Teka III

2005 Cruising Season

2006-01-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

2005 Cruising season
written 18 Dec 2005 at sea

This year is a kaleidoscope of images. In May/June we traveled over land to ancient desert sites in the Middle East while the boat waited for us in port. (see webpage for details). From Israel, the end of the Med, we turned around and started west. It felt good to look at the Rock of Gibraltar from the east side and reflect we had circumnavigated the entire Mediterranean in five cruising seasons. We ended the season with re-crossing the Atlantic Ocean in December, from Las Palmas to Antigua, 2764 nautical miles
in 16+ days. Total under the keel miles for 2005: 7593, a record for us and TEKA III.

After the Middle East, David, Denise and the boys joined us in Antalya, Turkey for a ten day cruise to Bodrum for their return flight to Istanbul and SanDiego. We anchored at seven different exotic spots working our way west, including a day to take a local boat up the Dalyan River to explore the marshes, mud baths, rock tombs in the hillside, along with many hundreds of other tourists arriving by Turkish tour boats or by land transportation.

Then we re-visited places in Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, Balerics, and Spain, as well as adding some new ones. The only “missed” in the Med were Corsica and Malta.

Once Marvin Day, our long time cruising friend, arrived in Gibraltar to take up crew duties, we started watching the weather carefully. First order of business, contact our “weather guru” from the initial crossing in May 2001. Walter Hack had recently died, but his partner, Bob, stepped in nicely and we began getting lengthy reports as to what weather patterns were forming across the Atlantic north and south, and a detailed daily expectation run for five days. This we added to our other weather faxes scheduled through the single side band radio and computer. And, watched the sky.

It would be a 3+ day trip to the Canary Islands, so we wanted to know what brewed at the beginning, at destination on arrival, and in between—no surprises.

In the Canaries we would wait out the end of hurricane season before striking out across. Two late season Tropical Storms brewed mid Atlantic and went east, not west. There must be something wrong here. We experienced Tropical Storm Vince while in Rota Spain and T/S Delta hit the Canaries while we were there. To top it all off, Tropical Storm Epsilon turned into a hurricane, and we had to avoid it on our crossing. Fortunately it dissipated, or a cold front absorbed it, before we arrived at its coordinates. Cold front winds and seas were uncomfortable, but nothing like a full blown storm at sea.

Leaving Gibraltar we picked the tide and stayed close to the Spanish side for better current. Spent one night in Barbate, then 6 days in Rota, Spain. After hearing “This is NATO Warship 72” checking on ships in the Ionian Ocean while on our transit from Greece to Sicily, we heard them again on VHF 16 as we approached Rota. Warship #72 announced its departure and “all ships needing conversation with them should call on Channel 13.” We finally saw them in person.

At the marina in Rota we had easy access to town. We had met Barry and Carmen Blitch there four years ago when we arrived from Portugal. They befriended us and we enjoyed their company. I wanted to see if we could find them. We walked through the main street and looked up and around for a familiar place. Never found it, but did find a nice young man, about 10 years old walking a dog. I asked if I could pet the dog. He said, “Yes, and I speak English.” So I asked him about the people I wanted to see. He answered, “You’re talking about my Grandma, Carmen. They left for the States two days ago.” You could have knocked me down with a feather. His name was Alex and he promised to have his older brother email Carmen and tell her of our chance meeting. What a small world, again!

T/S Vince paid us a visit at the marina, blowing up to 40 knots of wind and sending wavelets with white curls into the protected water. We stayed secure at the dock, waited for the cold front to also pass and then took advantage of our weather window to head south to the Canaries.

After 83 hours of travel, full moon included for night passage, we arrived at Francesca Harbor, Graciosa Island. We woke up the neighbors dropping the anchor at 11:30 p.m. just outside the circled group of ten sailboats swinging on their hooks. In daylight we learned these flew French or Dutch flags. On the trip down we had two sets of dolphins come by and gannets kept flying over, thinking we were a fishing boat I guess. Many flying fish were about, including one who flew on deck, committing suicide. Denis talked to the Captain of a large tug pulling a semi-submersible oil platform en route from Angola through Gibraltar to Sicily and on to Egypt.

The second day presented us with a problem. The boat took an independent turn to the right and wouldn’t stop. Well, after turning off the Autopilot, Denis jumped onto the swim bridge to see if there had been a problem with the keel, like losing a part. Nothing wrong there. Then, he hastily moved many things aside to slide under the aft cabin desk and check for hydraulic fluid leak. Nothing. But alas, the cable had broken which worked the rudder steering capability with autopilot. Marvin hand steered while I fetched tools and Denis problem solved, making a new cable from heavy duty fishing line. We only lost 20 minutes of travel time and the seas were pretty calm for the event. We were glad it didn’t happen at night or when the seas were rough.

