Epilogue
The whole crew has now returned home and Monomotapa is in Rodney Bay awaiting new adventures.
Official results have come out. As calculated, we were 2nd in class, 9th overall. If you are interested, full listings in http://www.worldcruising.com/arc/results.aspx.
Olli has made a summary of our pictures at http://managementevents.kuvat.fi/kuvat/ARC%202009%20-%20Crossing%20the%20Atlantic/. Salasana (password) is arc.
Have an enjoyable holiday season and a great New Year!
Over and out.
Hannu & the Crew
22/12/2009
09/12/2009
9.12. A Beginning
36 hours from landing. Time to reflect back on the experience.
It was an experience that met all our expectations. We got all we were after: excellent team spirit in the boat, fun and relaxed two weeks, being pampered by our Italian hosts, great sailing in sun and perfect winds, some heavy wind and difficult situations to get the adrenaline up. Perfect.
How did we do? Winning line honours in our class and being 46. of over 200 boats (of which 170 are faster than Monomotapa) is pretty good. In handicap 2. in class, in top 10 overall is equally good. Especially considering that we had practically no weather information to plan our tactics. Did we try hard enough? If we hadn’t broken anything, the answer would clearly be no. With two spinnakers and some smaller things kaput, we can say that did push it. Actually we were at our best on the hardest conditions, the heaviest winds. If there had been more of those, we would have had a good opportunity to clear the trophy table. Purely from the sailing perspective we learned a lot. None of us had extensive experience from driving with spinnaker. Now after two weeks in varying conditions I am sure we all are pretty confident about that.
About our bet on the arrival time. Iiro’s estimation was 11 min. from the actual arrival time. Not a bad guess over a sailing time of over 100 hours. I am sure I will hear about that for the next five years.
At least for me one of the really positive things in the trip was our Monomotapa. As Finns we have of course been familiar with and proud of the reputation of Swans, but we were still amazed about the sailing qualities of our Swan 46. As an X-37 sailor I would say that I am used to good, but there were so many occasion where it became clear that an ocean passage sets it own requirements.
So, was this the first step in round the world sailing? Probably not. We are all (except Iiro of course) a bit too hyper active to do this for two years in a row. But this will probably lead to new experiences. Alberto does the best Mediterranean regattas and is planning to participate in Fastnet Race as well. I am sure part of the crew will return to those.
Hopefully the most lasting result of this adventure is the friendship ties made with Alberto, Andrea and Paco. Again we want to thank them for this great experience. This is just a beginning of a friendship. The next etap on that path is Volvo Suursaari Race on 11.-13.6.2010. We have invited the Italian crew to join us for this traditional race that is with almost 200 boats one of the largest ocean races in Europe.
On behalf of the whole crew I would like to thank all our followers and other readers for following our trip. Olli will put a selection of photos to web latest next week, the link will be published here as soon as it is available.
Navigare necesse est.
- Hannu
It was an experience that met all our expectations. We got all we were after: excellent team spirit in the boat, fun and relaxed two weeks, being pampered by our Italian hosts, great sailing in sun and perfect winds, some heavy wind and difficult situations to get the adrenaline up. Perfect.
How did we do? Winning line honours in our class and being 46. of over 200 boats (of which 170 are faster than Monomotapa) is pretty good. In handicap 2. in class, in top 10 overall is equally good. Especially considering that we had practically no weather information to plan our tactics. Did we try hard enough? If we hadn’t broken anything, the answer would clearly be no. With two spinnakers and some smaller things kaput, we can say that did push it. Actually we were at our best on the hardest conditions, the heaviest winds. If there had been more of those, we would have had a good opportunity to clear the trophy table. Purely from the sailing perspective we learned a lot. None of us had extensive experience from driving with spinnaker. Now after two weeks in varying conditions I am sure we all are pretty confident about that.
About our bet on the arrival time. Iiro’s estimation was 11 min. from the actual arrival time. Not a bad guess over a sailing time of over 100 hours. I am sure I will hear about that for the next five years.
At least for me one of the really positive things in the trip was our Monomotapa. As Finns we have of course been familiar with and proud of the reputation of Swans, but we were still amazed about the sailing qualities of our Swan 46. As an X-37 sailor I would say that I am used to good, but there were so many occasion where it became clear that an ocean passage sets it own requirements.
So, was this the first step in round the world sailing? Probably not. We are all (except Iiro of course) a bit too hyper active to do this for two years in a row. But this will probably lead to new experiences. Alberto does the best Mediterranean regattas and is planning to participate in Fastnet Race as well. I am sure part of the crew will return to those.
Hopefully the most lasting result of this adventure is the friendship ties made with Alberto, Andrea and Paco. Again we want to thank them for this great experience. This is just a beginning of a friendship. The next etap on that path is Volvo Suursaari Race on 11.-13.6.2010. We have invited the Italian crew to join us for this traditional race that is with almost 200 boats one of the largest ocean races in Europe.
On behalf of the whole crew I would like to thank all our followers and other readers for following our trip. Olli will put a selection of photos to web latest next week, the link will be published here as soon as it is available.
Navigare necesse est.
- Hannu
08/12/2009
7.12. Grande Finale
Last push. For the last 48 h we have had a conservative strategy in defending our leader position. Too conservative, many of us have been thinking. This was going to be our last day. In the morning we decided to get back to aggressive mode. Despite the certainty of getting squalls, we took up the spinnaker. Karri who had been on the deck during both of the squalls that had shaken our confidence, but had not steered, was full of holy anger and Finnish sisu and swore that he will steer us through whatever would come (this was not an empty testosterone-filled statement, Karri was our best helmsman). Hearing that we had lost the leadership position and were 12 miles behind raised the adrenaline in our blood even higher. We would have 100 miles, 12 hours to catch that 12 miles. We would need to drive 1 knot faster than our competitor. Wind supported our effort and gave us 10-154 m/s and we raged towards St. Lucia at record speeds of constant 10-12 knots. Soon we got the other supporters we had waited for. About a dozen dolphins came and started playing with us. They swam beside us, crossed in front of the boat, then jumped to the air. We cheered them and whistled to them. They stayed with us for more than an hour. The fighting spirit was great, until…
To optimise our VMG (speed towards the finish line), we decided to cut a bit to the wind and make jibes when needed. On one of our jibes, a standard manoeuvre, we made a mistake. The spinnaker boom was not lowered early enough and it cut a hole to the spinnaker… We had almost miraculously saved the spinnaker twice. And now we broke it in a simple basic manoeuvre. There was long silence. Il capitano decided to continue with the broken spinnaker, risking that the hole would be ripped wider and the spinnaker would be completely destroyed. We gathered all the sisu we had and continued pushing hard. After about an hour something happened again. A sudden BANG and in seconds the spinnaker was flying free in front of the fore stay. We managed to get it down and started studying what had happened. Conclusion: the sheet of the spinnaker had snapped. Rope made of spectra, material stronger than steel. The wear of two weeks of almost constant pressure on the sail had done its work. No more spinnaker. Nothing could threaten our victory in sailing time, but the win with handicap was not anymore in our own hands.
Odottavan aika on pitkä. Time goes slowly for the waiting one. Today nobody slept after the sunrise – except Iiro of course. After the sunset at 6 pm the whole crew was on deck. Watching the lights of St. Lucia grow bigger. In silence. For 3,5 hours. Finally after 9 pm we passed the Pigeon Island and turned towards the harbour. At 21.34 we crossed the finish line. 15 days, 12 h and 34 minutes. It was a great moment. We had done it. The whole crew cheered and congratulated each other.
When approaching the dock, we were welcomed by my family: Josefin, Luna and Lucas. A happy reunion. Faithful to the Monomotapa customs we opened a bottle of spumante and celebrated our achievement.
- Hannu
To optimise our VMG (speed towards the finish line), we decided to cut a bit to the wind and make jibes when needed. On one of our jibes, a standard manoeuvre, we made a mistake. The spinnaker boom was not lowered early enough and it cut a hole to the spinnaker… We had almost miraculously saved the spinnaker twice. And now we broke it in a simple basic manoeuvre. There was long silence. Il capitano decided to continue with the broken spinnaker, risking that the hole would be ripped wider and the spinnaker would be completely destroyed. We gathered all the sisu we had and continued pushing hard. After about an hour something happened again. A sudden BANG and in seconds the spinnaker was flying free in front of the fore stay. We managed to get it down and started studying what had happened. Conclusion: the sheet of the spinnaker had snapped. Rope made of spectra, material stronger than steel. The wear of two weeks of almost constant pressure on the sail had done its work. No more spinnaker. Nothing could threaten our victory in sailing time, but the win with handicap was not anymore in our own hands.
Odottavan aika on pitkä. Time goes slowly for the waiting one. Today nobody slept after the sunrise – except Iiro of course. After the sunset at 6 pm the whole crew was on deck. Watching the lights of St. Lucia grow bigger. In silence. For 3,5 hours. Finally after 9 pm we passed the Pigeon Island and turned towards the harbour. At 21.34 we crossed the finish line. 15 days, 12 h and 34 minutes. It was a great moment. We had done it. The whole crew cheered and congratulated each other.
When approaching the dock, we were welcomed by my family: Josefin, Luna and Lucas. A happy reunion. Faithful to the Monomotapa customs we opened a bottle of spumante and celebrated our achievement.
- Hannu
6.12. Finlandia
A proper start for the independence day of Finland: Sibelius’ Finlandia played at full volume from the cockpit loudspeakers. The crew stands and listens silently to the beautiful and powerful piece of the heart of every Finn. At dinner the occasion was celebrated by singing the national hymn and enjoying a bottle of Pro Secco. Food was decorated with small Finnish flags.
The tropical weather has shown us it’s both sides. Most of the time it is just extremely hot and sunny. In the nights this is accompanied by local showers that are driven by quite aggressive winds. Pasi wrote yesterday about our first experiences. To avoid similar situations we had today a holy sacrifice ceremony where we offered our best delicacies, aged rum and English chocolate biscuits, to Ahti, the old Finnish pagan God of the sea. I guess our offers did not satisfy him, because the next night we were constantly hit by strong squalls. We had decided to drive with main and genoa on the boom (butterfly), so this was not a problem.
