Blue water blog: Atlantic round trip on nine metres: three months of Caribbean sailing
Kristina Müller
· 30.03.2019
In August 2018, Lennart Burke and Valentin "Vale" Ahlhaus, friends and Melges 24 sailors from Stralsund, set off on an Atlantic tour with an old IW-31. After adventurous first stages to France, a Crossing the Bay of Biscay against the clock , Bay strolling on the Canary Islands and Cape Verde they have your ship for the big jump prepared and finally Crossed the Atlantic in 18 days. After the Atlantic round in cruising mode Lennart Burke wants to take part in the Mini-Transat 2021. On YACHT online, he reports on how he got there.
If I wasn't only 20 and still had my whole life ahead of me, I would say: I want to grow old here in the Caribbean. Time doesn't matter, life is mostly kept simple, the people are open and welcoming and, last but not least, we can devote ourselves entirely to sailing along the Caribbean coasts.
We have found it, the boundless freedom.
In the almost two and a half months that Vale and I have now spent sailing in the Eastern Caribbean, we have been able to experience and learn to love it. However, we also realised what it means to have little or to live off what the natural environment of an island has to offer.
Island hopping in the eastern Caribbean
Travelling here on a sailing boat is a privilege. It means boundless freedom. Distances are almost irrelevant due to the constant and strong trade winds. Temperatures hardly ever drop below 25 degrees, and when it gets above 30 degrees, the trade winds provide pleasant air conditioning. Be it the vegetation, the culture or the countless anchor bays and sailing routes - the Eastern Caribbean offers incredible versatility.
We have now been able to call at 15 islands: from Barbados via Grenada and Carriacou to the Grenadines (Union Island, Tobago Cays, Bequia), from there to St Vincent, followed by three short stays in St Lucia, then Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Montserrat, Saint Martin and now the British Virgin Islands.
We experienced unforgettable moments on all the islands. Sometimes it was people we met, sometimes hikes that were particularly challenging, sometimes anchorages that couldn't have been better, sometimes nerve-wracking sailing passages.
In blue water rhythm: sailing, arriving, anchoring
If I had to name three things that have become real habits for us, it would be anchoring, clearing in and the passages between the islands.
Anchoring may be part of everyday life, but it's always exciting. We have noticeably developed a good feeling for the right anchorage and the resulting questions: Where do we drop the anchor? How much chain should we give, and in what range does the ship move afterwards or do we have enough room to manoeuvre?
The Schwoi Circle is sometimes a bit of a problem. Because if they are not full of reefs, rocks or other obstacles, some anchorages are extremely crowded. Finding a place with "enough" space, not too much water depth and as close to land as possible is sometimes really difficult or involves risks.
Clear in was described to us before the trip as very annoying, nerve-wracking, time-consuming and expensive. Initially in Barbados and Grenada it was. Over time, however, we let it become part of the journey and once we had accepted it, it was hardly annoying, but rather adventurous. Time should not be a factor when clearing in and trying to assert yourself or put pressure on the officials is also out of place. This is exactly when they take their time. They often make jokes with each other and if you laugh along at the right moment - even if you don't understand anything - it goes down very well.
The passages between the islands were usually very exciting. From Grenada to Carriacou, for example, we reckoned on around five hours sailing for 20 nautical miles and around 20 to 25 knots of wind from the east. But in the end we ended up with 45 nautical miles, ten hours of sailing time, a strong current and up to 32 knots of wind.
It was anything but cosy, rather annoying due to the miserable turning angles and the terribly slow speed. As we got closer to the island and the waves got smaller, we were the last ones out trying to cross into Carriacou's Tyrrel Bay. However, when the last boats overtook us, we realised that they were all running their engines, which of course gave them a lot more speed and a little more height to the wind.
From Bequia to St Vincent we also had a strong current, which we had been warned about in advance. The rising seabed and the prevailing current also created a confused wave, making us feel like we were on a rodeo ride on the water. A very wet rodeo ride...
But there were also some fantastic passages, like from St Vincent to St Lucia. A clear wind, 5 to 6 Beaufort, surfing waves and a top speed of 14 knots. And some stages took us back to the rhythm of the Atlantic crossing, such as the one from Antigua to Montserrat: butterfly sailing (jib cleared to windward), strong trade winds and a slight rolling of the ship. An extremely beautiful and familiar feeling.
Crimewas often an issue before the start of the trip. Many people warned us because there was a lot to read about it on the internet. Of course, we then also thought about safety, e.g. how we could best lock ourselves in the boat at night. We even built a device for this, but have never used it because we simply feel too safe here to voluntarily lock ourselves in the boat.
However, there are a few little things we keep in mind. We always lock the dinghy (including the tank and engine) when we are not looking at it. And whenever we leave the boat - no matter how long - we lock it. Sure, something happens here and there, you always hear a lot, but it's no different at home. Once, two miles off the coast of St Vincent, a small nutshell with two men sped towards us and we thought, now we're going to be attacked, and in broad daylight, while we were sailing.
But in the end it turned out to be just two Muring boys who introduced themselves, asked how we were, where we wanted to go, whether we needed a Muring somewhere and, last but not least, whether we at least wanted to buy some weed. We declined everything, but they were so nice and friendly that I would have loved to have them on board for a beer.
Back to Europe: Transatlantic West to East
What happens now? This question is very much on our minds at the moment and we are slowly coming up with a plausible plan. As we have already decided on the start time for the upcoming Atlantic crossing to Europe, we have decided to skip the Bahamas and Turks Islands. There is simply no more time for that. We are also skipping Bermuda as we don't want to sail that far north due to our early departure date in order to avoid frequent strong winds and possible collisions with ice.
That leaves us with the BVIs, where we want to stay until the beginning of April, then another week in St Kitts and Nevis and then back to St Martin. We want to spend two to three weeks there preparing for the Atlantic crossing and waiting for the right winds. We also have favourable and extremely varied options on St. Martin in terms of provisions, spare parts and repairs.
A raging little one waits
The planning for the Minitransat campaign for 2021 is going great. As I'm travelling in the Caribbean, exploring a lot, sailing a lot and have a lot to do to keep our "Andiamo" in good shape, I'm rarely online and unfortunately can't contribute much to current developments at the moment. However, I have a team in Germany to thank for the fact that we are already further along than we could have imagined.
Firstly, Trans-Ocean e.V. (TO) signed a charter agreement last month for a Mini 6.50, Vector 6.50 to be precise, which will soon be coming off the production line and is scheduled for delivery in mid-April. The charter runs until the beginning of 2020 and if we are happy with the performance, we have the option of buying the boat afterwards.
Co-skipper Maurice Oster has already been able to register for the first regattas this year and is expected to gain a lot of experience. Andreas Deubel, Mini-Transat participant in 2017 and project supervisor, was very committed to finding the right sails. The sail number is also known (GER 984), we have agreed on a boat name - but this will not be announced until the christening - and the TO is endeavouring to find sponsors. Because as well as the project is going so far, the preparations, training, regattas, travelling costs, buying the boat - all this involves high costs, and partners are still being sought (here you can find more information).
But now our attention in the Caribbean is focussed on preparing our old "Andiamo" for the next Atlantic crossing. More on this will follow in the next article before we set sail again.
More adventure: You can also read an article about young long-distance sailors who, like Lennart Burke and Valentin Ahlhaus, set off on a big cruise straight after finishing school in the blue water special in YACHT 6/2019, which is available in German only. can be ordered online.