After three nights anchored at Francesca Bay and exploring the small island, we journeyed around to the east side of Lanzarote and south to Puerto Calero Marina. Familiarized ourselves with the marina facilities-- chandlery, laundry, internet hookup, and restaurants, before renting a car in Puerto Carmen and exploring the island for three weeks.

Lanzarote claims to have over 300 cinder cones. Timafaya National Park covers the six volcanoes that erupted constantly between 1730 and 1736, destroying the best agricultural section of the island, and adding several more acres with its huge lava flow to the sea. We took a guided walk (in the rain would you believe?) with a local woman, who said we were special that it rained for us so we could see what peeked up out of the lava beds. Much lays dormant waiting for a chance to get a drink and sprout. Since there is very little rain, all plants, especially the grapevines buried in holes surrounded by lava rocks, normally depend on the heavy dew for moisture.

While we walked down below, we looked up among the peaks and saw tourist buses making their way up, down and around the landscape. We also rode the bus before leaving Lanzarote and what a pleasant and yes, awesome, trip. The bus would stop right at the top of a crest with very little on the road’s edge, and we looked way down into craters or far ahead down and around the bend. At the end of the ride, a “ranger-type” man herded us over to where he scooped some tumbleweed into an open pit. It promptly ignited. Then we picked up some ground, only to drop it like hot cakes. HOT rocks. Lastly he poured pails of water into holes and steam gushed up. We were definitely standing on some active volcanic stuff.

Images from our rides around the island—lots of volcanoes from small to large; very white houses, single story, with blue or green trim on doors and windows; touristy towns with plenty of tourists (mostly Brits); nice large public buses; palm trees; no snakes; no homeless; rabbit hunting dogs (very skinny) riding in trucks; wine grapes growing in lava pits designed to catch and capture any available water; and of course, trade wind clouds forming and filing by all day. Boats were collecting there towards the December crossing and we shared time with many of them before leaving for Fuenteventura (good fortune) Island.

Stopped for the night at the bottom of the island—Morro Jable—before continuing on the Las Palmas, GranCanaries. That passage kept us busy holding on as waves were 10-12feet on the beam most of the way.

In Las Palmas, the ARC (Atlantic Rally Crossing) had gathered. There were 150 boats at least ready to cross en masse on Nov 20. This ARC has been going on for 26 years—an organized “pays your money to go” crossing from the Canaries to St Lucia. No room at the marina for anyone else, so we anchored out, trying to stay in the “dotted line” between red markers on the chart. Red is on the port side in Europe. No “red right returning” here. On our six days there we socialized with other people on boats in the anchorage who were planning to also cross independently of ARC, starting out after the big group left (and no fees involved), ate Chinese a few times, swapped books, checked out Christopher Columbus’s house and church where he prayed, and had an oil slick.

On to Tenerife Island with Marvin’s wife, Nancy on board for two weeks. Initially we anchored a couple of nights at a quiet indentation along the southeast coast, just below some giant wind generators. Now that told us something—the wind did blow there at times. All we saw was some slow lazy swirls of the blades, but I bet it can get pretty boisterous, being in the wind acceleration zone according to the chart. At the Santa Cruz Marina, twenty miles north, we tied to the inside dock and instantly liked that town, right near the marina. About twenty of us got together for a pot-luck Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey tetrazzine the closest to a roast turkey entrée. We did have cans of cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie mix, so the celebration went well.

Two days with a car gave us access to the whole island. One day we stopped to see the special museum at LaLaguna along with its famous church, Iglesia de Nuestra Senora, where I lit a candle and whispered a prayer for our voyage; La Orotava, a village climbing up the hillside near Tiede (10,000’ volcano) with its old world charm in architecture, balconied houses and small streets, and where we had lunch. Driving to Garachico huge poinsiettas grew in tree size clumps alongside the road and Nancy had to have a photo. Such color! On another day we grabbed sweaters when we took off from the marina as we were to visit Tiede. Pine forests were plentiful and we picked up some special pine cones for Christmas decoration around our cloth Christmas tree purchased at La Laguna. At Vilaflora we ate a traditional typico Canarian lunch. Garachico had a fort museum on the water where you could see what the port used to be, before Tiede’s last eruption which swallowed half of it. We also bought gifts at their nice giftshop and enjoyed a special ice cream treat.