What can men do when they start to get bored on a boat. They start gambling. Alberto, Andrea and Paco have played card every day, but now the Finnish team introduced Texas Hold’m. When I collected the money, the jealous put it on my luck. I do have to admit that I have won all lotteries that we have had on boat, but poker is not about luck, right. The most interesting bet we have is about the arrival time. The bet was made when we still had 700 miles left. It was interesting to hear the different approaches people had for ending up with a specific time.
With 200 miles left, peoples mind start to wonder to St. Lucia. I am very much looking forward to seeing Josefin, Luna and Lucas waving at us as we come to the harbour. Our estimated time of arrival is Monday evening. Hopefully not too late for the kids to come and meet us.
- Hannu
The tropical weather has shown us it’s both sides. Most of the time it is just extremely hot and sunny. In the nights this is accompanied by local showers that are driven by quite aggressive winds. Pasi wrote yesterday about our first experiences. To avoid similar situations we had today a holy sacrifice ceremony where we offered our best delicacies, aged rum and English chocolate biscuits, to Ahti, the old Finnish pagan God of the sea. I guess our offers did not satisfy him, because the next night we were constantly hit by strong squalls. We had decided to drive with main and genoa on the boom (butterfly), so this was not a problem.
What can men do when they start to get bored on a boat. They start gambling. Alberto, Andrea and Paco have played card every day, but now the Finnish team introduced Texas Hold’m. When I collected the money, the jealous put it on my luck. I do have to admit that I have won all lotteries that we have had on boat, but poker is not about luck, right. The most interesting bet we have is about the arrival time. The bet was made when we still had 700 miles left. It was interesting to hear the different approaches people had for ending up with a specific time.
With 200 miles left, peoples mind start to wonder to St. Lucia. I am very much looking forward to seeing Josefin, Luna and Lucas waving at us as we come to the harbour. Our estimated time of arrival is Monday evening. Hopefully not too late for the kids to come and meet us.
- Hannu
07/12/2009
5.12. Another day at the office
At 2 AM on Friday morning Karri and I went up to the deck and took over the helm. Tired, very tired. The sea was rough and the night was dark. The fact that there were only 500 miles to go cheered us up. We definitely still wanted to win our class and kept the spinnaker up. Untouchables. Due to tiredness I decided to turn on the autopilot, which we call Helminen. Helminen was after all considered to be a better and safer option than driving by hand in the darkness. It should also be able to steer more accurately to the target.
I listened to Kari Peitsamo’s Kauppaopiston naiset from Iiro’s Ipod. Every now and then I had to correct the spinnaker and told Karri to take a rest. Another wave and another correction - another slightly higher wave and the correction didn’t work. Second attempt and the spinnaker was still a mess. I shouted Karri for help. Within only a few seconds the spinnaker was totally messed up around the rolled jib.
Caramello, bra, rintsikat of the century; Ui saatana! of the journey. “This is the end of our spinnaker”, I thought as the wind picked up and the sail made enormous noise. The entire crew woke up, orders were shouted. Paco and Andrea screamed commands in return - only Olli slept through it all. For the next three and a half hours we worked very hard on the dark deck and finally managed to get the spinnaker down and jib up. All this without anyone overboard and without any major damages. Amazing!
Sun rose, we were all taking a breath. Sweaty, tired and relieved. Also Olli got up at this point and - true to his character - suggested hoisting the spinnaker again. Not all agreed with this idea at first, but pretty soon we all thought that it would be the best way to get over the scary experience and within minutes the old troublemaker was up again. Forza Monomotapa!
I regained my composure and confidence during the day. Fast forward to next night. When Karri and I took over the helm around 11 PM on Saturday night, we noticed a dark cloud behind us. Paco was with us this time. I was on the helm steering the boat. Just as Karri said that nothing could stop us from getting to St Lucia on Monday, the wind picked up and within few seconds the rain started and a sudden squall hit us. Big time!
Wind was everywhere, wind speed 20 meters per second. Paco shouted “Katastrof!”All of a sudden despite loosening the sheets (or skuutit in Finnish) Monomotapa was riding on its side tilting almost ninety degrees with main sail hitting the water. Somehow we all succeeded in hanging on. I held on to the helm, Karri to the ropes, Paco to who-knows-what.
It is impossible to say whether it lasted only for seconds or for minutes (but it sure felt like minutes!), but then – like in a beautiful fairy tale – Monomotapa rose up like Phoenix from the ashes. Screaming, shouting, weird faces. Spinnaker down! Main sail down! Amazingly nothing was damaged and within an hour Monomotapa was on the road again – this time with the jib and main hoisted. “Good spinnaker is a dead spinnaker”, I thought and tried to get some sleep.
Now we knew how to respect the Atlantic. This was an experience that I would have been happy to skip. I don’t think anyone of us slept peacefully for the rest of the night. Full Monty!
Pasi
Laziness is the worst enemy of the victory and the worst obstacle on the path to success. Last couples of days have been very quiet. Low winds and the burning sun have made me somewhat passive and lazy. You could almost hear the punishment coming…But all is well. Nothing broken and nobody hurt. The incidents were not anybody’s fault, but the collective Lutheran punishment for laziness. Friday’s total was ok - considering all the hassle. 180 miles in 24 hours, now leading our class with 8 miles.
Hannu
I listened to Kari Peitsamo’s Kauppaopiston naiset from Iiro’s Ipod. Every now and then I had to correct the spinnaker and told Karri to take a rest. Another wave and another correction - another slightly higher wave and the correction didn’t work. Second attempt and the spinnaker was still a mess. I shouted Karri for help. Within only a few seconds the spinnaker was totally messed up around the rolled jib.
Caramello, bra, rintsikat of the century; Ui saatana! of the journey. “This is the end of our spinnaker”, I thought as the wind picked up and the sail made enormous noise. The entire crew woke up, orders were shouted. Paco and Andrea screamed commands in return - only Olli slept through it all. For the next three and a half hours we worked very hard on the dark deck and finally managed to get the spinnaker down and jib up. All this without anyone overboard and without any major damages. Amazing!
Sun rose, we were all taking a breath. Sweaty, tired and relieved. Also Olli got up at this point and - true to his character - suggested hoisting the spinnaker again. Not all agreed with this idea at first, but pretty soon we all thought that it would be the best way to get over the scary experience and within minutes the old troublemaker was up again. Forza Monomotapa!
I regained my composure and confidence during the day. Fast forward to next night. When Karri and I took over the helm around 11 PM on Saturday night, we noticed a dark cloud behind us. Paco was with us this time. I was on the helm steering the boat. Just as Karri said that nothing could stop us from getting to St Lucia on Monday, the wind picked up and within few seconds the rain started and a sudden squall hit us. Big time!
Wind was everywhere, wind speed 20 meters per second. Paco shouted “Katastrof!”All of a sudden despite loosening the sheets (or skuutit in Finnish) Monomotapa was riding on its side tilting almost ninety degrees with main sail hitting the water. Somehow we all succeeded in hanging on. I held on to the helm, Karri to the ropes, Paco to who-knows-what.
It is impossible to say whether it lasted only for seconds or for minutes (but it sure felt like minutes!), but then – like in a beautiful fairy tale – Monomotapa rose up like Phoenix from the ashes. Screaming, shouting, weird faces. Spinnaker down! Main sail down! Amazingly nothing was damaged and within an hour Monomotapa was on the road again – this time with the jib and main hoisted. “Good spinnaker is a dead spinnaker”, I thought and tried to get some sleep.
Now we knew how to respect the Atlantic. This was an experience that I would have been happy to skip. I don’t think anyone of us slept peacefully for the rest of the night. Full Monty!
Pasi
Laziness is the worst enemy of the victory and the worst obstacle on the path to success. Last couples of days have been very quiet. Low winds and the burning sun have made me somewhat passive and lazy. You could almost hear the punishment coming…But all is well. Nothing broken and nobody hurt. The incidents were not anybody’s fault, but the collective Lutheran punishment for laziness. Friday’s total was ok - considering all the hassle. 180 miles in 24 hours, now leading our class with 8 miles.
Hannu
4.12. Rehab
The Finnish crew is a bunch of middle-age men who are used to control their life and the world around them. In 40 years they have collected a selection by more or less of severe obsessions and addictions - some of which are difficult to fulfill in the boat. The most common is not surprisingly addiction for mobile phones and laptops. The worst addicts are Pasi, Olli and - I guess I need to admit it - me.
Olli has tried to keep the phone habit by spending almost 1 000 euros on the satellite phone. Pasi secretly sneaks to his cabin every now and then to spend quality time with his laptop. I have been quite open about my problem. I keep my mobile phone with me all the time using the excuse that as the watch officer I need to know the passing of time at all times and for that purpose I use dear my Nokia. I also use my laptop daily for writing these blogs.
All you readers who know me are now thinking about something else. My chocolate cake, chocolate muffin, chocolate ice cream, chocolate anything habit. But you also know that I always come prepared. A central part of my luggage is a selection of chocolate biscuits; however I still have most of my chocolate left, since our Italian cuisine has included wonderful chocolate cakes and even chocolate ice cream.
Pasi lost the grip today on one of the worst possible addictions today. He remained in control until almost the end, but finally broke on Friday afternoon. He called his work. Only two hours separated him from the weekend and that godly feeling of being able to control your addiction. Our sympathies are with him.
Janne is the lucky one. Smoking pipe is a natural part of sailor’s life and can easily be sustained here as well. When he also has – with various excuses been able to triple his daily beer quota to three cans, his addictions are probably best served of the whole crew.
Karri is also doing fairly OK. Red wine is on offer at lunches and dinners, most of the time it is even Chianti. Half of his trouble package is taken by his travel humidor. He claims that he is about to stop smoking and therefore took with him a selection of quality cigars, which he is planning to smoke during the trip, but not buy any new ones. Well, he really is putting himself to a test. Cigar aficionado who is planning to stop smoking while travelling in the Caribbean? Good luck!
Iiro is sorry of his own. He has developed his own personal diet and healthcare program. To be able to follow it, he is travelling with an array of nutrients, vitamins and all kinds of pills. No wonder our captain calls him Mr Plastic Fantastic. I am sorry to say that Iiro’s fate has been the saddest of all. His no-carbon-hydrate-no-artificial-fat-principles have turned into double portions of pasta, white breda and chocolate cake.
