Category: Miscellaneous

Yrvind left Porto Santo 12 october. Many people followed him when he left the harbor. Many thanks to Bjorn Anders Jorgensen on the Norwegian boat Armatura Borealis, www.bluewatersailing.no, who took these pictures.

Tomorrow still looks good for departure.

Locally the weather looks good and further south there is no hurricanes at the moment although of course as an amateur yacht designer it would be a very interesting experience to live through one, especially a violent one.

The marina is paid. Preparations are completed. In fact the preparation for a small boats ocean passage only takes a few houers. Watch the weather, scrubb the bottom, go the the supermarket. I did carry home my food. The village is not many kilometers away. By getting a little each day I did not even have to take a taxi like the other yachtsmen. That also gave me a bit excercise strengtning my arms and legs.

Whats more? Fuel? No I do not need it, not for propulsion, nor for cooking. Have I forgotten something? I hope not becouse this ocean passage is a one way street for me. I will not be able to to tack back against the trade wind. What I have with me have to be sufficient.

So good by. I hope to be back in about two months time. In the meantime I hope my SPOT will work so that you can follow my track across the mighty big ocean.

Regards Yrvind.

Many of the sailors who arrive here from Portugal complain about seasickness. Some of them even give upp and take a airplane to the Caribian where they join the boat.

There is also much talk about seasick pills.

Now I think that the sailors should show some compassion for their pour body. It is used to be on land where they nowadays walk on flat even surfaces. Then suddenly the owner decides without giving their body time to adapt that now they are going to put him on a mowing boat.

The body of course have spent years finding the fine balance needed for walking upright using all his senses to do a good job.

Obviusly he needs some time when suddenly conflicting information from different senses has to be processed in the brain.

For most people the trip from Portugal to here only takes a few days. That is not enough. At least a weak is needed for most people. To really be at one with the sea I think at least a month is needed. Then the sailors body can do a good work of providing his owner with the desired functions and everone will be happy.

This is one reason why I like long passages and why I do not fraction a good long haul into many misirable small jumps. Luckily I do not suffer from seasickness but there are many more things to consider like that it takes time to shift protein building new muscles and learning to behave in the marine enviroment.

Regards Yrvind

My blisters are shrinking and the weather seems to have settled. I hope to leave on wendsday.

This upsets many peaple. They tell me that the trade wind does not start to blow before the end of november when the ARC starts. That is not so. They are wrong and ignorant. This is whats happens when people mowes in gropes like the ARC. They do not study the fundamentals. The trade blows the whole year. It moves north and south with the sun. In fact it is much better to leave now when the trade is still upp here becouse then you follow the trades south and can take advantage of them all the way. The picture is from The Admiralitys Lifeboat Chart showing the upper and lower limits of the trade. Click on it two times to enlarge it.

Regards Yrvind

This is two pictures from a drive around Porto Santo.

I am sitting at a wifi spot outside the marina office. Obviusly a lot of nice yachtsmen is helping me tp put pictures into my webb-page.

Regards Yrvind.

Me scrubbing the bottom.

Regards Yrvind

This where my broken tooth got grinded down and filled.

Regards Yrvind.

One blister and the doctor fixing it. Last night was more peaceful with my cabin heavily sprayed with pesticides.

Regards Yrvind

To day Sylvie a nurse from a french yacht remowed the bandage from the first blister. It looks good and most of the redness are gone. The antibiotic cure will be finished tomorrow, me then having swallowed all the pills in the little box.

Unfortunatly two new bites on the left foot has started new blisters and tonight I got ten or twenty more on my back. Life in harbour is to dangerous.

Today I went to the supermarket and against my philosophy bought insecticides. The biggest most powerful can I could find. Its a question of survival. I nearly emptied the can in my cabin. Bystanders told me that if the bugs do not kill me then the insecticides will.

I will do a little ventilation tonight before I go to bed. To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

My antibiotics cure will be finished on saturday. However Anne one of the sailing doctors told me that it is prudent to wait with departure two to three days after that. Monday or thusday will therefore be possible departure days.

Luckily the GRIB-files look good for now. However one should not trust them completely. In fact one should not trust anyone or anything completely except the sea.

I have heard from different sources that the real wind speed is 20%, 50% and even up to 100% faster than shown by the GRIB. Remembering that the wind force increases with the square of the speed the forces are respectivly 44%, 225% and 400% stronger than what one is made to belive.

Especially the wind speed of hurricanes are underestimated because the cover a relatively small area compared to the GRIB-net.

Fortunatly small boats have less to fear from hurricanes than big ones becouse they atract much smaller forces. Especially my boat being very small, being home made and of epoxy  and with much carbon fibre and thick heavy Divinycell have nothing to fear unless very close to a lee shore.

Less good this night I had a visit from an other mousquito. I hope these bites will not repeat my previus problems and delay departure. The sea is a much safer place I long to get going.