SV PRISM

24/05/2024

Our last night at sea has us all filled with anticipation as we now know our voyage is coming to a close. With less than 80 miles to go as I write this, it is astonishing how fast the days went by yet how long we have been out here. I can absolutely understand how people can get lured to this as this place makes the perception of time warp and bend to only what matters to you, the boat and crew. Last night I will not sugarcoat, was a bit sporty. In my bunk whilst asleep I went airborne, hit one wall, hit the other then was slammed down into my mattress all in one violent motion. At that point I made the decision that my bunk was no longer really safe and I retreated to the cockpit settee. The sun was already high by 6AM, at noon we adjusted our clocks once again to match the local time in the Azores. Due to the islands following daylight savings we had to move an additional 2hrs. The sun didn't set till nearly 10PM. Needless to say all of us were dazed and confused due to the lack of sleep and the massive time change forced upon us. I think we are all relieved that we get to walk again on dry land tomorrow but are also a bit sad as I feel the entire crew had a collectively great voyage. This has been an incredible learning experience for me, something that has reinvigorated sailing for me as having sailed on Prism for over a decade, the entire lifestyle has become a bit indoctrinated at this point. This has allowed me to peer into offshore sailing on an entirely foreign platform. I have learned a ton, become closer to old friends and reaffirmed my outlasting respect for the ocean and the winds she wields.

23/05/2024

The gennaker did its job and carried us throughout the night blissfully. As afternoon approached so did the wind. Tucking the first reef, then a second, the wind continued to build followed by rain and bigger seas. With under 250miles to Horta, the Atlantic is showing us who is in charge. All we need to do now is hold fast, and dream on our off watch of dirt under our feet and a cold beer in our hand once we reach our destination.

22/05/2024

Our patience had paid off and the wind returned after just under three days of motoring. As we trimmed the sails a wave of relief passed over the crew and under the boat as Lena stiffened up and began making her silent way to the Azores. Derek took it up on himself to please the wind and fish gods by giving his facial hair a trim. He went with the horseshoe mustache with 1970s chops, he seems to pull off the look effortlessly, I'm slightly jealous. Despite his efforts we didn't get a single bite all day on the lines, our luck has gotta change soon on that front. For snacks Mitch prepared a meat and cheese charcuterie board, whenever I see these prepared on a boat I always feel like royalty for some reason. This wind should hold now and take us all the way to our destination. As I write this we have about 12 knots in our port aft quarter, Lena is averaging 9 knots speed over ground, 10 knots through the water. 360 nautical miles to Horta.

21/05/2024

I shot only one photo today, one exposure, one story. Lena (the boat) has been eating up serpentine belts on both Volvo engines for the last few days. These belts circulate coolant as well as spin the alternators to make electricity. They are vital to the health of the engine so my ENTJ personality had to intervene and I'm glad it did. Upon inspection the starboard engine belt was just about to fail, having worn through all the way to bare wire. After a quick inspection I found the culprit to be that the alternator pulley has one too many grooves allowing for misalignment. After some eye balling my theory was confirmed by the Volvo manual. Why this is the case baffles me as generally this is not how these things are designed and for good reason. After swapping the belt, Mitch serviced the port engine where I got this photo of him. I stand by that 99% of failures at sea can be prevented by inspection and logical diagnosis. The engines ran most of the day only getting rest for a few hours of light windward sailing. Weather forecast shows we have wind starting up tomorrow that should bring us all the way to the Azores fingers crossed.

20/05/2024

The purring of the diesel vibrated the boat like a cat sitting on the chest of an old friend. The entire crew emerged well rested after another flat night with no wind nor seas. Just after breakfast a light whisper of a breeze began to blow allowing us to hoist the sails again and increase our progress by 1/4 of a knot of boat speed, every bit counts. After the slight bump in speed the reel made its renowned buzz. So far this meant reeling in a line without a lure on it due to our defective wire leader debacle, but this time we had a fish connected to the end! A skipjack aka bonita made the unlucky choice to grab a snack made from our camouflaged hook appearing to be a squid. The crew frantically got into fishing stations, something thus far we had yet to actually need to do. After misplacing, then finding the fillet knife, the fish was killed, bled and carved up, later to be served as amazing fried fish tacos for dinner. Just writing about this again makes my mouth water. As we officially made it out of the sargassum sea we entered what I unofficially named the man o' war straights. We passed 1000s of these simi transparent sailors today. While we watched them pass, we saw a pod of whales in the distance. Our first fish feast have us eager for the better fishing grounds surrounding the Azores, spoken about by Anne at this point to almost mythical levels. Only time will tell if these tales ring true.