Sailing-wise it has been a quiet day almost like there hasn’t been any sailing. There’s very little wind, but it is extremely hot. The crew has difficulties with sleeping. It must be around 35 degrees inside the boat and even hotter in sunshine on the deck. Our 24 hour result was what can be expected from these low winds, 159 miles. The two leading boats have now disappeared beyond the horizon and other yachts on the southern course are passing us by. Our main task is now very much defending the class lead of six miles we still hold.
Hannu
Olli has tried to keep the phone habit by spending almost 1 000 euros on the satellite phone. Pasi secretly sneaks to his cabin every now and then to spend quality time with his laptop. I have been quite open about my problem. I keep my mobile phone with me all the time using the excuse that as the watch officer I need to know the passing of time at all times and for that purpose I use dear my Nokia. I also use my laptop daily for writing these blogs.
All you readers who know me are now thinking about something else. My chocolate cake, chocolate muffin, chocolate ice cream, chocolate anything habit. But you also know that I always come prepared. A central part of my luggage is a selection of chocolate biscuits; however I still have most of my chocolate left, since our Italian cuisine has included wonderful chocolate cakes and even chocolate ice cream.
Pasi lost the grip today on one of the worst possible addictions today. He remained in control until almost the end, but finally broke on Friday afternoon. He called his work. Only two hours separated him from the weekend and that godly feeling of being able to control your addiction. Our sympathies are with him.
Janne is the lucky one. Smoking pipe is a natural part of sailor’s life and can easily be sustained here as well. When he also has – with various excuses been able to triple his daily beer quota to three cans, his addictions are probably best served of the whole crew.
Karri is also doing fairly OK. Red wine is on offer at lunches and dinners, most of the time it is even Chianti. Half of his trouble package is taken by his travel humidor. He claims that he is about to stop smoking and therefore took with him a selection of quality cigars, which he is planning to smoke during the trip, but not buy any new ones. Well, he really is putting himself to a test. Cigar aficionado who is planning to stop smoking while travelling in the Caribbean? Good luck!
Iiro is sorry of his own. He has developed his own personal diet and healthcare program. To be able to follow it, he is travelling with an array of nutrients, vitamins and all kinds of pills. No wonder our captain calls him Mr Plastic Fantastic. I am sorry to say that Iiro’s fate has been the saddest of all. His no-carbon-hydrate-no-artificial-fat-principles have turned into double portions of pasta, white breda and chocolate cake.
Sailing-wise it has been a quiet day almost like there hasn’t been any sailing. There’s very little wind, but it is extremely hot. The crew has difficulties with sleeping. It must be around 35 degrees inside the boat and even hotter in sunshine on the deck. Our 24 hour result was what can be expected from these low winds, 159 miles. The two leading boats have now disappeared beyond the horizon and other yachts on the southern course are passing us by. Our main task is now very much defending the class lead of six miles we still hold.
Hannu
3.12. Leadership over troubled waters
Sailing for the first time across the Atlantic is an experience you surely remember for the rest of your life, if not beyond. When our team of Finns prepared for this trip, we touched the issue of how competitively we would want to do it. For example, should we use spinnaker at nights or not? The arguments for not pushing the speed to the limit were mainly safety considerations. As a solution we now have a veto policy on any safety issues. If one of the guys on the watch doesn't want us to do something - for example raise a big sail at night - we won't do it.
I personally got a great picture of our captain Alberto already before the race - both as a character and as captured with my Canon Power Shot camera. He is fond of racing hard but at the same time he listens to his crew and makes decisions based on their judgment. We all consider him the charismatic leader of this boat.
We all have special roles. Mine includes being the official photographer. So far I’ve taken over 1 000 pictures with my new Canon. I have to confess that it is not easy any more finding new ideas and angles for the pictures. I have tested all there is: sea, clouds, night, day, action and so on. We will publish a web-link for pictures in this blog before Christmas.
Unfortunately it seems that the risks of the northern route are materializing. We have been stuck for more than 24 hours in light and variable wind. Our greatest problem is that by now we have lost almost 100 miles to the leading boats that are cruising more south. According to the limited weather information we have, we should already be sailing with satisfactory seven to eight meters per second east-northeast wind, but it ain’t here yet. In leader board it starts to look ugly. During last 24 hours we covered only a pitiful 127 miles. The previous number two has taken the lead in the race. It won us by a crushing 35 miles. The previous leader, now holding the second position, won us by 26 miles. The new leader is now 70 miles and the second boat 50 miles ahead of us. Fortunately we still lead our own class by eight miles.
Our decision on course strategy and navigating straight on a run line to St. Lucia was affected by the fact that we lost our navigation and communication computer on day three. Navigation itself is not a problem, we have maps and many GPS instruments still on board and there are no rocks you could hit before we arrive in the Rodney Bay harbor. The biggest challenge on computer failure is that we lost all weather information that is essential in predicting changes in the wind and coming low-pressures. Needless to say, this is crucial for the course tactics decisions on a day-to-day basis.
When stuck on the almost calm winds of the Atlantic, we have more time for taking it easy. We spotted a whale, and we had time to celebrate Janne's 41st birthday starting at the breakfast. Pasi and Hannu had a plan to serve breakfast to Janne's bed but the rest of us did not any point in that since his bed is only 55cm from the breakfast table. Anyway, Janne was the first to wake up in the morning. The highlight of the celebration was the lunch. We had roast beef and red wine sauce with grilled aubergine, zuccini and pepperoni. For dessert we had ice cream with ice-cold Spumante.
In the morning when the boat was not moving more than 3 knots, I had time to scan through the book on ocean sailing. We got good laugh when finding out that we are close to the high pressure of the so called Horse Latitudes. It is an area between North Atlantic trade winds that get you back to Europe and Southern trade winds that get you to the Caribbean. 500 years ago sailors did not know this ocean weather phenomenon existed, and ships wandered from the trade routes in to the calm center area between the trade winds. As the ships’ drinking water begun to run out, they threw their horses overboard to conserve their own life supplies – hence the name.
Humans are adaptive – that has been proven again. When boarding Monomotapa in Las Palmas we all wanted to get safely to the other side and have an experience of a lifetime. But when - after only four days of sailing – we found ourselves among the top five boats, our appetite for racing grew and we could almost see the trophy in our hands. During the last 24 hours we again haven’t talked so much about the competition. There was a birthday celebration and we’ve had some good philosophical and political talks, good and bad jokes. As we have been building our team spirit and camaraderie, we have also realized that whatever our final position in this race will be, the journey itself is the Numero Uno trophy.
Olli
I personally got a great picture of our captain Alberto already before the race - both as a character and as captured with my Canon Power Shot camera. He is fond of racing hard but at the same time he listens to his crew and makes decisions based on their judgment. We all consider him the charismatic leader of this boat.
We all have special roles. Mine includes being the official photographer. So far I’ve taken over 1 000 pictures with my new Canon. I have to confess that it is not easy any more finding new ideas and angles for the pictures. I have tested all there is: sea, clouds, night, day, action and so on. We will publish a web-link for pictures in this blog before Christmas.
Unfortunately it seems that the risks of the northern route are materializing. We have been stuck for more than 24 hours in light and variable wind. Our greatest problem is that by now we have lost almost 100 miles to the leading boats that are cruising more south. According to the limited weather information we have, we should already be sailing with satisfactory seven to eight meters per second east-northeast wind, but it ain’t here yet. In leader board it starts to look ugly. During last 24 hours we covered only a pitiful 127 miles. The previous number two has taken the lead in the race. It won us by a crushing 35 miles. The previous leader, now holding the second position, won us by 26 miles. The new leader is now 70 miles and the second boat 50 miles ahead of us. Fortunately we still lead our own class by eight miles.
Our decision on course strategy and navigating straight on a run line to St. Lucia was affected by the fact that we lost our navigation and communication computer on day three. Navigation itself is not a problem, we have maps and many GPS instruments still on board and there are no rocks you could hit before we arrive in the Rodney Bay harbor. The biggest challenge on computer failure is that we lost all weather information that is essential in predicting changes in the wind and coming low-pressures. Needless to say, this is crucial for the course tactics decisions on a day-to-day basis.
When stuck on the almost calm winds of the Atlantic, we have more time for taking it easy. We spotted a whale, and we had time to celebrate Janne's 41st birthday starting at the breakfast. Pasi and Hannu had a plan to serve breakfast to Janne's bed but the rest of us did not any point in that since his bed is only 55cm from the breakfast table. Anyway, Janne was the first to wake up in the morning. The highlight of the celebration was the lunch. We had roast beef and red wine sauce with grilled aubergine, zuccini and pepperoni. For dessert we had ice cream with ice-cold Spumante.
In the morning when the boat was not moving more than 3 knots, I had time to scan through the book on ocean sailing. We got good laugh when finding out that we are close to the high pressure of the so called Horse Latitudes. It is an area between North Atlantic trade winds that get you back to Europe and Southern trade winds that get you to the Caribbean. 500 years ago sailors did not know this ocean weather phenomenon existed, and ships wandered from the trade routes in to the calm center area between the trade winds. As the ships’ drinking water begun to run out, they threw their horses overboard to conserve their own life supplies – hence the name.
Humans are adaptive – that has been proven again. When boarding Monomotapa in Las Palmas we all wanted to get safely to the other side and have an experience of a lifetime. But when - after only four days of sailing – we found ourselves among the top five boats, our appetite for racing grew and we could almost see the trophy in our hands. During the last 24 hours we again haven’t talked so much about the competition. There was a birthday celebration and we’ve had some good philosophical and political talks, good and bad jokes. As we have been building our team spirit and camaraderie, we have also realized that whatever our final position in this race will be, the journey itself is the Numero Uno trophy.
Olli
2.12. 15 square meters, 9 men, 9 opinions, 3 languages, 2 cultures
From the very beginning this has been a very good team. After spending ten days with nine men in just 15 square meters space, you start to know each other. In this Love Boat you cannot hide, escape or withdraw from anything that happens onboard. There is no out of sight, out of mind. Nine men, three languages, two cultures: one 15 square meter melting pot. You share the ups and downs, you share the smell of dirty clothes, the noise of your snoring mate, the good and bad jokes, one toilet, one outdoor shower and Olli and I even share the same bed.
Evidently one’s mal organisé becomes everybody’s mess. Still there is no whining. Clearly we are not here to complain and there really is nothing to complain about. Sailing is great, weather varying, food excellent and the team just keeps getting better and better. Just when the mood is getting somewhat melancholic, the captain brings up a bottle of Spumante or then a sudden gale or shower clears us up.