Weather appeared to be changing so we took advantage of a good day and went back to Las Palmas. Nancy had to catch a return flight to Galveston and son, David, would be coming in a couple days after that, so we had to be in place. T/S Delta arrived the day after we did in Las Palmas. We had tied every which way to the dock for the 30 knot wind and surge coming in from the marina breakwater (southwesterly). That lasted a day then in the night the wind shifted to the northwest and several boats received damage by being blown back into the dock. We had re-positioned ourselves forward so nothing happened to us. In the morning we all watched “Harbor TV” as boats from the anchorage came in attempting to locate a moorage. More damage occurred when wind caught some and they lost control and hit a parked boat. No boats sank and no one was injured.

Denis and I drove around the northern part of the island in our rental car a few days later. Trees had toppled or snapped and debris lay still over the road. Clean up had begun however. We learned from the Cruisers’ Net that Santa Cruz, where we had just been on Tenerife, had experienced 40-60 knot wind and heavy rain. Dock damage had hurt several boats, including one with a crack in her hull from banging into the sea wall. On Lanzarote, part of the sea wall near the bathrooms had fallen down at the Puerto Calero Marina, the roof blew off the maintenance shed, two boats on the hard surface out of the water had fallen over—all with 60-80 knot winds. So guess we were very lucky in our Las Palmas marina.

This storm gone, we watched T/S Epsilon become a hurricane, right in our way. Every year people plan to start their crossing at the end of the hurricane season. This one did not want to end. Epsilon was storm #29. And it, with Vince and Delta, formed mid Atlantic and headed east, not west, the normal pattern. Still December looks like the best month and it does allow people to be on the other side for Christmas and New Years.

We picked up David at Las Palmas airport about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, December 3. He said he looked down from 35,000’ to see the sea just a-churning while flying over France, Spain and Portugal. That Low Pressure Center looked huge on paper, but he said it really looked nasty from his seat. However, that was not our storm. It continued northeast. Epsilon just formed, stalled, looked for a way to go, moved a little, gained strength, then moved more, slightly eastward. We would go south to put miles between it and us, watching carefully, especially since our weather guru felt it might “hook” back and be a problem. What actually happened—it got absorbed into an approaching cold front and we still got some of it that way, yet no real big strong storm at sea. Yeah!

So we are off! Left Las Palmas about 10 a.m. on Sunday, 4 December, anticipating a 16 day journey to English Harbor, Antigua on the Caribbean side. Dawn and Larry made an “on-line tracking system” on our website so interested people could follow along and see us at sea. Many sailboats went south to Cape Verdes, a 7 day trip, to rest, refuel and break up the crossing into smaller parts instead of one big leap. In fact, all those crossing were sailboats with the exception of us, a 46’ Norhavn, Supr’r (Australian flagged), and a 65’ steel boat, Pamacea, from Seattle, no less (purchased in Europe though).

Our days are full. Along with the ability to pick up ten weather faxes a day over the single side band radio and computer set-up, we had four radio times for check ins with others. The Atlantic Crossing Cruisers’ Net is twice a day and we talked to the other power boats also twice a day. I started tracking on the paper chart 25 boats at first; this filtered down to 6 over time as people spread out or ran out of wind so stalled. In the morning they exchange weather information gleaned from many sources, report positions and conditions, and share information, good or bad. Good: how many fish caught? Bad—How many got away! One boat hit a sleeping whale and headed to Cape Verdes to check for damage. Another one got a fishing net caught on the prop, but released easily. The day before leaving Las Palmas, we learned about 30 rowboats were to be in our path, rowing for 100 days across the Atlantic to the Caribbean in two men teams. That made me nervous. How would I see them at night? We never did see one, but heard Rowboat #24 calling some boat somewhere once.

What we did see made us marvel, as if we were in a National Geographic filming. Dolphins came several times, Atlantic spotted at first, Pantropical striped another time. One morning about 9:20, David pointed off the bow. Two fins in line with each other showing out of the water, one a mama, the other, a baby. They swam at the surface for a minute, dove, surfaced once more, then we never saw them after that. Another time a pygmy killer whale surfaced and blew not too far off the starboard bow. Both times we were able to made identifications with the dolphin/whale book on board.

Sunrises and sunsets are spectacular out at sea. Also moonrise and moonset of the full moon. The moon rose late on Saturday, Dec 17 and when it did at the stern, the phenomenon of a “moonbow” around a cloud off the bow made your mouth drop. Awesome!

