Sailing across the Atlantic Ocean! 15 days at sea - Cape Verde to Barbados - December 2024
It’s been a little while since we’ve posted an update on YouTube… We’ve been busy sailing across the Atlantic Ocean!
We’ve now arrived in the Caribbean! Here’s a short video with some of the highlights from the crossing. Details below:
Cape Verde to Barbados. Approx 2,070nm in 15 days, 9 hours (2-17 Dec 2024)
Completing this passage to the Caribbean has been a dream of ours for a long time. We’ve been preparing Wishful Thinking and ourselves for this over the past two years, pushing through some tricky boat projects and nerve-racking nights at sea. Arriving in Barbados after two weeks of sailing across the ocean was surreal – the most rewarding day of our lives.
We had great downwind sailing conditions almost the entire way, with a couple of lighter days and a couple of stronger ones. It was a bumpy ride but we found our sea legs by day 3. We averaged 5.6kts of speed and only ran our engine for 40 hours, half of which was to charge the batteries when it was cloudy.
Huge thanks to Ryan’s friend Zander for being an excellent crew member: tackling sail changes and night watches with enthusiasm, whipping up delish meals in the galley and generally being great company through the highs and lows of the voyage.
The highs: beautiful sunrises and sunsets, starry moonlit nights, landing a big tuna, fresh fish dinners, days spent reading in the sun while under sail, whales swimming with the boat for two days in a row!, spinnaker sailing on a calm ocean with dolphins at our bow, seeing land for the first time in two weeks
The lows: sleep deprivation, trying to cook (or do anything) in a rolling boat, tangling our headsail after our furler jammed (again), being hit by a nasty squall followed by strong wind all night which whipped up a terrible sea, our water pump breaking down (luckily we have a manual pump as back up), rude awakenings including a flying fish in the bed and a wave crashing through the window on to the mattress
Overall the passage went smoothly though, and we were grateful to not have any major equipment failures or injuries while we were 1,000nm offshore, especially given we didn’t see another boat for 5 days straight!
Sailing across the Atlantic was an incredible experience, but we were definitely relieved to step on dry land again, enjoy a cold beverage and get a good night’s sleep. Now to explore the Caribbean: new cruising ground unlocked!
We are struggling to find the time to edit YouTube videos these days, but post regular updates on Instagram if you’d like to follow our travels through the Caribbean and beyond: @sailingwishfulthinking Thanks for your support!
It's been a little while since we've posted an update on YouTube... We've been busy sailing across the Atlantic Ocean!
We've now arrived in the Caribbean! Here's a short video with some of the highlights from the crossing. Details below:
Cape Verde to Barbados. Approx 2,070nm in 15 days, 9 hours (2-17 Dec 2024)
Completing this passage to the Caribbean has been a dream of ours for a long time. We've been preparing Wishful Thinking and ourselves for this over the past two years, pushing through some tricky boat projects and nerve-racking nights at sea. Arriving in Barbados after two weeks of sailing across the ocean was surreal - the most rewarding day of our lives.
We had great downwind sailing conditions almost the entire way, with a couple of lighter days and a couple of stronger ones. It was a bumpy ride but we found our sea legs by day 3. We averaged 5.6kts of speed and only ran our engine for 40 hours, half of which was to charge the batteries when it was cloudy.
Huge thanks to Ryan's friend Zander for being an excellent crew member: tackling sail changes and night watches with enthusiasm, whipping up delish meals in the galley and generally being great company through the highs and lows of the voyage.
The highs: beautiful sunrises and sunsets, starry moonlit nights, landing a big tuna, fresh fish dinners, days spent reading in the sun while under sail, whales swimming with the boat for two days in a row!, spinnaker sailing on a calm ocean with dolphins at our bow, seeing land for the first time in two weeks
The lows: sleep deprivation, trying to cook (or do anything) in a rolling boat, tangling our headsail after our furler jammed (again), being hit by a nasty squall followed by strong wind all night which whipped up a terrible sea, our water pump breaking down (luckily we have a manual pump as back up), rude awakenings including a flying fish in the bed and a wave crashing through the window on to the mattress
Overall the passage went smoothly though, and we were grateful to not have any major equipment failures or injuries while we were 1,000nm offshore, especially given we didn't see another boat for 5 days straight!
Sailing across the Atlantic was an incredible experience, but we were definitely relieved to step on dry land again, enjoy a cold beverage and get a good night's sleep. Now to explore the Caribbean: new cruising ground unlocked!
We are struggling to find the time to edit YouTube videos these days, but post regular updates on Instagram if you'd like to follow our travels through the Caribbean and beyond: @sailingwishfulthinking Thanks for your support!
Sailing Wishful Thinking
We are Emily and Ryan, a couple from Tasmania, Australia, who are pursuing our dream of exploring the world by sailboat. We have recently bought a 1988 Moody 425 in Greece, named Wishful Thinking (formerly Vitaminsea III). We will be fixing her up ourselves and sailing in the Mediterranean in 2023/2024.
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Sailing across the Atlantic Ocean! 15 days at sea – Cape Verde to Barbados – December 2024
It's been a little while since we've posted an update on YouTube... We've been busy sailing across the Atlantic Ocean! We've now arrived in the Caribbean! Here's a short video with some of the highlights from the crossing. Details below: Cape Verde to ...
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