Cruising World - June 2018

june/july 2018

cruisingworld.com

54

our Iridium Go/PredictWind satellite

and weather-routing system, and became

our communications officer. Everyone

pitched in whenever and wherever help

was needed.

Alexandra is an impressive organizer

and rearranged the contents of all the

lockers for ease of access while we were

underway, taking notes so we could

return things to where John and Caroline

had put them. She grouped all like items

together, and put things close to where

they would be used and where it would

make the most efficient use of storage

space. Then we started stowing bags and

boxes, bottles and cans, long-life cartons

of juices and milk, baskets of fresh

produce, freezers full of frozen meat and

shellfish, pizzas, berries and desserts.

Since everyone on board was a foodie,

this was not going to be a beans-on-toast

cruise across the Atlantic!

Because we’re monohullers who don’t

worry too much about weight on a boat,

Zão was a bit heavy when we set sail

from Las Palmas on November 12. An

advantage, though, of a large cruising

catamaran is that the boat can handle

it, and as we were about to find out, we

would be at sea for a lot longer than the

two weeks we had planned on.

Fortunately, water usage wasn’t a

concern either. Dave ran the generator

twice a day during his and Alexandra’s

0800-to-1200 and 2000-to-2400 watch,

and made plenty of water with the

Dessalator watermaker at the same time.

All six of us could have had two showers

a day if we’d wanted to — and often did.

We had light but good breezes the first

day out, which helped everyone get their

sea legs and allowed us all to get used to

the equipment on board and practice han-

dling Zão’s sails. The boat has Elvstrøm

Epex laminated sails, which hold their

shape and work well with the Seldén

in-mast furling system. It took us a few

tries to get the hang of the furler, so we

appreciated Craig’s instruction on how

to use it. He has it on his boat. The trick

is to maintain tension on the mainsail at

all times while furling it. We came to love

it and, as a result, we ordered the same

for our new boat.

One of the things we didn’t like about

the other catamarans we had sailed

was the noise of the waves slapping the

bridgedeck, which was loud and never

rhythmic. It got on our nerves, so Paul

and I were rather anxious about how

we would handle this on a long passage.

However, on the Bluewater 50, the hull

shape was designed to counter this,

and we found that startling wave slaps

happened less often and weren’t as loud

or bone-shaking when they occurred.

Granted, we never got the big seas we had

been hoping for to test out the boat.

This was our eighth transatlantic

passage, and it turned out to be the

lightest-wind Atlantic crossing we have

ever made, with several days of total calm.

Where were the trade winds? Like all the

other boats around us (we were receiving

position reports from the ARC and ARC+

fleets), we all ended up being at sea for at

least an extra week longer than planned.

We checked the weather using

PredictWind a couple of times a day, and

there was nothing but days of extremely

light wind or no wind at all in the

forecasts. The Bluewater 50 is a fast cat

and, thank goodness, handled the light

airs well, but we never got the conditions

to really put her through her paces.

We started by sailing wing-and-wing

using two headsails but ended up flying

With such easy sailing, we had plenty

of time to fish. Alexandra practiced

her filleting skills, and there was sushi

for lunch. The asymmetric spinnaker

(right) had a workout on this passage.

It was flown around the clock for days

on end.