We eat very well, including fresh fish, mostly mahi mahi, caught by David. We celebrated Marvin’s #64 birthday on Dec 12 with great gusto and anticipate a special event on arrival in English Harbour soon.

This year you can read about our Middle East Adventure on the webpage; look forward to a Spring issue of Passagemaker featuring the Greek Islands; and I may have found a home for my Tipper dog story.

We finished 2005 with a trip to spend holiday time with Dawn and family in Tacoma, as well as David and family in San Diego. TEKA III waits in Jolly Harbour Marina, Antigua for our return and a leisurely cruise in 2006 to Trinidad where she will remain during the hurricane season.

P.S. TEKA III has sails now, both for auxiliary power if needed, and a special “angel” image. See photo for the real view.

Arrival Antigua! Dec 21

2005-12-20T20:25:00.000-08:00

Arrived WP1 (Antigua) at 2339 UTC. Made our way slowly and with difficulty into a crowded, unlit harbor. Our friends on Suprr arrived earlier today and were a great help getting us in. Current anchorage position 17 00.3N 61 45.7W. Engine off at 0045UTC, 2045 local. Raining at the moment as well, but we are all happy to have arrived.

Teka III crew

Dec 20

2005-12-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 17 15.2 N, 60 14.5 W; course 274 magnetic. We are 2680 miles out of Las Palmas with 87.9 to go to Antigua. Made 179 miles in last 24 hours for 7.46 knot average. Wind E15 Seas 2 meters still on stern quarter. Weather still good. Expect to arrive this evening about 2400UTC (2000 local).

Teka III crew

Dec 19

2005-12-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 17 45.4 N, 57 09.8 W; course 277 magnetic. We are 2500 miles out of Las Palmas with 266.9 to go to Antigua. Made 165.1 miles in last 24 hours for 6.88 knot average. Wind E NE 17 Seas 2-3 meters still on stern quarter. More choppy and worse cross seas last night and today makes the ride uncomfortable. Weather good with a few showers.

Still no fish landed. Fish 5; "fisherman" 0.

Teka III crew

Dec 18

2005-12-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 18 10.6 N, 54 18.7 W; course 278 magnetic. We are 2334 miles out of Las Palmas with 432 to go to Antigua. Made 174.3 miles in last 24 hours for 7.26 knot average. ETA at current speed is 2400 UTC Tuesday, 2000 local time. Wind NE15 Seas 2-3 meters still on stern quarter. Weather good with a few showers. Had several strikes and fish on but nothing in the boat. One fish jumped a lot and Dave identified it as a long-billed spearfish of about 50 pounds. At the same time we hooked another big fish that we think was a tuna, but it got away too. One other large fish escaped, perhaps another tuna.

Teka III crew

Dec 17

2005-12-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 18 34.5 N, 51 17.0 W; course 280 magnetic. We are 2160 miles out of Las Palmas with 606 to go to Antigua. Made 168.6 miles in last 24 hours for 7.025 knot average. Looks like we will arrive inAntigua Tuesday night or early Wed. Weather is good--the trades are setting in. We have NE15 winds with a sea of 6-8 feet which makes for a lumpy ride with the seas on our stern quarter. Wind should clock more east over time and make for a better ride. Had one strike yesterday, but no fish. Had Phad Thai for dinner which was quite excellent. A group of spotted dolphins came around yesterday to greet and play. We seem to be getting the Daytona sailmail station now which could make emails easier.

Teka III crew

Dec 16

2005-12-16T06:52:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 18 54.8 N, 48 20.7 W; course 281 magnetic. We are 1991 miles out of Las Palmas with 775 to go to Antigua. Made 170 miles in last 24 hours for 7.1 knot average. Weather today is fine again today. Wind about 9 knots from the NNE. Swells about 1.0 meters with a half meter chop. Barometer is at 1017. Experienced a band of showers last night that washed some salt off the boat. Slightly increased wind during showers to 20 knots. Last night about sunset we hooked a very large fish (estimated 4 feet long) which we think was a wahoo. He jumped completely out of the water at least a half dozen times and almost took all the line off our smaller deep sea rig. Then he threw the hook. Quite an exciting event! No other strikes all day. The full moon still makes night watches pleasant.

