Sea Rose - Day 10 - The Big Blue Orb

I keep grabbing my phone and opening email. Im not sure why as we don’t have wifi on the boat, just a slow proprietary email service from Iridium that works with our (very dated) Iridium Go. We are disconnected from the world, save for short text-based emails from rally control, the weather service and friends that we can trust to not send us attachments or include us in long email threads that would jam up our very slow bandwidth connection. We could have installed Starlink, and plenty of other boats did, but for many reasons we took a pass on this option. It’s not often you get to choose to be disconnected for several weeks. Some day in a future ocean crossing, broadband satellite service will be so ubiquitous that most everyone will have it, like the eventual offering of wifi on. read more...

Sea Rose - Day 9 - Spicy on the way to the Spice Islands

It’s getting a bit spicy. Last night the winds gusted high enough for us to do a cautionary douse of the asymmetrical. We poled out the genoa for a more stable wing and wing arrangement and it has served us well into this morning, Day 9. The surface of the water speaks ‘confused sea’ all over it, with residual northwest swell combined with new short period breaking waves from the east. In the midst are large round clumps of sargasso weed the size of a big car plus long drawn out lines of the weed like lane markers on an expressway. And express it is. We are doing all the speed we are comfortable showing without risking broken gear. Two boats crossed in front of us on a broad reach, presumably planning to gybe downwind but we are comfortable pointing right to Grenada. It’s not obvious if. read more...

Sea Rose - Day 7 - Thoughts

We are very close to the halfway point to Grenada and all is well onboard Sea Rose. The winds have been remarkably consistent. Blowing somewhere between northeast and east and between 10-18 knots. Most times I look at the instruments it’s right around 14-15 knots. We have settled into a sail configuration that is working well - our asymmetrical spinnaker and a double reefed mainsail. On a few nights we have down shifted to wing and wing with the genoa on a whisker pole. One night we hastily dropped the spinnaker when rain suddenly appeared astern of us, only to see the wind speed drop a bit and an hour later return to normal. The forecast is calling for increased winds tomorrow and carrying through next week which we are excited about. My wife and I are not big fisherpeople but the crew. read more...

Sea Rose - Day 5 - Ceviche at a Seaside Table

We have been pleased that the forecasted moderating of winds has been pushed out again so we can enjoy these fine Northeasterly Trades for another day of fine sailing. We tried twin headsails today and let them drive us steadily through the building northwest swell. We’ve just switched back to wing and wing for the night time, after enjoying the second day in a row of fresh caught mahi mahi as a ceviche appetizer before dinner. We are eating like royalty while watching the miles tick away to Mindelo. Sleeping has been surprisingly easy as well with a relatively flat boat. This has been a really special experience. We are so happy to share in the adventure with our fellow ARC+ sailors. See you soon in Mindelo!. read more...

Sea Rose - Day 3 - Sea Rose

We are settling into a rhythm now onboard Sea Rose. Learning to get rest during your off watch has been key, as is having a predictable time when you are on watch to help our bodies adjust. We have been in an informal three boat dance with Odysseia and At C, both of which are barely visible on the horizon. It appeared that At C raised a spinnaker as we could faintly see a big pink sail. Otherwise, we are all alone. We have a poled out Code 0, giving us all the speed downwind that we can handle. The autopilot has seen steady duty when the helmsperson gets tired of the challenge of keeping a straight course with sizable swells rolling underneath at regular intervals. Despite the lack of fresh caught fish (two lures have been lost so far…maybe to the ‘big’ one!) we have dined exquisitely.. read more...