Yes, by the end of this day, we're halfway there! We will have sailed 1050 miles out of 2100 miles .... in 7 days and 8 hours. The past week has been tough sailing. A week of which you don't have to think about it when you know in advance what it will be like, when you are in the middle of it it it's actually not that bad (except for a few moments) and again see how much you and the boat can suffer from heavy weather. And when you've had it, you're very proud that the four of us and the Brandaan have managed it. So it was a tough sailing week with little comfort on board, but we feel proud and satisfied and a bit relieved that the coming days will be lighter weather!
Back to the week itself and a day-to-day report...

Day 1
We leave Mystic on Wednesday, June 2 at 10:00. We are very happy with the way we helped to get the Brandaan out of the water. Very friendly people who are very interested in our trip. The cleaning and painting was done in a day and it feels good to start the crossing with a clean underside. When leaving Mystic there is a warm sunshine and the surroundings look friendly ... bye bye USA, we have had two fantastic months! Now back on our way to a new adventure. Pretty exciting because we know we will get strong winds. We are located quite north (40 gr north latitude) and also in the summer months there are depressions on this latitude that migrate from west to east, as we also know in the Channel in Europe. For us Dutch the weather is familiar;-). June/July are the best months to cross, but the chance is very small that we won't get over any depression. Ah well, as the girls always say "the Brandaan can (with us on it) handle anything! We have a lot of faith in each other and in the boat.
The first day we motor with light wind in a south-eastern direction to get to a lower north latitude (below 40 degrees, we started at 41.50). The Azores are at 38.30N and below 40N or even better, below 38N you have less chance of bad weather. In the afternoon there is suddenly an enormous fog because we enter the cold Labrador current which also gives power. Very little visibility, so radar and AIS with alarm on. The sea is calm and there is little wind. So we motor the night completely 'blind' trusting our equipment because the visibility is really 0.0. At 3.00 am the engine can be switched off and we can reach a nice speed with a kink in the lap and full sails. In the dense fog we cross the shippinglane of large ships to New York; no problem, because only a few ships sail there. Every morning, when exactly one day has passed, we measure the distance of the day. The first day this is 134 miles.

Day 2
We put the clock forward an hour. The time difference with the Azores is 4 hours, so we will do this twice during the trip and the last time on arrival. Until the end of the afternoon we stop fog and the Labrador stream. Then suddenly the fog is gone, the sun breaks through and we get current, but also higher waves. We sail into the deep part (a few km deep) of the Atlantic Ocean. We still sail with full sails and have a good evening. Every day at 20.00 hours we talk to the Barbarossa about the SSB-radio, this time for the first time that it really works out well. We also have contact with the Herring Gull via SSB who left NY a day later and behind us also sail to the Azores. Having a chat with each other is always very pleasant. Around midnight (unexpectedly for us, it wasn't in the weather forecast) the wind gets stronger and stronger and we put reef 2 in the mainsail and take away part of the genoa. In this way we can reach speeds of over 8 knots. Around 2.00 am it gets really unpleasant ... there are a lot of thunderstorms pulling over with strong winds (force 8 with bumps to 9), a lot of rain, lightning flashes and thunder. Thunderstorms are scary because lightning can strike and destroy the electronic equipment. Luckily it doesn't strike, but with the strong wind and high waves it just remains a gruesome night. It feels like a baptism of fire for this crossing, right the second night already. We sail with two small sails almost completely gone a bit lower than half and unbelievable how the Brandaan does this. She doesn't give a single kick and just sails on. Sometimes with a bang against a wall of water, but she doesn't move! What gives this ship a lot of confidence! Only in the morning the showers are over and the wind is slowly getting less and less blowing, but the high waves remain until well into the afternoon. A fast 24 hours... 174 miles away by day.

