Champagne sailing

Well, we’re incredibly lucky. It’s honestly unbelievable how lucky we are with the weather. The weather in Europe is all over the place: the lows are tracking between Scotland and Iceland, and there’s been a rain area parked over Italy and the surrounding region for weeks. But all that air blowing east has to come back somewhere, and this week that’s through the English Channel and on towards the Azores… And wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly where we’re heading?!

With the wind well aft, life on board is very comfortable. The heel is minimal. You can easily move from one side of the boat to the other. So, mainly thanks to Peter and Marion, we’re eating very well for a boat with 3 men on board. Yesterday it was burgers with fried onions, sautéed potatoes and salad. Tonight salad with spaghetti, because the lettuce needs eating.

Yesterday we spent the day trying to fix the Kabola. Once again it refuses to light, so no hot showers. A “major” problem. Now, as luck would have it, Peter knows his way around oil burners pretty well. Granted, this one is about a thousand times smaller than what he’s used to, but in no time the burner was lying in pieces. I now know what to look out for too. Unfortunately the fuel supply was fine, the ignition works and the nozzle was clean. And yet it still won’t light. Our current theory is that it might be the exhaust, which the wind is blowing straight into. Given the wind forecast, we’ll have to wait until the Azores to test that theory…

Meanwhile, for the first time ever we have decent internet on board. Until now we sailed with an Iridium Go!, which uses 70 satellites in low orbit, but that system can’t do more than 200 characters per second. Sometimes it feels more like 200 characters per minute. Downloading weather forecasts could easily take you an hour. And contact with shore consisted of a few short text messages.

Now, however, we have Starlink on board. It’s a new system from SpaceX, also run by Elon Musk. Just before we left, the subscription plans changed and we’re now legally allowed to use the cheap antenna, even at sea, as long as we pay extra. I just tested it and got 68 Mbit/s… What a difference. And those few euros a day are well worth it, of course!

So now, for the first time, we can share photos and videos with you while we’re still under way!