Teka III crew

Dec 15

2005-12-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 19 12.5 N, 45 22.7 W; course 281 magnetic. We are 1821 miles out of Las Palmas with 944 to go to Antigua. Made 168 milesin last 24 hours for 7.0 knot average. Weather today is fine again today. Wind about 9 knots from the east. Swells about 1.5 meters. Barometer is at 1016 again--has been flat. Clear skies. Beautiful yesterday afternoon with slick calm and cobalt seas. Lots of sky. No fish yesterday--had pork loin teriyaki for dinner. Saw a very nearby meteor or space debris fall early this morning--the brightest I have ever seen. No other boats seen on radar, but we have a fleet out there checking in on SSBtwice a day.

Teka III crew

Dec 14

2005-12-14T06:43:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 19 27.1 N, 42 26.4 W; course 282 magnetic. We are 1653 miles out of Las Palmas with 1112 to go to Antigua. Made 167 miles in last 24 hours for 6.96 knot average (same as yesterday). Weather today is fine again today. Wind about 5 knots or less from north. Swells about 1.5 meters. Barometer is at 1016 again--has been flat. Clear skies. Tuesday at about 0920, position 19.39 north, 39.30 west, a mama short finned pilot whale surfaced about 100 feet in front of the bow. David spotted her and her calf--two fins showed right next to each other. She surfaced again about100 feet further along her course, then dived. What a treat! Like being in National Geographic, right? We never saw her again. We don't know if she was showing us her baby, or us to her baby. Another sea story for you. Full moon two nights in a row.

Teka III crew

Dec 13

2005-12-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 19 38.8 N, 39 30.0 W; course 283 magnetic. We are 1486 miles out of Las Palmas with 1279 to go to Antigua. Made 167 miles in last 24 hours for 6.96 knot average. We have used approximately 500 gallons of fuel out of our supply of 1900 gallons--Lots of reserve. Weather today is fine. Little to no wind. Swells are down to about 1.5 meters and are not a problem. Barometer is higher at 1016. Some clouds and showers around but none have hit us. We could use a bit of rain to wash the salt off the boat from the rough water a few days ago. Yesterday we changed our ship time to UTC-2. Sunrise at 0700 ship time. Reports will continue using UTC.

Teka III crew

Dec 12

2005-12-12T06:07:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 19 47.6 N, 36 33.8 W; course 283 magnetic. We are 1319 miles out of Las Palmas with 1445 to go to Antigua. We will pass the half way point early this evening of 1381 miles. Made 164 miles in last 24 hours for 6.83 knot average. Weather is nice today. We have long NNW swells of about 2 meters and light northerly winds of perhaps 5 knots. Barometric pressure up to 1016. Ride is much more comfortable. During the night we had bright moonlight until it set, then fantastic stars and a really creamy milky way. We plan a turkey dinner tonight to celebrate Marvin's birthday and as our halfway party. Marvin is our friend, cruising mate and volunteer crew for theAtlantic crossing. We have enjoyed having him. And it is special to have abirthday at sea! We will probably start fishing again tomorrow. Every day we check in on two crossing nets to share info about boat location, weather, etc. We are further north than most sailboats because they expect more wind 4 or 5 degrees south of us. One other motor boat is the Aussie 46 Nordhaven, Suprr. They are a few hundred miles northwest of us. We also talk to them twice a day.

Teka III crew

Dec 11

2005-12-11T10:13:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 19 53.5 N, 33 41.4 W; course 284 magnetic. We are 1155 miles out of Las Palmas with 1608 to Antigua. Made 142 miles inlast 24 hours for 5.92 knot average. We had to slow down during the night to make for a more comfortable ride. We also altered course a bit to make for abetter ride. The predicted cold front passed over us about dark last night. It started with SW and then W winds of about 20-25 knots and very steep choppy seas. We had lumpy night with pitching and rolling, but we slept anyway. Dave cooked more Mahi Mahi for dinner--a real physical challenge given the boat motion. By this morning the winds are down to 10-15 from the NNW. Ocean swells are quite high, but not troublesome. We had one wave of at least 16 feet (Sort of like a thrill bump in a car), but most are 8-10 feet.

Teka III crew

Dec 10

2005-12-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 20 20.5 N, 031 15.1 W; course 282 magnetic. We are 1013 miles out of Las Palmas with 1746 to Antigua. Made 165 miles inlast 24 hours for 6.875 knot average. We changed course last night at 2100 UTC to proceed directly via great circle route to Antigua. Position of change was20 22.6 N, 29 25.3 W. Today we have wind from the SW at 15-18 knots with a 1.5 meter choppy sea on thebeam. It is slowing us down a bit--looks like we are making about 6.5 knots. Skies partly cloudy with a few showers. Expect the cold front to pass sometimetoday or tomorrow. Lots of flying fish, but we are not fishing because we have as much as we can eat for awhile.

