TIME TO GO!
The classic is to wait until life’s success permits the big escape. For thirty-somethings Jessie and Jan it was different. With disappointments in work and a mindset prompting adventure before starting family, they sold up everything, bought Contest 48CS Adhara sight unseen mid-pandemic and sailed away!
Some stories just tell themselves and Jessie and Jan ran a great blog, so let’s join them one year on from buying Adhara, in that time having sailed her straight from Plymouth, UK to the Canaries for the first winter, then back to the Mediterranean for next summer season, before out again to the Canaries enroute to the Caribbean. We step aboard as the couple start their way south to ‘where the butter melts’, that legendary staging point for the big turn to the west. We’ll stay for five days, five great days. Over to you, Jessie … FRIDAY 10 DEC 2021 DEPARTURE DAY As I write this, we are sailing down the coast of Tenerife with 23 knots at 150°, flying at 8.7kn! Today is an incredibly beautiful clear day and we can see Mount Teide in its full glory, no cloud in sight! We should reach the southern tip of the island in a couple of hours where we’ll catch up with our buddy-boat heading the same way.
I must remind Jan it’s not a race! We’re just rrr-really excited right now to finally be heading towards new shores! SATURDAY 11 DEC 2021 GOOD DAY The first 24 hours of our passage down to the Cape Verdes have passed and one could say that we have had a bit of everything already: the first 18 hours of the trip we were averaging 7.3 knots with a top speed of 12.1 coming down a wave, and winds up to 27 knots. Wow, if only one could dictate the winds! After that, the wind dropped to around 7 knots on the aft beam, so we changed course and headed straight to Africa to keep moving. As usual I only slept an hour on the first night of a passage. The excitement, the motion and thoughts about the upcoming days keep me awake. Have we thought of everything? Did we download weather? What will the sea state be like? And so forth … It usually gets much better on the second night!
SUNDAY 12 DEC 2021 IN THE NAME OF ... It’s 11pm now, Jan is finally getting some rest down below as I sit in our cockpit simply listening to the waves around us for a moment. It’s a beautiful night, the moon shines its silver light, and I can see stars all around us. Looking out on our port side I see Orion hunting across the night sky. Following the three stars of Orion’s belt down to the next brightest star, Sirius, the Dog Star! Now looking for the next brightest star, another couple down 1, 2, 3 … and, oh yes, there she is, ADHARA our namesake! MONDAY 13 DEC 2021 JUST CRUISIN' It looks like we have found the current which flows along the African coast southwards towards the Cape Verdes and gives us an extra boost of 0.5 to 1 knot. I know it does not sound much but over the time of four days a 1 knot difference in average speed can mean that you arrive a day earlier – or later!
TUESDAY 14 DEC 2021 UNDER ATTACK We’re making good speed and reached halfway point [to Mindelo, staging point in Cape Verdes] some hours ago. The nights are still cold, I wear my full offshore outfit on my night watches. So, the feeling of ‘sailing along the African coast’ hasn’t really sunk in. Alone in the cockpit at around 3am this morning I heard myself cry out “WHAT THE **** !!”, as the sky suddenly lit up as if struck by lightning, and the glowing tail of a massive shooting star slowly faded away. That must have been the start signal for what was to follow. All around us, mere seconds apart it started to shower shooting stars. There were so many, sometimes two right next to each other. It felt unreal and the thought of an alien attack crossed my mind.
Ocean sailing is … just freakin’ magic!
And suddenly I see little light bursts in the water, then a dolphin jumps out in front of our bow, spinning and landing on its back sending out a firework of bioluminescence in the black waves. Here I am, grinning stupidly into the night whispering “Is this real?“
THURSDAY 6 JAN 2022 ARRIVAL IMMINENT Honestly guys, this last day of our crossing brings mixed feelings with it. We’ve said that we’ve had passages where we were just so desperate to arrive. Somehow, and probably thanks to the fact that the past couple of days out here were absolute bliss, we feel like we could go on a little longer without losing our minds. We’d have enough food for sure. Caught Mahi Mahi Number 5 yesterday! And there’s still an enormous amount of food squirreled away in every corner of the boat. Fresh fruit and vegetables are slowly diminishing but I still have two zucchinis that I bought in Tenerife that are still fresh! Unbelievable!! Jan has finally found his peace of mind and I find him most mornings sat in the shade at our bow, leaning against the mast listening to an audiobook.
He looks so relaxed, it’s a joy to watch him sat there, playing with his beard (it has grown quite long now) and staring onto the horizon. I’ve found my favourite spot for the morning hours too: leant against a fender under the shade of our solar panels. Just remind me to make better choices for my entertainment next time. “Everything you wanted to know about the Titanic” is a poor choice for a podcast. And reading “Dune” while surrounded by water makes it hard to be pulled into the story! 75nm to go, friends! How does it feel? Not like we’ll soon be arriving in the Caribbean. It’s gonna come as quite a shock I believe. Hoisting the courtesy flag always gets your mind into arrival mode. We have some friends waiting for us in the anchorage and can’t wait to share our stories with them and hear their experiences from the crossing! The full Adhara story will be featured in the 2024 printed edition of Context magazine.
Jessie and Jan settled quickly into Caribbean ways, cruised the islands for a few months, then with their originally set time limit of two years well spent, headed off into life's next adventure.
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