From good to great
So, what is it that makes teams like this to grow from good to great? Same mission. First, it appears that everyone on board have the same basic idea about the journey. This is not an easy biscuit and all have done their preparatory work well. Each and everyone is clearly oriented to get the job done and get across the Atlantic.
One captain.
Alberto is not only the captain and owner of our boat, but he is also a charismatic leader. His sense of humor, attitude and easiness brings calm. So far, so good. Then there are eight first officers – no primadonnas. Let's make one thing clear: there is not one member in the team that would not like to make and take decisions. When considering tactics, maneuvers, strategy, dividing tasks and taking actions there are no lack of opinions.
However, respect of others as well as common interest in tactics drives the team to debates, discussions and sometimes even arguments. Most often this decision making process leads to well optimized decisions. Sometimes it may result in compromises that are less good and sometimes it makes some of us to think of the negative side of democracy and perhaps long for work where oneself is the decision maker.
Combination of Italians and Finns
Never thought about it before, Italians and Finns could be difficult to put together.
Rational and introvert Finns probably compliment well talkative and temperament Italians.
Most likely Italians laugh at Finns as the later take a naked shower on the deck, run around in their underwear, take three to five vitamin pills a day and are able to be silent for four hours straight during the night shift. In return Finns can't stop admiring the style and the cooking and laugh at their jokes at the dinner table. Yes, we look different, we sound different and we act different. What a match! Now that days and nights are really hot, there’s only 800 miles to go, the race is getting tough and weather more challenging, we need every drop of the Italian-Finnish greatness. And Pronto, perkele!
Pasi
Sic transit Gloria mundi
Today has been extremely difficult. Wind has been on the side for more than 24 hours and we have had difficulties in getting the speed out of it. We have tried different main, jib, gennaker and spinnaker combinations, but none seem to work. When the 24 hour results came in, we knew to expect the worst. Our 174 miles will certainly not keep us in the battle for the gold.
This was confirmed by the results from the other boats. We lost six miles to the leader and 25 miles to the second and after that things have only gone worse. Right now we are in almost stand-still and guys are talking about going swimming. Nice experience of course, but we would all rather be flying the spinnaker at 15 meters per second wind heading towards St. Lucia. The only consolation is that we are not the only ones suffering from the lack of wind. At least all the boats in the northern route share the same fate. In the worst case this means that the wind works like security car in Formula 1 races, collecting all the boats together and making us start the race practically from the beginning again. Tomorrow we’ll see.
Hannu
Evidently one’s mal organisé becomes everybody’s mess. Still there is no whining. Clearly we are not here to complain and there really is nothing to complain about. Sailing is great, weather varying, food excellent and the team just keeps getting better and better. Just when the mood is getting somewhat melancholic, the captain brings up a bottle of Spumante or then a sudden gale or shower clears us up.
From good to great
So, what is it that makes teams like this to grow from good to great? Same mission. First, it appears that everyone on board have the same basic idea about the journey. This is not an easy biscuit and all have done their preparatory work well. Each and everyone is clearly oriented to get the job done and get across the Atlantic.
One captain.
Alberto is not only the captain and owner of our boat, but he is also a charismatic leader. His sense of humor, attitude and easiness brings calm. So far, so good. Then there are eight first officers – no primadonnas. Let's make one thing clear: there is not one member in the team that would not like to make and take decisions. When considering tactics, maneuvers, strategy, dividing tasks and taking actions there are no lack of opinions.
However, respect of others as well as common interest in tactics drives the team to debates, discussions and sometimes even arguments. Most often this decision making process leads to well optimized decisions. Sometimes it may result in compromises that are less good and sometimes it makes some of us to think of the negative side of democracy and perhaps long for work where oneself is the decision maker.
Combination of Italians and Finns
Never thought about it before, Italians and Finns could be difficult to put together.
Rational and introvert Finns probably compliment well talkative and temperament Italians.
Most likely Italians laugh at Finns as the later take a naked shower on the deck, run around in their underwear, take three to five vitamin pills a day and are able to be silent for four hours straight during the night shift. In return Finns can't stop admiring the style and the cooking and laugh at their jokes at the dinner table. Yes, we look different, we sound different and we act different. What a match! Now that days and nights are really hot, there’s only 800 miles to go, the race is getting tough and weather more challenging, we need every drop of the Italian-Finnish greatness. And Pronto, perkele!
Pasi
Sic transit Gloria mundi
Today has been extremely difficult. Wind has been on the side for more than 24 hours and we have had difficulties in getting the speed out of it. We have tried different main, jib, gennaker and spinnaker combinations, but none seem to work. When the 24 hour results came in, we knew to expect the worst. Our 174 miles will certainly not keep us in the battle for the gold.
This was confirmed by the results from the other boats. We lost six miles to the leader and 25 miles to the second and after that things have only gone worse. Right now we are in almost stand-still and guys are talking about going swimming. Nice experience of course, but we would all rather be flying the spinnaker at 15 meters per second wind heading towards St. Lucia. The only consolation is that we are not the only ones suffering from the lack of wind. At least all the boats in the northern route share the same fate. In the worst case this means that the wind works like security car in Formula 1 races, collecting all the boats together and making us start the race practically from the beginning again. Tomorrow we’ll see.
Hannu
1.12. 200 miles!!!
I have been secretly looking forward to experiencing what it is like when you sail in really high winds and mountainous waves that break behind the boat and soak you. Tonight we finally got something in that direction, but I missed it as I was off-watch and asleep.
Our course towards St. Lucia is currently a bit uncomfortable. Wind is at about 140-150 degrees from the bow - a little too much for the spinnaker, but too little for the jib. We drove half of the night with spinnaker at constant 10+ knots, but when the wind started to be steadily over 13 meters per second we decided to take it down. A beautiful maneuver straight from a study book and well timed. Half an hour later the wind was peaking at 18 meters per second. That is when Andrea got a shower from behind while at the helm.
Today seemed to become the first day with unstable weather and wind. When the morning broke spirits were very high. To start the day Janne clocked 14.7 knots with the main and jib with boom forming a butterfly or prayer book (virsikirja), as we say in Finland – a record speed so far without the spinnaker. We had pushed hard in varying conditions and the magical 200 miles as one day’s distance seemed achievable.
Unfortunately the weather continued to be unstable and soon a rain shower brought the wind down to 5-8 meters per second before peaking up again. Only 15 minutes before the timeline everyone was cheering that we will achieve the 200 mile target but then things started to happen. We got our first squall. First the wind died completely. During the next minute it turned 360 degrees. We all were holding our breath. Then it started to peak up and soon reached the normal 10 meters per second. What is most important, it stabilized in the same direction as it was before.
I went down to look at the GPS for the result, and YES! We had just reached 200 miles in 24 hours. The whole crew cheered. A few hours later there was even more reason for cheering. Results from the whole fleet showed we had caught the leader by 12 miles, now being only 28 miles behind. Even more intriguingly we won the 2nd by 6 miles and are now equal with them.
This showed that when we push hard we can challenge the leaders and it gave us a lot of self-confidence.
Hannu
Our course towards St. Lucia is currently a bit uncomfortable. Wind is at about 140-150 degrees from the bow - a little too much for the spinnaker, but too little for the jib. We drove half of the night with spinnaker at constant 10+ knots, but when the wind started to be steadily over 13 meters per second we decided to take it down. A beautiful maneuver straight from a study book and well timed. Half an hour later the wind was peaking at 18 meters per second. That is when Andrea got a shower from behind while at the helm.
Today seemed to become the first day with unstable weather and wind. When the morning broke spirits were very high. To start the day Janne clocked 14.7 knots with the main and jib with boom forming a butterfly or prayer book (virsikirja), as we say in Finland – a record speed so far without the spinnaker. We had pushed hard in varying conditions and the magical 200 miles as one day’s distance seemed achievable.
Unfortunately the weather continued to be unstable and soon a rain shower brought the wind down to 5-8 meters per second before peaking up again. Only 15 minutes before the timeline everyone was cheering that we will achieve the 200 mile target but then things started to happen. We got our first squall. First the wind died completely. During the next minute it turned 360 degrees. We all were holding our breath. Then it started to peak up and soon reached the normal 10 meters per second. What is most important, it stabilized in the same direction as it was before.
I went down to look at the GPS for the result, and YES! We had just reached 200 miles in 24 hours. The whole crew cheered. A few hours later there was even more reason for cheering. Results from the whole fleet showed we had caught the leader by 12 miles, now being only 28 miles behind. Even more intriguingly we won the 2nd by 6 miles and are now equal with them.
This showed that when we push hard we can challenge the leaders and it gave us a lot of self-confidence.
Hannu
30.11. The heat is on
We are starting to feel the tropical heat. It is extremely hot in the constant sunshine on the deck and even worse inside the boat. The Finnish saying:”Hiki laiskan syödessä”- or “a lazy man sweats when eating” - is more than true. You sweat from just lying on your bed, which makes it difficult to sleep. Correct wear for the night watch is T-shirt and shorts. My favorite time of the day is late afternoon when the sun is behind the sails and you can lay in their shadow on the deck.
Today’s result was 192 miles - a slight disappointment. 200 miles has become a milestone we want to achieve. Also our push to reach our competitors was not as successful as we had hoped for. We lost another two miles to the overall leader and six miles to the boat on the second place. On the positive side, our leader position in our own class is getting stronger and stronger. With the race intensifying and the time for choosing the final tactics approaching the debate about the right tactics and strategy is sometimes getting heated.
This is only among us Finns, of course. Our captain is as calm as ever.
When I told a friend of mine before the race who were going to be in the crew, his immediate comment was that there are too many leaders - who will do the real work? And here we are: everyone has their opinion about the right tactics - and in the meantime, we are not able to drive fast enough to reach the competition. Today we had a two hours discussion about whether to jibe now and head southwest to get closer to the competitors - or to keep the current course to northwest and wait for a possible change in wind. This time the debate was solved by shifting wind and we made our first jibe in three days. We are now heading southwest closer to our competitors, and most importantly directly towards St. Lucia. At dinner it was time for festivities: Andrea's name day - another good reason to celebrate.
Hannu
Today’s result was 192 miles - a slight disappointment. 200 miles has become a milestone we want to achieve. Also our push to reach our competitors was not as successful as we had hoped for. We lost another two miles to the overall leader and six miles to the boat on the second place. On the positive side, our leader position in our own class is getting stronger and stronger. With the race intensifying and the time for choosing the final tactics approaching the debate about the right tactics and strategy is sometimes getting heated.
