with new record games (Or losses) being played in Skat. In between we had to run to cover and hide from three drops of rain (the first rain. read more...

Rubikon - Day 16 - Build your own Timezone (ByoTz)

One of the interesting aspects of being on the water, cut-off from land and without meetings and appointments is that we can create our own timezones. Apart from the fact that we have no way of exactly knowing which timezone we are in, an added benefit is that we can select our own sunrise and sunset times, giving us slightly more light in the evenings. On the sailing-side we seem to be making good progress, having crossed into the 3-digit distance-region yesterday, with winds and waves again being favorable. Though we are afraid that might change soon, as we forgot to give Neptune his share of our celebratory Cava last night. Right now it is still too early to predict a more precise arrival time and date, but we do have suggestions for our VMG again (Which was 6.2kn yesterday; in. read more...