Day 3
Gradually the weather becomes more pleasant as the wind and waves decrease, but also as we get used to the movements of the boat. The girls are doing great and are just living on. They look for a quiet spot and just do their thing and have a lot of fun together. We don't have a 'child' to them and because of that we can take turns to catch up on some hours of sleep (which we didn't really get last night). Even though it's calmer now, we know from the weather files (which we pick up daily with the SSB-radio) that in 2 or 3 consecutive days it will blow very fast with gale force (force 8). After the rough night we are puzzling what wisdom is ... do we have to continue sailing at this latitude (40 degrees) straight towards our goal and with that the shortest way, or is it wiser to go to a lower latitude and thus turn south (and make a detour)? And is that still going to work in time? We decide to take Herb's advice. Herb is a weather and routing expert who for years has been advising sailing yachts on the Atlantic Ocean on routing via the SSB radio, every day at 17.00 (20.00 UTC) on frequency 12.359. Herb gives us extensive weather information and advises us to make sure we are below 38 degrees north latitude by tomorrow evening. Then we will be in a much lighter part of the storm and also out of the Gulf Stream where the storm will be most severe. We immediately adjust our course and steer a little further south than south-east to a point at 38N just outside the worst storm area. High to half wind, against the current and with the engine full, we reach a countercurrent of 3 knots just around 5.5 knots. This strategy gives us some rest. I make a nice spaghetti meal and do the dishes for the first time this trip. Even though the boat still moves quite a bit (but not nearly as much as last night). In the evening on the SSB compassionate words of the Barbarossa, and also the Valentine has left for the crossing to the Azores and will join us again on our 'net' from tomorrow. And so we enter our third night where we all sleep well. Daytime distance 144 miles.

Day 4
The engine is switched off and also sailing we can keep course with a nice speed. It is going to be a nice day of sailing, especially when in the afternoon the current comes along and we reach speeds of 9-10 knots. Now and then sunshine and once in a while a rain shower. Exactly in time we reach the point Herb advised just before the wind picks up at the end of the afternoon (25-30 knots with peaks above 30, that is wind force 6-7 with peaks in 8). The Brandaan goes like a spear through the water with a nice speed of 8-10 knots. The strong wind lasts all night until the beginning of the morning. Toine, my tough skipper is so sweet to keep watch for a large part of the night in these conditions so I can do the guarding in daylight. Throughout the night, I keep a sharp eye on whether the boat stays on course. Unfortunately in the middle of the night the current stops again and we don't reach the high speeds anymore, but still just above 6 knots. In the morning it clearly becomes calmer and the wind drops back to force 5. It looks like we sailed out for the depression and ended up in lighter weather, while Herb had prepared us to keep this strong wind until tomorrow. Daytime distance 170 miles.

Day 5
The sun breaks through and continues to shine the rest of the afternoon. The wind does pick up to 25-30 knots. Well reefed with half wind this is actually good sailing. A bit uncomfortable to live on a heavy moving boat ... we do not do much more than lie down, sleep a bit, read a book, and the girls watch movies and play soccer with each other at the nintendo. School is not a thing we do, we pick that up in quieter weather or on the Azores. We're all just looking for our own thing to do and to get through the day as easy as possible. We know it will stay that way for another day or 2 or 3 and we hope for calmer weather after those days. Strange how we get used to everything ... the second night we were shocked by waves crashing over the boat ... now we don't look forward to that anymore and we just make sure that the damage from getting wet is limited. That's why hatches are standard in the cabin entrance. Cooking and washing the dishes also continues, and Mira is quite adept at 'juggling' in the kitchen. So there is a nice meal every day. In the afternoon we hear from Herb (and we had already seen that in the weatherfiles) that a new depression is coming our way. The only way we can still avoid it a little bit is to continue eastwards as soon as possible and also a little bit southwards. Unfortunately we have continuous current against us, so we can't reach the nice speeds of over 8 knots. But because of the strong wind that just keeps on going, we make nice daytrips. This time 156 miles. If that is fast enough to avoid the depression we will only know tomorrow. Maybe the depression itself goes a slightly different route and we hope for that. But it is certain that the next two or three days it will continue to blow hard, force 6-7 with peaks to 8. Day distance 156 miles.
Avoiding these depressions is becoming more and more like a game of cat and mouse. The mice are all sailboats that make the crossing to the Azores (in total Herb advises about 15-20 boats). The cat (unfortunately several cats) are the depressions that chase the mice. With Herb as the director, we always feel like a mouse that can avoid those cats as well as possible.
Because of the strong wind, the wind generator keeps track of the power consumption (of quite some TV and computer use). Until now, the wind generator was on our list of 'should we have done that?', but now we are very happy with it! The same goes for the SSB-radio ... so far we haven't used it much for things we can also do with the satellite phone (like getting sailmail and weatherfiles) and it was also on that list. But we couldn't and wouldn't have wanted to miss them either, now extremely important for Herb's weather information and the social contact of the Barbarossa, Valentine and the Herring Gull.