This is only among us Finns, of course. Our captain is as calm as ever.
When I told a friend of mine before the race who were going to be in the crew, his immediate comment was that there are too many leaders - who will do the real work? And here we are: everyone has their opinion about the right tactics - and in the meantime, we are not able to drive fast enough to reach the competition. Today we had a two hours discussion about whether to jibe now and head southwest to get closer to the competitors - or to keep the current course to northwest and wait for a possible change in wind. This time the debate was solved by shifting wind and we made our first jibe in three days. We are now heading southwest closer to our competitors, and most importantly directly towards St. Lucia. At dinner it was time for festivities: Andrea's name day - another good reason to celebrate.
Hannu
29.11. Half-and-half
Halfway: 1 337 miles behind us - 1 337 to go. By now everyone has settled to the daily rhythm.
Sleep is sporadic. You have to be able to collect your daily dose from two to three four to five hour naps. This is facilitated by the steady rhythm; watches, meals, dishwashing, all come regularly. Since the weather and wind have been close to perfect all the time and there are no damages to the boat, it has been quite lazy. We have been able to concentrate on driving the boat.
The highlight of the day - besides the delicious meals - is always 2 PM call to our land racing base. All boats deliver their twelve o’clock GMT coordinates to the ARC race office, from where our own base collects the information. During last 24 hours we made our record sail: 199 miles. We are eagerly waiting what was the response from others and it is getting more and more exciting.
We managed to catch the overall leader by 10 miles and now she is only 37 miles ahead of us. Tie for the 2nd position is very close. We clocked almost the exactly the same miles as the second boat and are only TWO miles behind. Spreading the difference of two miles over seven days means that every second counts…
Spirit on the boat is fantastic. Our Finnish pop & rock music is being played and people sing. At the dinner table Andrea tells the joke of the day.
Today dinner was even more special than normally, we celebrated the halfway mark with 3 bottles of spumante. The meal was Andrea's catch of the day, a delicious four-kilo fish with an incomprehensible name prepared in the oven with lemon and rosemary. Buenisimo!!
It has been interesting to follow how we have developed as individuals as well as a team. Spinnaker maneuvers go very smoothly and everyone is capable of driving the boat well with spinnaker up. It tells a lot that what we were most afraid of in advance was driving the boat with the spinnaker at speeds of 10+ knots in complete darkness at 15 meters per second winds among 3-4 meter waves. Now we are doing it routinely, night after night and it comes naturally without taking any risks.
Again we can only praise the qualities of our Swan, and respect the ocean.
Hannu
Sleep is sporadic. You have to be able to collect your daily dose from two to three four to five hour naps. This is facilitated by the steady rhythm; watches, meals, dishwashing, all come regularly. Since the weather and wind have been close to perfect all the time and there are no damages to the boat, it has been quite lazy. We have been able to concentrate on driving the boat.
The highlight of the day - besides the delicious meals - is always 2 PM call to our land racing base. All boats deliver their twelve o’clock GMT coordinates to the ARC race office, from where our own base collects the information. During last 24 hours we made our record sail: 199 miles. We are eagerly waiting what was the response from others and it is getting more and more exciting.
We managed to catch the overall leader by 10 miles and now she is only 37 miles ahead of us. Tie for the 2nd position is very close. We clocked almost the exactly the same miles as the second boat and are only TWO miles behind. Spreading the difference of two miles over seven days means that every second counts…
Spirit on the boat is fantastic. Our Finnish pop & rock music is being played and people sing. At the dinner table Andrea tells the joke of the day.
Today dinner was even more special than normally, we celebrated the halfway mark with 3 bottles of spumante. The meal was Andrea's catch of the day, a delicious four-kilo fish with an incomprehensible name prepared in the oven with lemon and rosemary. Buenisimo!!
It has been interesting to follow how we have developed as individuals as well as a team. Spinnaker maneuvers go very smoothly and everyone is capable of driving the boat well with spinnaker up. It tells a lot that what we were most afraid of in advance was driving the boat with the spinnaker at speeds of 10+ knots in complete darkness at 15 meters per second winds among 3-4 meter waves. Now we are doing it routinely, night after night and it comes naturally without taking any risks.
Again we can only praise the qualities of our Swan, and respect the ocean.
Hannu
28.11. - Where are the dolphins?
I guess that each and every one of us has pretty similar expectations about the Atlantic crossing in general. Blue seas, long and high waves, constant tailwinds etc. Last, but not least, having dolphins surfing along next to our boat. In addition to the flock of tunas, we have only had one visual contact with an unidentified relatively large swimming object - maybe a whale, dolphin or a shark?
On the deck my daily routine is to scan 360 degrees every now and then and hoping to see a flipper somewhere. The best way to do the dolphin watch is to sit on the railing in the bow and let your legs touch the sea surface. In the bow the height from the sea under your feet varies from 0-5 metres, and the boat accelerates like a rocket when the speed rapidly increases on the surfs. It's a long time since i last felt myself like a 6-year old child. Today I was there again when Pasi gave me a 14,9 knots surf with the spinnaker.
Our Italian crew members are convinced that we will see dolphins during our journey. They also said that we would get fish - and we did - so they must know. Yesterday’s catch was fresh tuna marinated with lemon. It was definitely the best and the freshest tuna starter I have ever had in my life.
Daily breakfasts, lunches and dinners have become a very important get-together for all of us.
Our Italian chefs demonstrate what Italian cuisine really is all about. The pure tastes and simplicity of ingredients are prepared in a passionate way. So far we've had incredibly delicious pastas, melanzane (eggplant for those not in the know), which by the way took three and a half hours to prepare! We've also had pork made in the oven, turkey with milk sauce, asparagus risotto and pepper-chili chicken for lunch or dinner - and dolci after every meal with espresso or café latte. Unfortunately Andrea did not manage to bring fifty bottles of Brunello from his family vineyard as he did in ARC 2006, so we have had to get used to Spanish red wine.
Even though the life here is tough, it may be that we all gain a few extra kilos.
Now back to the dolphin watch.
Karri
The excitement of the race is slowly increasing. All the boats are now heading directly towards St. Lucia by the southern or the northern route - depending on the tactics they chose. For a few days we have received messages that we are doing extremely well. Yesterday we were in real distance on the 26th position of the whole fleet of boats. Considering that on paper we are only about 170th fastest, it looks good, but we are hungry for more information.
Today we recruited Olli's father to be our racing land base. He delivers us daily position coordinates of the 50 leading boats. Olli has built an Excel model where we insert the coordinates and the boat specific handicaps. The model then tells us the positions with handicaps.
Getting line honors is always highly valued and we are leading that in our class, but real target is winning our own class in handicap and being as high as possible in the overall race. Currently it looks good. We lead our own class and are 3rd overall, just 6 miles behind the 2nd and 60 miles behind the leader.
It cannot be a coincidence that three leading boats are all classic Swans: 48, 46 and our boat - a 46 as well. The conditions have actually been perfect for Swans. Enough wind and waves to bring the Swans’ best characteristics out: seaworthiness and reliability that enables one to drive them hard and completely safe in conditions where other boats are at their edge. We have noted many occasions where even our X-37 would have broached, but Monomotapa was not even close to that. It's amazing how gracefully Monomotapa just slides at 15 knots through the waves.
Last 24 hours were quite good: we collected 188 nautical miles and were able to catch the leading boats a bit
Hannu
On the deck my daily routine is to scan 360 degrees every now and then and hoping to see a flipper somewhere. The best way to do the dolphin watch is to sit on the railing in the bow and let your legs touch the sea surface. In the bow the height from the sea under your feet varies from 0-5 metres, and the boat accelerates like a rocket when the speed rapidly increases on the surfs. It's a long time since i last felt myself like a 6-year old child. Today I was there again when Pasi gave me a 14,9 knots surf with the spinnaker.
Our Italian crew members are convinced that we will see dolphins during our journey. They also said that we would get fish - and we did - so they must know. Yesterday’s catch was fresh tuna marinated with lemon. It was definitely the best and the freshest tuna starter I have ever had in my life.
Daily breakfasts, lunches and dinners have become a very important get-together for all of us.
Our Italian chefs demonstrate what Italian cuisine really is all about. The pure tastes and simplicity of ingredients are prepared in a passionate way. So far we've had incredibly delicious pastas, melanzane (eggplant for those not in the know), which by the way took three and a half hours to prepare! We've also had pork made in the oven, turkey with milk sauce, asparagus risotto and pepper-chili chicken for lunch or dinner - and dolci after every meal with espresso or café latte. Unfortunately Andrea did not manage to bring fifty bottles of Brunello from his family vineyard as he did in ARC 2006, so we have had to get used to Spanish red wine.
Even though the life here is tough, it may be that we all gain a few extra kilos.
Now back to the dolphin watch.
Karri
The excitement of the race is slowly increasing. All the boats are now heading directly towards St. Lucia by the southern or the northern route - depending on the tactics they chose. For a few days we have received messages that we are doing extremely well. Yesterday we were in real distance on the 26th position of the whole fleet of boats. Considering that on paper we are only about 170th fastest, it looks good, but we are hungry for more information.
Today we recruited Olli's father to be our racing land base. He delivers us daily position coordinates of the 50 leading boats. Olli has built an Excel model where we insert the coordinates and the boat specific handicaps. The model then tells us the positions with handicaps.
Getting line honors is always highly valued and we are leading that in our class, but real target is winning our own class in handicap and being as high as possible in the overall race. Currently it looks good. We lead our own class and are 3rd overall, just 6 miles behind the 2nd and 60 miles behind the leader.
It cannot be a coincidence that three leading boats are all classic Swans: 48, 46 and our boat - a 46 as well. The conditions have actually been perfect for Swans. Enough wind and waves to bring the Swans’ best characteristics out: seaworthiness and reliability that enables one to drive them hard and completely safe in conditions where other boats are at their edge. We have noted many occasions where even our X-37 would have broached, but Monomotapa was not even close to that. It's amazing how gracefully Monomotapa just slides at 15 knots through the waves.
Last 24 hours were quite good: we collected 188 nautical miles and were able to catch the leading boats a bit
Hannu
30/11/2009
27.11. - Midnight Express
Surreal feeling, during the Thursday-Friday night, the wind was good. 8-13 m/s.
