Atlantic Crossing Forum 2023 Notes

Atlantic Crossing Forum
We had a group of about 80 At Island Water World who are intending on sailing from St Martin in the Caribbean to Europe this season. I co-presented with Mike of Quinn the designer of Nimble Navigator “Navstick” an integrated USB chart plotter, GPS and included charts.

Resources and notes are in files below.

Above the Red line is the Gale Zone. The Green blob is the Azores High… its dynamic in that it moves every day. Use the GPX plot below as an example and update yours every day. I use a 10 knot wind line. And sail 100nms on the left side of it, ready to duck into the High if a Gale appears.
An excellent device when all else fails is a USB chat plotter with integrated GPS and charts. Its very affordable. Available in St Martin/Sint Maarten VHF#10 Mike on Quinn

My presentation I promised links and things, so here you go: Notes, resources PDF or in a Word File

The Azores High shown in this GPX file is mine. It was adjusted every day at sea and for weeks prior to the passage. The position moves and your course needs to move and follow it. My line is about the 10 knot wind line of the High. I sail about 100nms to the left of it and divert into it if a gale comes our way. GPX File for a chart viewer / plotter Right click and download

Above you can see my 2017 plot with 2023 weather laid over it. It still works. Into the Azores is 34 knot winds. Far too strong to enter the unfamilier harbour. But in the Yellow of the High you will see the winds are much lower. The Black line is a diversion I made to avoid a gale.

Married!

Marjorie and I tied the knot in Palavas-Les-Flots, France.
Loads of great food, fabby friends that flew in from all over the world.
Everything was just so sensational!

Selfy with the Mayor of Palavas
We were married by the Mayor of Palavas-Les-Flots in an amazing ceremony full of laughs and good cheer. Marjories Dad, Serge, on the left talking to the Mayor while I hang onto my new wife and take a selfy at the same time. Multi tasking!

The Mayor gave us lots of presents! A book of Palavassian cooking YUM!; A medal, commemorative plate and coffee cups. Such wonderful thoughts.
Crikey!! All the good food when you organise your own wedding! including Marjories favourite pate.

My sister, Deb, came from Australia!

Lynn and Emily (R) came from London to keep us laughing

Yikes! We’re getting Married!

Crikey! It’s been so long that you probably thought we were lost at sea in the Atlantic. Updating can be a pain in the butt so today I’m learning to do it from my phone.

Marjorie & I are in France checking out the farm/stable/castle. She keeps asking what I want for the wedding reception. I say “Beer”. How can this be an inappropriate response?

“Should we have candles here?” “Beer”

Heading for the Caribbean today!!

Sailing out of Cherbourg, France, to St Martin in the Caribbean. A trip of about 4,000 nautical miles / 8,000 kilometres.
Its an interesting navigation exercise for Marjorie and me … and about 35 days of enforced togetherness. And fishing.

You can watch us trickle accross the ocean… see the links below.
Here is a guestimate of the course:

From Cherbourg we head South keeping a long distance off Carbo Finisterre as it gets stormy in a wind compression zone. Then continue on the blue line or the red line. The Yellow line is the southern edge of the light winds and SW storms so we will stay south of that. Then its onwards to the Caribbean! If we are lucky the wind will be good on the course we want, otherwise we need to go further south… that makes the trip a bit longer, but the fishing better! ๐Ÿ™‚

If you want to see where we are right now:


SV_SeaLife (predictwind.com)


or

Trip: Sea Life (spotwalla.com)

Mark ๐Ÿ™‚ and Marjorie ๐Ÿ™‚

Not me up there!!

Sea Life is undergoing a month of work getting ready for our 4,000 nautical mile (8,000 kilometres!) passage from Cherbourg, France to the Caribbean.
OK, I’ll admit it: I don’t like heights!! So we sent a rigger up the mast to do a full check of all the rigging, halyards, blocks etc and to install 2 new halyards (ropes up the mast to raise sails).

I enjoy watching from below! ๐Ÿ™‚

Mark

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