- Crossing the Atlantic!
- Week 22-23: Gibraltar to Lanzarote (804nm)
- Week 24: Arrecife, Lanzarote (0nm!)
- Week 25: Lanzarote (90nm)
- Week 26: Puerto Calero, Lanzarote (0nm)
- Weeks 27-28: Lanzarote to Cape Verde (1,005nm)
- Week 29: Cape Verde (0nm)
- The Atlantic (2,124nm) – post I
- The Atlantic (2,124nm) – post II
- The Atlantic (2,124nm) – post III
- The Atlantic (2,124nm) – post IV
In a break from our usual weekly update format, we thought it would be helpful to set out what we are trying to achieve over the coming months. Crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat undoubtedly represents the biggest challenge that either Laura or I have faced in our lives so far, and all of our efforts with Serenity First this year have been building towards this goal.
The journey
Whilst crossing the Atlantic in a single go is theoretically possible for a boat like Serenity First, neither Laura or I had any interest in making this harder than necessary. So, like the majority of boats making the westbound trip to the Caribbean, we are breaking the journey up into a number of legs.
Leg 1: Gibraltar to Lanzarote, Canary Islands (597nm)
This first leg is a well trodden path for cruisers and is often referred to as a bit of a “shakedown cruise” for transatlantic sailors since it allows you to test out all of the equipment and processes on an extended passage, without ever getting too far from land and to arrive in a place with good yacht facilities if repairs are required. We are hoping that the extensive sailing we’ve accrued this year will make this a less stressful passage for Serenity First, but it still represents a 50% increase on our maximum passage to date and will hopefully allow us to perfect our downwind sailing setup (see Crew below)
Leg 2: Canary Islands to Cape Verde (945nm)
Cape Verde is a less common stop off than the Canaries, since it represents a bit of a detour from the optimum route. That being said, most boats end up heading two thirds of the way south towards them in order to find the trade winds, and so the extra miles aren’t as significant as the map first suggests. We took the view that this is likely our only opportunity to visit this isolated archipelago, and since we aren’t in a rush we suspect that the Serenity’s crew will welcome a change to relax and restock before the biggest leg.
Leg 3: Cape Verde to Martinique (2,079nm)
Both of the previous legs have an expected passage time of around a week, and so the estimated two and a half weeks at sea of the final leg is going to feel really different. We are hoping to head off with at least a few other similar sized boats to give us a little bit of company, but it is likely we won’t be in sight of anyone for the vast majority of the trip. Thankfully we have a satphone to send and receive messages and are hoping to be able to stay in touch at least a little bit!
The crew
Following on from the theme of “not making this harder than necessary,” Laura and I were also very keen to recruit some crew to help us on each of the legs. We are very grateful that three people heard the conch and came running, and so here is a quick intro to the newest members of the Serenity First family.
Phil (“The Spinnaker Doctor”) Jones is going to bring a level of sailing experience onto Serenity First that has thus far been absent. He has accumulated over 10,000 miles on his sailing CV and is a regular at Cowes and Antigua race weeks. A friend of the family, his enthusiasm to join us on the first leg to the Canaries has injected some energy well ahead of setting foot aboard, and we are confident that this will only be surpassed by our downwind speed records that will be set under his tutelage!
Ballin (“Blades”) Smith doesn’t quite have the same sailing pedigree as Phil – he’s only sailed once before with us in the BVI; however, this means he does know where the Caribbean is, and (more importantly) he is one of our closest friends, whom we lived with at MIT and then subsequently in Oakland. He is a fast learner and great team player and our only real concerns are around livability in close confines (i.e. his aversion to bathing)…thankfully we are confident the next crew member will keep this under control!
Like her husband Ballin, Katherine (“Pickle”) Smith is fairly new to the world of sailing, but brings other qualities that will make her an invaluable team member (in addition to enforcing showers for Ballin) – she has amazing taste in music, is wonderfully positive and uplifting to be around, and is always happy to get involved when the going gets tough. The Smiths will be meeting us in the Canaries and sailing on both the second and third legs on Serenity…we are confident we will still be close friends with them by the end 🙂
Staying in touch
Ocean passages unsurprisingly will limit our access to the internet even more than usual and so our posts will become a bit less frequent until we make landfall in Martinique…but thankfully other options will take their place for those wanting to know how we are getting on and wanting to stay in touch. We now have a location tracking page setup, which will hopefully reassure everyone that we are headed in the right direction. Along with this, the phone number for our satellite phone is +8816 224 07624 for anyone who is inspired to send some encouraging texts / jokes / riddles to pass the time (no message cost if sent from this link). Finally, we will be able to send and receive emails via our regular “message in a bottle” feature, although this will be a bit less frequent than the texts and unfortunately we won’t be able to open attachments.
Whatever your preferred means of communication, we are really looking forward to hearing from you all during our journey and promise to do our best to stay safe and arrive in the Caribbean in one piece.
Love Alec & Laura x
Absolutely fantastic. What a great team you two make! You’ve accomplished so much in such a short period of time. I’m astounded at your progress everytime the new blog post arrives and yet clearly there is so much more in store. Fantastic!
Hey Dirk, great to hear from you and thanks for the words of encouragement! Are you still eyeing up the Baha Haha this year – if so, how are the preparations coming along?
That’s a good example of the face I’ll give Ballin if he goes more than 3 days without bathing (gotta give him some leeway 😉 )
As long as it isn’t too tiring an expression to hold for two weeks….looking forward to seeing you guys in less than a month now!
The Atlantic beckons… hope the final preparations go smoothly and well.
Good luck to you both and the new crew members, hope everyone enjoys the experience and there aren’t any mutinies!
Thanks Jill, we’re hopefully heading off this afternoon and are feeling really good with how the preparations have gone! Love Alec & Laura