The boat sailed on average speed of 9-10 knots. Somehow we managed to catch a route where wind had just developed, but waves not yet. All night long the boat felt like a locomotive, a racing locomotive. Spinnaker showing in the moonlight, wind swizzled and Monomotapa made more than 100 miles in one night. When back in bed, I felt strange. The boat did not go up and down, left and right. It was our Caribbean Midnight Express.
Pasi
Sailing in the darkness of the central Atlantic is truly different from the Baltic Sea. When the moon is not sharing its light, it is really dark.
The waves are long and high. You have to develop a sense for the waves, you have to feel them coming from behind, feel when they are catching the boat and react at the right time to catch them. At the same time, you have to follow the instruments to make sure you're not losing the correct course while you are playing catch up with the waves. It feels like playing a computer game, at high winds when the boat is running through the sea, you can almost imagine how it feels to steer a Volvo Ocean Race boat through the waves.
Today we caught our first fish, we have dragged a Rapala lure behind us every day, and today it paid off. We caught a small tuna of which Capo prepared a delicious sushi salad. We also learned a new trick, how to kill a fish. Andrea took a mouthful of rum and poured it into the fish’s mouth. Instant death, no pain. Amazing, I wonder if that would work for a shark....
Sailingwise a beautiful day, cloudless sky, moderate waves, 2-3 metres. The wind could have been a bit stronger. 7-10 m/s is not quite enough for Monomotapa. Nevertheless, we managed to clock 178 miles in our 5th 24-hour period.
Hannu
The boat sailed on average speed of 9-10 knots. Somehow we managed to catch a route where wind had just developed, but waves not yet. All night long the boat felt like a locomotive, a racing locomotive. Spinnaker showing in the moonlight, wind swizzled and Monomotapa made more than 100 miles in one night. When back in bed, I felt strange. The boat did not go up and down, left and right. It was our Caribbean Midnight Express.
Pasi
Sailing in the darkness of the central Atlantic is truly different from the Baltic Sea. When the moon is not sharing its light, it is really dark.
The waves are long and high. You have to develop a sense for the waves, you have to feel them coming from behind, feel when they are catching the boat and react at the right time to catch them. At the same time, you have to follow the instruments to make sure you're not losing the correct course while you are playing catch up with the waves. It feels like playing a computer game, at high winds when the boat is running through the sea, you can almost imagine how it feels to steer a Volvo Ocean Race boat through the waves.
Today we caught our first fish, we have dragged a Rapala lure behind us every day, and today it paid off. We caught a small tuna of which Capo prepared a delicious sushi salad. We also learned a new trick, how to kill a fish. Andrea took a mouthful of rum and poured it into the fish’s mouth. Instant death, no pain. Amazing, I wonder if that would work for a shark....
Sailingwise a beautiful day, cloudless sky, moderate waves, 2-3 metres. The wind could have been a bit stronger. 7-10 m/s is not quite enough for Monomotapa. Nevertheless, we managed to clock 178 miles in our 5th 24-hour period.
Hannu
26.11. - Bonding with a flying fish
Crossing the Atlantic is a lonely man’s mission. It is not only that you don't see any other boats, but no one actually sees hardly any other living creatures. After 4 days and 4 nights, a flying fish makes one almost say, ”how do you do?”.
Dalai Lama says that engaging with communities will make a person happier.
Happiness will not be complete without connection to your community. It's collective happiness that makes societies work better.
Now after spending a few days on board, the flying fish ??? just like us, far away over the sea.
Crossing the Atlantic puts the dimensions of the globe into a new perspective. 3000 miles, nothing but water. All what you see during the 15-20 day period is blue, different spectres of blue.
In addition to the flying fish, we have occasionally seen a bird or two, amazing how they can live out on the see more than 100 miles from the nearest shore. We were also lucky and saw a whale, some 100-200 meter away from us, surfaced once and continued it's journey. One more flock of tuna just 20-50 meters from our boat. They were probably hunting and the smaller tuna got scared by the bigger brothers and sisters. The smaller ones escaped, they jumped from the sea.
It is Thursday. We have now made some 25% of the journey, today’s leg being 189 miles. Weather continues to be perfect, sun shines and winds had 8-15 m/s from north-east.
This is being a beautiful and incredibly wonderful experience with not much of sleep. One of the finesse of the thing is that you cannot do very much on the board, and you cannot leave the sea. Most likely the coming 2000 miles will be the same. Luckily the thing is break, which is happy for me.
Pasi
Dalai Lama says that engaging with communities will make a person happier.
Happiness will not be complete without connection to your community. It's collective happiness that makes societies work better.
Now after spending a few days on board, the flying fish ??? just like us, far away over the sea.
Crossing the Atlantic puts the dimensions of the globe into a new perspective. 3000 miles, nothing but water. All what you see during the 15-20 day period is blue, different spectres of blue.
In addition to the flying fish, we have occasionally seen a bird or two, amazing how they can live out on the see more than 100 miles from the nearest shore. We were also lucky and saw a whale, some 100-200 meter away from us, surfaced once and continued it's journey. One more flock of tuna just 20-50 meters from our boat. They were probably hunting and the smaller tuna got scared by the bigger brothers and sisters. The smaller ones escaped, they jumped from the sea.
It is Thursday. We have now made some 25% of the journey, today’s leg being 189 miles. Weather continues to be perfect, sun shines and winds had 8-15 m/s from north-east.
This is being a beautiful and incredibly wonderful experience with not much of sleep. One of the finesse of the thing is that you cannot do very much on the board, and you cannot leave the sea. Most likely the coming 2000 miles will be the same. Luckily the thing is break, which is happy for me.
Pasi
28/11/2009
25.11. - All In
High amount of traffic during the night, we saw at least 4-5 other yachts, all heading south, not along the shortest route that they originally selected... And a huge oil tanker that passed us at closer than 1 nautical mile. Success in ARC is in great way dependent on the success of your strategy. Will you head far south to the longer route and hope that with steady and reliable wind it will pay off? Or will you take the shortest route, more north, and risk encountering a low pressure front, which means very unstable winds from dead calm sea to close to storm wind speed at 15-25 metres/second and you can't get them against you.
We were all-in, the shortest route. Il Capitano spends a lot of time at the chart table navigating and investigating weather reports. This is his fourth crossing, and he wants to win. He did that last time. Wind is forecasted to continue as they are for the foreseeable future, that is, 3-4 days so our strategy would seem to pay off at this stage. From 200 boats 40 has selected the same tactic, the rest chose south.
Night was quite unexciting sailing with winds from 7-10 m/s flying the butterfly.
Not surprisingly in the break of the day, everyone was eager to get the spinnaker up again. With a bit more wind than yesterday and perhaps too much self-confidence, it took a couple up and down exercises to get the spinnaker flying. We gained 2 knots of speed. With this turbo-booster we manage to speed up and clock 185 nautical miles during the 3rd 24 hours. It was in all aspects close to our first sailing day, winds at from 6-15 m/s from straight behind, boat speed steadily at 9-11 knots. When we got a message that we were leading our own class race, it gave us an ego boost to trim the sails. After such a perfect sailing day, it was a pity to take down the spinnaker and set the butterfly set-up for the night. However, it is important to remember that this is a long-haul race. To succeed one has to be significantly consistent and consistently significant.
Today’s yachts resemble cars in at least one point - problems with electronics. Our communication laptop has been dead for 2 days now. Olli has been nominated as the IT guru of the team and he has spent hours and hours setting up the reserve PC, but without success.
I called home and heard that our position in the ARC Fleet Viewer had shown that we had turned back. Combined with our communication problem, this had caused concerns among families at home, however I’m happy to say that everything is great on the boat and we are totally enjoying the ride.
Hannu
We were all-in, the shortest route. Il Capitano spends a lot of time at the chart table navigating and investigating weather reports. This is his fourth crossing, and he wants to win. He did that last time. Wind is forecasted to continue as they are for the foreseeable future, that is, 3-4 days so our strategy would seem to pay off at this stage. From 200 boats 40 has selected the same tactic, the rest chose south.
Night was quite unexciting sailing with winds from 7-10 m/s flying the butterfly.
Not surprisingly in the break of the day, everyone was eager to get the spinnaker up again. With a bit more wind than yesterday and perhaps too much self-confidence, it took a couple up and down exercises to get the spinnaker flying. We gained 2 knots of speed. With this turbo-booster we manage to speed up and clock 185 nautical miles during the 3rd 24 hours. It was in all aspects close to our first sailing day, winds at from 6-15 m/s from straight behind, boat speed steadily at 9-11 knots. When we got a message that we were leading our own class race, it gave us an ego boost to trim the sails. After such a perfect sailing day, it was a pity to take down the spinnaker and set the butterfly set-up for the night. However, it is important to remember that this is a long-haul race. To succeed one has to be significantly consistent and consistently significant.
Today’s yachts resemble cars in at least one point - problems with electronics. Our communication laptop has been dead for 2 days now. Olli has been nominated as the IT guru of the team and he has spent hours and hours setting up the reserve PC, but without success.
I called home and heard that our position in the ARC Fleet Viewer had shown that we had turned back. Combined with our communication problem, this had caused concerns among families at home, however I’m happy to say that everything is great on the boat and we are totally enjoying the ride.
Hannu
24.11. - Olli in Flames
I woke up at 9:55 PM to Olli's loud monologue. ”This is fantastic. This is one of the most unbelievable experiences, an absolute all time high sailing experience. High and long waves, good wind, moonlight and lane to follow.”
Karri and myself took over the shift. The night was slightly warmer, the wind blew south and it turned a bit darker as soon as the moon disappeared around midnight. The 4-hour shift might be longer this time?
”This is absolutely my very best sailing experience, I can drive another hour!” Olli shouted when I woke up for the morning shift, which started with a steady breakfast at 6 AM. I thought of a groundhog day….?
Karri and I lined up and took over the morning shift. We had difficulties to remember what day it was, maybe Tuesday, we said with a smile. Just when we had one of the most interesting spinnaker operations ongoing, we saw a large flock of tuna about 50 metres from our boat, they had probably fun. Our sail operation did not have much of success, but however we were able to avoid major damages.
