The ship’s journal from the Delivery from Mallorca to Fiji

Update Wednesday 05/02/25 1200 GMT-3 Mid Atlantic.

A day full of action.

After several days with a certain degree of monotony, Tuesday came with a full program. Some things were fun, others less so. 

With no squalls, ships, and definitely no land in the vicinity, I started my night watch sailing steadily through another dark night. The moon has only shown its cute smile for a few hours so far on this crossing. The ship’s ghosts were about to come out. I adjusted the sails a bit and then decided to look further into the paperwork we have to prepare for the Panama Canal. It’s a substantial collection of forms to fill out. I got stuck on the question about our estimated date of arrival. We have been talking about breaking up the Caribbean Sea crossing with a stop in Aruba or Bonaire. After some brief research I didn’t get very excited about the idea of being stuck on board in a windy anchorage. And the marina seems too small.

The other potential stop on our rhumbline is Cartagena Colombia. Just as I read a few nice things about it, the internet was out… Although this is the first time for me to have internet on a crossing, and I’ve always very happily done without, it would now be very stressful to lose it permanently. I tried a few things and then noticed that it was now 00:24 hrs UTC. The Starlink app clearly states it uses UTC for billing intervals so I suspected something had gone wrong with the credit card. For these situations I have bought the Garmin InReach and I sent a text message via satellite to the owner. Then I tried to let it go, trusting it would get resolved. 

The next second An stood on deck. She had heard Charlie Beau scream from the other side of the boat: “MOM! MAMAAAA!!!” Then she heard the voice of a concerned Oceaan replying: “CHARLIE??? WHAT’S WRONG??” An explained that she ran over to their cabins and found them both fast asleep. The ship’s ghosts had moved from the technical department to psychological games! They must have decided that a sleeping mother in a noisy yacht interior would be an easy target. 

I continued my watch, but obviously not my research. When Jan took over, he told me there was no power to the coffee machine. We started testing some things. The cooker hood worked. The stove didn’t. There was no power on the plugs but the 220V domestic fridge worked. I decided that I was going to enjoy this little midnight tech challenge the ghosts had served me. Despite being really ready for my bed, they were not going to wind me up. 

We have an overview screen that showed that the inverters were offline. Makes sense as, not all, but some 220v was out. Then I also remembered that a number of galley appliances had their own separate inverter. Still I was sure the cooking hub was on that loop too. These little things that don’t make sense can throw you off. I checked the inverters. They were on! I wasn’t cursing the lack of handover from the previous captain who kept his work list… in his head. I wasn’t cursing the limited manual that comes with the boat. I was thinking. I looked around in the technical room and saw the breaker between the inverter and the interior (domestic bus) was turned off. Why? No idea. But I brought a warm coffee to Jan on the flybridge who received it with a very big grin. Starlink took another 20 minutes to come back on.

In the morning I woke up to a lively boat. Still sailing steadily albeit a bit slow. Kids doing homework. An helping them. Jan pottering around in the galley. Sara on the flybridge. She had started the day in a bikini, apparently. Another sign of her always-optimistic demeanor. I was about to make myself breakfast when Oceaan jumped up and shouted FIIISSSHHHH!!!!!! The rod was screaming! I barked at Sara to furl the genoa and stop the boat. The brake was on the reel, but still, the line was going and going.

I told An to turn on the engines and stop the boat entirely. The bent rod was still paying out its line. I told An to gently reverse. The reel stopped spinning. The boys all gathered around the rod. An on the engine controls and Sara filming, Charlie was watching with her fingers crossed for fresh sushi. This was very exciting! Some waves lapped onto the aft deck. We were a sportfishing boat now. Yeah! For 45 minutes we were reeling it in and then letting the line slip again. Eventually we got about 80% of the line back on the reel. The rod still bent and the fish still swimming deep, but now near to the boat. Speculation was going around about what would be on the hook. I was hoping it wouldn’t be a swordfish because it seemed very big and if it was a tuna it would already be enough trouble to land it. We prepped a rope that could be slid over the line and the entire fish to work as a noose on the tail. 

The fish must have caught sight of the big boat above it because suddenly it ran away fast, very fast! I let the reel off a bit so it could go and get tired. Then suddenly, the moment we had dreaded. The anticlimax of a slack line… It was gone. Did it take the lure? It didn’t. Instead, it had broken off one of the two steel hooks made out of 3mm thick stainless steel. It left some bite marks in the lure.

Maybe it was better this way because it must have been big and heavy.

We had lost time with “the one that got away”. And the wind had started dying since the morning so we decided to hoist the mainsail. The crew executed a perfect manoeuvre. A couple of hours later, a squall came, so we dropped the main. Then the squalls seemed to subside. So the main went up again. And guess what? A squall came so we dropped the main again. The wind has been shifty in direction and speed now since yesterday afternoon. So we have been motorsailing, hoping it was only for a while. And today, at 10 a.m., we’re sailing again without the hum of the engine.

Poor An suddenly experienced a spasm in her lower back, which immobilized her entirely. She can barely walk! We’re treating it with professional advice from Lorenzo, our osteo in Palma and she should be back up and running in a day or two.

Last night was still squally and shifty, a sign that we’re in the tropics. The temperature is nice though.

Just over 1000 nm to go to Saint Martin!