Teka III crew

December 9

2005-12-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC today was 20 57.3 N, 028 32.0 W; course 249 magnetic. We are 848 miles out of Las Palmas with 1911 to Antigua. Made 171 miles in last24 hours for 7.125 knot average.Seas have been E or SE about 4 feet. Wind has been E10-12. A few showers early this morning, but mostly clear now. Received a new wx update from OceanMarNav this morning--looks like we could be slowed a bit by head winds. Dave cooked Mahi Mahi last night--it was wonderful!

Teka III crew

Dec 8 supplemental

2005-12-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

We had a gorgeous sunrise the morning David was due into Las Palmas, and several nice sunsets on the trip. Last night's was a beauty. Dolphins have visited several times. Our excellent cuisine has included curries to tacos to pastas to steak, and now fresh fish. The days are crowded with activity from picking up up to 10 weather faxes, instrument readings and engine room checks every 2 hours and contacts throughthe NET or individuals 2-4 times a day. Tried out the new sails mounted from topof mast to ends of Flopper stopper arms and Teka looked like a Christmas angel"wing on wing" and they pushed us along with the fish in the water at 2 knotswhen we put the engine in neutral. Yippee. When the trades meet up with us, we will deploy them for sure. We managed to miss the storm Epsilon, although Delta did quite a bit of damage in the Canaries, including the marina at Tenerife and on Lanzarote. Gran Canary had wind damage but the marina stayed safe with only minor damage to some boatsthat were too close to the dock.

Mary

Dec 8

2005-12-11T10:09:00.000-08:00

Note error in position for 6 Dec. Latitude should have been 25 30.2N. Our position at 1200 UTC today was 22 32.0 N, 025 58.7 W; course 249 magnetic. We are 677 miles out of Las Palmas with 2080 to Antigua. Made 169 miles in last24 hours for 7.04 knot average. Seas have been E or SE about 7 feet, but easing now. Wind has been E12-20. Looks like Epsilon will finally die and we can quit worrying. Caught two more small Mahi Mahi this morning--should be good eating tonight.

Teka III crew

Dec 7

2005-12-11T10:08:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC was 24 03 N, 023 24 W; course 248 magnetic. We are 508miles out of Las Palmas with 2249 to Antigua. Made 165 miles in last 24 hoursfor 6.875 knot average. Seas sill relatively smooth with a long NW swell of about 8 feet--Last night wehad a lumpy stretch, but without wind increase. Winds currently about 15 knotsNE. We got an updated weather forecast from OceanMarNav, which looks good forthe next few days. They and NOAA are predicting Epsilon to go SW. If we see it heading SE we may head south more directly.

Teka III crew

Dec 6

2005-12-11T10:07:00.000-08:00

Our position at 1200 UTC was 23 30.2N, 020 49.8W; course 248 magnetic. We are343 miles out of Las Palmas with 2414 to go on this route. Made 167 miles inlast 24 hours for 6.96 knot average. Seas sill relatively smooth with a long NW swell of about 6 feet. Winds about10 knots NE. Tried our new wing-on-wing sails today. Looks like they will work great. The sails move us along at 2.7 knots with only 10 knots of wind and dragging bothparavanes. Need at least 15 knots of wind for a proper test. We are watching the tropical storm closely. Hope it does not turn our way.

Teka III crew

Dec 5

2005-12-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

Our position as of 1200 UTC was 26 55.7N, 018 11.9W. We have made 176 miles since leaving Las Palmas. Course 248 magnetic aiming toward waypoint at 20N,30W--771 miles to go to WP. Excellent weather so far. Light NE (10 knots) winds and calm seas. Barometer1018. Lots of other boats headed this way. A very large, fast racing sailboatis coming up behind us doing 10 knots. No fish yet.

Teka III crew

Dec 4 - Departed for Crossing

2005-12-11T10:03:00.000-08:00

We left Las Palmas at 1045 this morning after clearing out with the authorities. We are currently progressing down the west side of Gran Canaria island. We may head southwest to try to get further south of all the strange storm weather. We will report our position as of 1200 UTC each day via wyr6259. Dave arrived yesterday. He brought along a satellite phone for emergencies. How nice. Weather is good so far. Our weather forecasting service predicts everything will be OK, but we are still going south to about 20 degrees north. The detour might cost us 100 miles and half a day, but winds and currents might be better.

Denis & Mary