Our crew is divided into two teams; Hannu, Olli, Janne and Iiro are the A-team, and Hannu is the watch of this team. The B-team is Andrea, Francesco, Pasi and Karri, with Francesco as the watch. Alberto is ”il Capitano” and watching everyone. We are running five watches throughout the day, of which two last six hours and three last four hours. The daylight watches are from 6 AM to noon and from noon to 6 PM. The night watches are 6 PM to 10 PM, from 10 PM to 2 AM and from 2 AM to 6 AM.
The breakfast is served at 6 AM, lunch at noon and dinner at 6 PM.
So far the Italians have taken very good care of us, cultural and delicious food.
Pasi
---
The second 24-hour drove us only 175 nautical miles. With slight frustration to the result and slowing speed between 6 and 8 knots, we decided to suggest that the Finnish team would hoist the spinnaker. With some seriousness in his voice, ”il Capitano” replied that this will put a lot of responsibility to the team, since the spinnaker is brand new, literally they were huge.
After the unsuccessful Italian-Finnish spinnaker operation resulting in a broken sail, I tried to sound as confident as possible, when replying ”No problem”.
We opted for going through the procedures several times without touching the spinnaker at all. When we finally did the process, the result was perfect. The spinnaker was beautifully up and we gained another 1.5 knots in our speed.
The spirits were at their top when we passed a 14-feet catamaran also running on a spinnaker.
We used this set-up until the dark came, but decided to change it to a butterfly set-up, using the Genoa supported by the boom.
Hannu
Karri and myself took over the shift. The night was slightly warmer, the wind blew south and it turned a bit darker as soon as the moon disappeared around midnight. The 4-hour shift might be longer this time?
”This is absolutely my very best sailing experience, I can drive another hour!” Olli shouted when I woke up for the morning shift, which started with a steady breakfast at 6 AM. I thought of a groundhog day….?
Karri and I lined up and took over the morning shift. We had difficulties to remember what day it was, maybe Tuesday, we said with a smile. Just when we had one of the most interesting spinnaker operations ongoing, we saw a large flock of tuna about 50 metres from our boat, they had probably fun. Our sail operation did not have much of success, but however we were able to avoid major damages.
Our crew is divided into two teams; Hannu, Olli, Janne and Iiro are the A-team, and Hannu is the watch of this team. The B-team is Andrea, Francesco, Pasi and Karri, with Francesco as the watch. Alberto is ”il Capitano” and watching everyone. We are running five watches throughout the day, of which two last six hours and three last four hours. The daylight watches are from 6 AM to noon and from noon to 6 PM. The night watches are 6 PM to 10 PM, from 10 PM to 2 AM and from 2 AM to 6 AM.
The breakfast is served at 6 AM, lunch at noon and dinner at 6 PM.
So far the Italians have taken very good care of us, cultural and delicious food.
Pasi
---
The second 24-hour drove us only 175 nautical miles. With slight frustration to the result and slowing speed between 6 and 8 knots, we decided to suggest that the Finnish team would hoist the spinnaker. With some seriousness in his voice, ”il Capitano” replied that this will put a lot of responsibility to the team, since the spinnaker is brand new, literally they were huge.
After the unsuccessful Italian-Finnish spinnaker operation resulting in a broken sail, I tried to sound as confident as possible, when replying ”No problem”.
We opted for going through the procedures several times without touching the spinnaker at all. When we finally did the process, the result was perfect. The spinnaker was beautifully up and we gained another 1.5 knots in our speed.
The spirits were at their top when we passed a 14-feet catamaran also running on a spinnaker.
We used this set-up until the dark came, but decided to change it to a butterfly set-up, using the Genoa supported by the boom.
Hannu
23.11.
Just to correct the all time high speed so far, our RayMarine speedometer clocked 13 knots yesterday but the max speed according to the GPS was 14.9 knots. Bellissimo.
And during the first 24 hours we collected 198 nautical miles, not bad. I must say I really love this Swan 46.
I had my first night shift on Saturday from 6 pm to 10 pm and the next one after 4 hours from 2 am to 6 am. During my first one the moon was offering us a nice shade of light and thousands of stars were blinking in the black sky. I have said many times to my wife Paula that we should go outside with the sleeping bags and just lay down and stare at the sky.
Sailing at the speed of 9-10 knots and watching the stars will do as well.
It was a bit chilly even though I was wearing my Musto Gore-gear, but at the rear it’s pretty warm as you try to keep up the waves you can't see.
The second shift was tougher than the first one since the moon had gone away and the wind was peaking up. The wind indicator clocked 17 metres/second at around 4:30 AM after which we decided to take the first reef on the main sail. I've never seen anyone reefing the main without changing the course towards the wind but Francesco and Andrea did it even though there was enormous pressure off the very strong tail wind.
There were a few quite big waves but nothing that you should be scared of. We all had the state-of-the art spin lock vests, and we use harnesses all the time. There is even a blinking light in the spin lock vests which you should turn on when needed. Last night I didn't need it but when I was coming up for the first night watch, Hannu was saying: ”Hey, look guys, there is a walking Christmas tree on board.” The bloody light was blinking in my vest and I couldn't turn it off. Now the light is locked and ready to use. It is now 10 o'clock in the morning and I know that I should try to sleep. I'm sure I’m getting used to this but still I’m not exited.
Now I’m gonna go up on the board and see how the boys are handling the boat. The weather is half cloudy, temperature very pleasant and the wind is 20 knots from the tail.
Greetings from Karri
---
After 24 hours the fleet of over 200 yachts has spread across the sea between the Canary Islands and Capo Verde. We only saw one other boat during the whole day. The only other things we saw in the sea was seabirds and a plastic jerry floating on the waves, and our first tuna. Sailing goes very smoothly, lying with Genoa with the boom, which is called butterfly. Average speed around 7-9 knots.
Greetings, Hannu
And during the first 24 hours we collected 198 nautical miles, not bad. I must say I really love this Swan 46.
I had my first night shift on Saturday from 6 pm to 10 pm and the next one after 4 hours from 2 am to 6 am. During my first one the moon was offering us a nice shade of light and thousands of stars were blinking in the black sky. I have said many times to my wife Paula that we should go outside with the sleeping bags and just lay down and stare at the sky.
Sailing at the speed of 9-10 knots and watching the stars will do as well.
It was a bit chilly even though I was wearing my Musto Gore-gear, but at the rear it’s pretty warm as you try to keep up the waves you can't see.
The second shift was tougher than the first one since the moon had gone away and the wind was peaking up. The wind indicator clocked 17 metres/second at around 4:30 AM after which we decided to take the first reef on the main sail. I've never seen anyone reefing the main without changing the course towards the wind but Francesco and Andrea did it even though there was enormous pressure off the very strong tail wind.
There were a few quite big waves but nothing that you should be scared of. We all had the state-of-the art spin lock vests, and we use harnesses all the time. There is even a blinking light in the spin lock vests which you should turn on when needed. Last night I didn't need it but when I was coming up for the first night watch, Hannu was saying: ”Hey, look guys, there is a walking Christmas tree on board.” The bloody light was blinking in my vest and I couldn't turn it off. Now the light is locked and ready to use. It is now 10 o'clock in the morning and I know that I should try to sleep. I'm sure I’m getting used to this but still I’m not exited.
Now I’m gonna go up on the board and see how the boys are handling the boat. The weather is half cloudy, temperature very pleasant and the wind is 20 knots from the tail.
Greetings from Karri
---
After 24 hours the fleet of over 200 yachts has spread across the sea between the Canary Islands and Capo Verde. We only saw one other boat during the whole day. The only other things we saw in the sea was seabirds and a plastic jerry floating on the waves, and our first tuna. Sailing goes very smoothly, lying with Genoa with the boom, which is called butterfly. Average speed around 7-9 knots.
Greetings, Hannu
25/11/2009
25.11.2009 at 22:45 GMT+2
Greetings by phone from Monomotapa:
Great sailing, favorable winds, and Monomotapa is ahead of most other boats, heading steadily towards St Lucia.
Mail is not working properly however, and apparently there is a mistake in the Fleet Viewer log at the ARC 2009 site regarding our position.
But we're fine, "our" Swan is a magnificent sailer, food is still good and spirit high. We hope to share more stories with you, as soon as we find a solution to the mail problem.
Regards to everybody back home!
Great sailing, favorable winds, and Monomotapa is ahead of most other boats, heading steadily towards St Lucia.
Mail is not working properly however, and apparently there is a mistake in the Fleet Viewer log at the ARC 2009 site regarding our position.
But we're fine, "our" Swan is a magnificent sailer, food is still good and spirit high. We hope to share more stories with you, as soon as we find a solution to the mail problem.
Regards to everybody back home!
23/11/2009
22.11.2009
Breakfast for winners
I eat my dinner, I take no drinks and we all go to sleep. That policy for the last night in Las Palmas worked fine until the end of main course. Great dinner with Alberto, Paco and Andrea. Good wine, good laughs. Olli boosted energy to many of us with the post-dinner beers, and all of the sudden it was 3.30 before we hit the beds.
Beautiful morning to start an adventure. Low wind. Brass band, dancing and plenty of crowds giving us their farewells. We were all smiling onboard of the Monomotapa when we left the harbour.
2674 miles to go.
- Pasi
More than 200 boats at the start-line is a great experience. For a round-the-cans racer the start did not create too much adrenaline but the voyage ahead certainly enticed more than enough excitement.
- Hannu
After the start the wind was gradually peaking up to 20-25 knots (10-12,5 m/s) and Monomotapa starts to give us good rides. First we ride with the spinnaker but due to the tail wind and our course we decided to put genoa with the spinnaker boom. Not a bad decision for the first night.
The waves were also gradually growing and our boys were helming the boat with a big smile. First day’s record is 13 knots!
- Karri
I eat my dinner, I take no drinks and we all go to sleep. That policy for the last night in Las Palmas worked fine until the end of main course. Great dinner with Alberto, Paco and Andrea. Good wine, good laughs. Olli boosted energy to many of us with the post-dinner beers, and all of the sudden it was 3.30 before we hit the beds.
Beautiful morning to start an adventure. Low wind. Brass band, dancing and plenty of crowds giving us their farewells. We were all smiling onboard of the Monomotapa when we left the harbour.
2674 miles to go.
- Pasi
More than 200 boats at the start-line is a great experience. For a round-the-cans racer the start did not create too much adrenaline but the voyage ahead certainly enticed more than enough excitement.
