Twiny: three cheers for the Atlantic circuit!

Who:               Hélène, Henri, Maëlle and Louise

Where:            Atlantic circuit

Boat:               Cat Flotteur 41

Blog:               www.levoyagedetwiny.over-blog.com

It was the last night at sea. Of the 2,030 miles separating Mindelo from Martinique, only 50 short miles remained. We had rolled up the jib, so we didn’t arrive too early. The first few days, the swell had left us time to get our sea legs. It was calm and we caught three fish on three successive days. The girls played in their little swimming pool, drew, painted, cut out, stuck, played board games, or with Plasticine, and watched cartoons. The battery in our Iridium satellite communications system failed, but Henri MacGyver succeeded in bodging it with the vacuum cleaner battery, and it worked! After a week, the wind and seas increased, we sailed fast, we certainly had our sea legs, but it was not as pleasant. We were sailing too fast to fish, we were starting to lack fresh products (and we didn’t find the Cape Verde yoghurts (which can be kept at room temperature) quite as good). We therefore started cooking: breads, brioches, nut brownies, yoghurt cakes, pear crumble, tuna/tomato/cheese cakes, tuna/tomato quiche, tuna/tomato spaghetti… Some spotted dolphins and small whales (less than 6m/20’) rubbed against our hulls. We recognized several kinds of birds, but apart from a few flying fish lost on the trampolines, and three freighters glimpsed far away, we were completely alone. The sunrises/sunsets, the moon’s phases, the stars/planets/satellites also occupied us. I read six books; despite everything, time passed very slowly, and we were looking forward to arriving.  Our feelings were paradoxical: on the one hand we finally had time to do all the things we never have time to do (even on a voyage) but on the other, we never felt good enough to do them readily (fatigue, weariness, lethargy due to the boat’s movements). In any case, it was a great human adventure which took us out of our comfort zone and taught us a lot about ourselves!