Day 6
Again the sun shines all day ... and it remains wind force 6, with sometimes even 5 and regularly 7. Apart from the heavy moving boat it is just wonderful sailing. And we are going in the right direction! We all still spend most of the day lying down. But 'happy hour' ... at 17.30 together in the cockpit for a drink (fresh) and some chips, we entered yesterday! That is also possible with the warm sunshine. Barbarossa and the Valentine got the advice from Herb yesterday to sail back a bit to avoid the upcoming depression (which is also going to bother us). Not a nice decision, because it only takes you further away from your goal. Herring gull sails behind us in an even stronger wind. And we have no choice but to sail fast and still have a tail of depression with us. We pick up weatherfiles four times a day to see if he might change course. In the afternoon we hear from Herb that tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night we're going to get a piece of it, but not as heavy as we expected. Probably it will be limited at wind force 7 with an occasional gust in 8. Well, we are used to that already! So the mood on board is getting better and better. We go back into the night at a nice speed, set the sails small and just let the boat do its job. For the first time we spend all the guards inside at night, partly lying on a bed that we made next to the couch in Marinthe. It's much nicer than lying outside in the cold and wetter weather. Every 18 minutes we set an alarm and look outside, AIS and radar to see if the sails are still good or if any ships are arriving. Well, we hardly see any ships the whole voyage ... less than one a day. And all of them can be seen on the AIS a long time in advance. And so we both have quite a good night.
Daytime distance 151 miles.

Day 7
We put the clock forward an hour for the second time. The wind is still nice and it's going to get a bit more involved. We are curious what the upcoming depression will bring us tonight and tomorrow morning. When we speak to Herb in the afternoon his urgent advice is 'Slow down ... the slower you go, the less you will be troubled by the storm'. Because it's certainly not going to stay at wind force 7; we can expect a thick 8 and regularly a 9. Oops ... that's a disappointment. We decide to lie down to get the speed out as much as possible. For non-sailors, the rudder and two very small sails are set in such a way that the boat remains more or less in the same position with its head in a direction that can be adjusted to the wind. In this way the boat lies very quietly on the waves. In the evening we talk extensively with the Barbarossa, Valentine and Herring Gull on the SSB to inform each other of the ups and downs, just to have a nice chat, and to give each other a heartbeat. We go into the night with peace of mind. We turn on the AIS and radar alarm and both just lie down. Toine is on standby to intervene if necessary. We expect the high point of the storm in the middle of the night and according to Herb it should be 6.00 in the morning and then there should be a very nice sailing wind from the right direction. We both don't sleep much, because the boat moves quite a bit every now and then and you can hear all kinds of strange noises. But it is very nice to see that the boat doesn't need any steering from us and just controls it itself. In the early morning it is unfortunately not over yet and then the heaviest part of the stretching depression starts. We see the barometer going down and down and the wind increasing. Now and then a big crusher is thrown against the boat, that gives a huge blow, but the Brandaan doesn't move. Toine decides to turn on the engine gently, so the boat lies better with the head in the wind. The girls just sleep and when they wake up they start playing with each other. Mira squeezes it anyway these last few hours. Exactly at noon the wind turns in 1 minute from south-east to west, the barometer pressure suddenly increases and the wind decreases. The depression is over! Toine puts the boat back on course towards Azores with only the genoa. The wind may be a lot less, but the waves have not yet dampened 1,2,3 ... so that will be shaking uncomfortably back and forth for a few more hours. We are both pretty tired but also very proud that we helped the boat and crew safely through the storm.
In the next few days the weather will be significantly lighter. We expect the second half of this crossing to be a lot more relaxed. But nothing is as changeable as the weather, so we can only predict this for a few days ahead!