- Hannu
After the start the wind was gradually peaking up to 20-25 knots (10-12,5 m/s) and Monomotapa starts to give us good rides. First we ride with the spinnaker but due to the tail wind and our course we decided to put genoa with the spinnaker boom. Not a bad decision for the first night.
The waves were also gradually growing and our boys were helming the boat with a big smile. First day’s record is 13 knots!
- Karri
21/11/2009
21.11.
Saturday morning and it was early wake up for the breakfast. We are staying at the Santa Catalina which we found to be an excellent hotel – actually much better than I thought looking the price of 100 euros a night. Weather looks fun and sunny. Forecast for the next few days is good.
Hannu went to ARC captains briefing with Alberto – Sunday start is expected to have great sailing conditions. North - North East winds at 15 knots and up to 25 knots on Monday. This should get our Swan to fly – well...almost. Our captain Alberto is notorious of driving the boat to its limits – on their last voyage 2 years ago Monomotapa lost 3 spinnakers. Perhaps that is why they scored 2nd overall and won their class. Another competitive thing: Monomotapa is known for the best food. When not sailing, Alberto manages his restaurant in Sienna and all the crews so far have gained weight on their voyages with him – not lost :).
I feel much better now after yesterdays de-hydration headache. We are all looking forward on this journey.
- Olli
Hannu went to ARC captains briefing with Alberto – Sunday start is expected to have great sailing conditions. North - North East winds at 15 knots and up to 25 knots on Monday. This should get our Swan to fly – well...almost. Our captain Alberto is notorious of driving the boat to its limits – on their last voyage 2 years ago Monomotapa lost 3 spinnakers. Perhaps that is why they scored 2nd overall and won their class. Another competitive thing: Monomotapa is known for the best food. When not sailing, Alberto manages his restaurant in Sienna and all the crews so far have gained weight on their voyages with him – not lost :).
I feel much better now after yesterdays de-hydration headache. We are all looking forward on this journey.
- Olli
20.11.
Team-up
Group together. Almost. Unfortunately Petteri had to take a tough decision and skip the journey due to sickness in family. Hannu’s perfect organizing skills were tested, but replacement was confirmed in minutes, and Iiro will be joining us on Saturday.
Alberto’s briefing onboard was to-the-point “no bullshit” training of all essential safety measures such as procedures on Man Over Board, fire, hitting a container…. In case all must leave the boat, we practiced swimming in a crocodile position. Not funny. “If you fall during the day, 99% chances. If in the night … not good”, Alberto said, and we all decided to use the lifelines at all times.
“Alberto is the most genuine fine man, good skipper and a mad sailor”, explained Julian who has 13 years of experience in ARC sailing. We were already very proud of Alberto.
Unfortunately, we learnt how essential it is to drink water. Olli suffered de-hydration and had to skip the dinner. He will be back.
It was indeed great to be together, ventilate about expectations, fears and hopes. Great team.
-Pasi
Group together. Almost. Unfortunately Petteri had to take a tough decision and skip the journey due to sickness in family. Hannu’s perfect organizing skills were tested, but replacement was confirmed in minutes, and Iiro will be joining us on Saturday.
Alberto’s briefing onboard was to-the-point “no bullshit” training of all essential safety measures such as procedures on Man Over Board, fire, hitting a container…. In case all must leave the boat, we practiced swimming in a crocodile position. Not funny. “If you fall during the day, 99% chances. If in the night … not good”, Alberto said, and we all decided to use the lifelines at all times.
“Alberto is the most genuine fine man, good skipper and a mad sailor”, explained Julian who has 13 years of experience in ARC sailing. We were already very proud of Alberto.
Unfortunately, we learnt how essential it is to drink water. Olli suffered de-hydration and had to skip the dinner. He will be back.
It was indeed great to be together, ventilate about expectations, fears and hopes. Great team.
-Pasi
19.11.
Tutto bene.
It was great to meet Alberto (captain), Paco (co-skipper) and their friends. Warm, genuine, big-hearted Italians. They are going to make this journey a great pleasure. All in Italian. Tutto bene.
The boat is a beauty. Alberto has taken care of his Swan 46 with care and pride, and it is in perfect condition.
The first pasta onboard was delicious and was served with plenty of wine. And talk. Clearly, there will be no compromises in meals.
There will be five daily shifts, two groups. And most importantly: breakfast at 6, lunch at 12 and dinner at 18.
Bon appetito.
-Pasi
It was great to meet Alberto (captain), Paco (co-skipper) and their friends. Warm, genuine, big-hearted Italians. They are going to make this journey a great pleasure. All in Italian. Tutto bene.
The boat is a beauty. Alberto has taken care of his Swan 46 with care and pride, and it is in perfect condition.
The first pasta onboard was delicious and was served with plenty of wine. And talk. Clearly, there will be no compromises in meals.
There will be five daily shifts, two groups. And most importantly: breakfast at 6, lunch at 12 and dinner at 18.
Bon appetito.
-Pasi
18.11.
Gone sailing
Givrins. Wake up at 5. My bed felt much too comfortable, and my stomach knew this was not going to be just another travel. Gone sailing.
There was no sign of the heavy rains that had washed Ls Palmas the day before. Warm, sunny and sea looked attracting.
ARC office was busy. Full of men, women, different nationalities – all radiate excitement and look real sailors.
ARC organizes a series of preparatory seminars for the crews. Today, the seminar presentation was on “First aid and health on ocean sailing“. Serious stuff. This is not going to be a tourist trip, I felt while listening to the colourful presentation of the doctor who described the usual emergencies and went through step-by-step processes on breathing, bleeding, bones and burns.
Set of perfect advices included one-liners such as “Get the pump going”, “bleeding is not bad unless the blood flies over you”, “raise it, chill it, strap it”. Main conclusions were to drink min 2 litres of water/day and never piss over the reeling. And don’t go to Cape Verde.
Rest of the day was spent on preparatory tasks, and wound up (or down) for sailing.
Gone sailing.
-Pasi
Givrins. Wake up at 5. My bed felt much too comfortable, and my stomach knew this was not going to be just another travel. Gone sailing.
There was no sign of the heavy rains that had washed Ls Palmas the day before. Warm, sunny and sea looked attracting.
ARC office was busy. Full of men, women, different nationalities – all radiate excitement and look real sailors.
ARC organizes a series of preparatory seminars for the crews. Today, the seminar presentation was on “First aid and health on ocean sailing“. Serious stuff. This is not going to be a tourist trip, I felt while listening to the colourful presentation of the doctor who described the usual emergencies and went through step-by-step processes on breathing, bleeding, bones and burns.
Set of perfect advices included one-liners such as “Get the pump going”, “bleeding is not bad unless the blood flies over you”, “raise it, chill it, strap it”. Main conclusions were to drink min 2 litres of water/day and never piss over the reeling. And don’t go to Cape Verde.
Rest of the day was spent on preparatory tasks, and wound up (or down) for sailing.
Gone sailing.
-Pasi
The Crew
The dudes shaking off their 40-year crisis. The friends that did not hesitate.
Janne
- Sailing across the Atlantic is a perfect way to start my sabbatical leave. Celebrating my 40th anniversary in the middle of the ocean will definitely be something to remember. I am expecting hard racing and enjoyable moments with good friends and our great Italian hosts.
- All my love to my wife Annu, my 4 years old son Launo and 2 years old daughter Aava, who are hoping to see me back home for the Christmas! I will do my best to stay on board.
Karri
- After 8 years of summer sailing in the Finnish archipelago I still feel I’m a rookie in sailing and I’m humble to learn more. My role in the boat has always been watching tell tails and continuous tuning of sails. I’m a true Italy lover - especially Italian food and wine.
Olli
- Been sailing since the age of 9 - mainly in the Baltic sea and Finnish archipelago but recently wonderful trips in the Swedish west coast with the s/y Invisible – beautiful big swan – and in the Croatia’s coast with soul mates Pasi and Roope.
- Hannu called me 1,5 years ago and asked if I wanted to join this trip and I answered yes in 30 seconds. I’m following many entrepreneurs who have wanted to challenge themselves with new projects –this is mine for next weeks.
- I would love to learn more about sailing especially everything on choosing route through different weather and high and low pressures – navigare necesse est
Pasi
- Sailing across the Atlantic is a perfect way of to take break from sustainability business - environmental governance and policy-making on climate change. Looking forward to this period – first time in 20 years – to be without any access to mobile phones and emails, and just focus on sails, survival and soul.
- Already longing back to family, but at the same time, cannot wait for leaving the harbor of Las Palmas and feel the ultimate swing of waves. Gone sailing.
Iiro (as described by Hannu)
- At 37 the youngster of the crew. The Chinese would call him the man of miraculous decisions and magnificent thoughts. I am confident that he will change the minds and lives of the crew members during these weeks – or at least the diets. Not a sailing guru but the real guru.
And our Italian fellows
Alberto
- Il capitano and the owner of Momomotapa, a beautifully maintained Swan 46, a combination Italian genuineness and stoical confidence and firmness.
Paco and Andrea
- The true Italians, relaxed, friendly and fun.
The Story
It hit me 1,5 years ago that I will be turning 40 soon. Faithful to my image as “the man with the plan” I started thinking how to celebrate the occasion. After talking with some friends who had passed the milestone and listening to what they had done (from mountain climbing to heli-sking in Siberia) I agreed that it is time to start realizing your dreams. Something with a touch of excitement, extreme and exclusivity. For a sailor it did not take long to decide what it would be: crossing the Atlantic. The first leg in testing what every sailor keeps secretly thinking: how would it be to live in a boat, to sail the oceans of the world…
After getting a blessing for the idea from my dear wife Josefin who as a keen sailor herself celebrated the idea (that some wives quite understandably would have clearly stated as a ground for divorce), I contacted a group of my best friends. Needless to say they were ready to go.
Now after 1,5 years of waiting we are ready to go. Anticipating an exciting passage and eagerly waiting to meet my dearest, Josefin, Luna and Lucas in St. Lucia.
Hannu
After getting a blessing for the idea from my dear wife Josefin who as a keen sailor herself celebrated the idea (that some wives quite understandably would have clearly stated as a ground for divorce), I contacted a group of my best friends. Needless to say they were ready to go.
Now after 1,5 years of waiting we are ready to go. Anticipating an exciting passage and eagerly waiting to meet my dearest, Josefin, Luna and Lucas in St. Lucia.
Hannu
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