19/05/2024

The morning began with the continuance of the hum of the engine. Making a meager 4 knots of headway due to a pesky counter current from the gulf stream we continue to deplete or rations of fuel. At our current rate we have around 3 days left of fuel with approximately a day reserve to get us to the finish line if the wind doesn't cooperate with us. The forecast show polar opposites for the short and long term, some showing calms others showing gales. Our current plan is to make haste directly for the Azores and once we get to our reserve fuel, not to turn on the engine until we see land. After a quick visit from a pod of dolphins the crew spotted something in front of the boat, a floating something, we didn't know. As we closed in we were able to see a drifting bouy of some sort, I think fishing related. It was about 8 feet tall and was made of aluminum, we were glad we saw it during the day and did not run into at night. It wouldn't have done much damage but it would have been loud and scary if we had. After I heard our handline get a hit, but after inspecting it we were missing another lure broken off at the leader. We have now lost I believe at least 5 lures on this journey and we now believe the wire leader is the problem. We decided to devise a test with one of the remaining lures we had with a wire leader to inspect how much weight they could endure. After some quick knots and a few turns on a winch, Derek just had to pull the slack out of the line and the leader broke, he said he barely pulled, maybe 20lbs of pressure, it was so easy that it was hard to be sure but we did deduce it's the wire and not anything else. We have been trolling with 3-4 lines every day and haven't landed any edible fish yet. We are hoping our fishing luck will change as we get closer to the Azores.

18/05/2024

As the sun slowly came across Lena's bow the wind that had been pushing us for the last two days began to retreat. Our speed to the Azores slowly diminished to the point we decided to kick on one of the engines and resume to a speed faster than someone walking there with a bum leg. Due to the gulf stream there are huge currents swirling in all manners of directions, this day we were in one of the largest and we had it directly on the nose at around 1.5knts, making progress slow even with the engine running. To distract us from our speed and the reality of having a finite amount of fuel, Anne decided to have her go with home made ice cream from a tick tock recipe. After consuming some supplies that would later be realized were meant for other meals she concocted a mixture that began promising, but after a bit too much blender time began to split, or should I say separate. What we got as a finished product had the appearance of ice cream but the texture of milk with chunks of sweet butter. Only one of us could choke it down, while others began to have minor gag reflex reactions to the cold soup with chunks of fat. What we all got out of it were extreme bouts of laughter and happiness, something that ice cream is known for and in this way it was a total success. The low drone sound of the engine has an almost hypnotic effect which put most of the crew in a nap during the afternoon. Some stayed up watching the occasional Portuguese man o' war float by, I'll eventually snag a good photo of one. The sunset seemed to go on forever, as well as our time of arrival to the Azores. Every day we run a new model for weather and route and our arrival time always gets pushed back by another day, seeming to put us in an everlasting loop of sailing despite us closing miles to the Azores. As night fell, another round of euchre was played. This time with the addition of whiskey due to the weather conditions. To say the least, despite the lack of wind, there are no shortages of laughter here.

17/05/2024

Another day of o'glorious sailing. The parasailor has now been set now for over 24hrs leaving the autopilot to steer us to the wind. This is by far the most comfortable point of sail for this boat albeit not the fastest. If the forecast holds we are hoping to have this wind until late tomorrow. We were hailed today by a French solo sailor that didn't know much English and was really only interested in the length of our boat for conversation. The depth of the conversation left us with little information other than he is sailing a 33' monohull whilst we had to admit we are sailing at 40' cat. Information I think he was curious about only to understand why we weren't going any faster. Throughout the day we watched him do his broad reach jibes in front of us, indeed always going faster than us but never really pulling away due to his increased mileage. We nicknamed our fellow sailor "Frenchie" as he never formally introduced himself nor his boat and Derek spent hours watching him on the horizon through salon windows like a cat watching birds outside, longing to catch it and show our dominance. We never did and as the day progressed Frenchie set a tack never to be seen again, probably a net positive for the racers amongst us. With the better quality of life due to our point of sail it is abundantly evident that the crew is well rested as we all seem to be full of energy and want to laugh. Many stories of past adventures were shared today, poking fun at our younger, less experienced selves through the clarity of hindsight. Moods are good despite every time we look at our route our arrival time says 7 more days, information that is bittersweet as we all know this is the best sailing has to offer yet we are all teaming with anticipation to step on land once again.

16/05/2024

Today was sailing at its finest. With the westerlies in full effect the swell began to organize from one direction on the compass. For the first time on this trip waves stopped slamming the bottom of the boat as Lena began gliding down wave faces instead of bouncing off them like a bad carnival game. With the parasail set the boat began to fly not in just speed but in lift as well, keeping her bow high and her wake far aft. We enjoyed this sailing all day and now into night, something I'm not accustomed to doing on Prism. Running a spinnaker at night runs the risk of needing to douse it in the dark, a practice that even in good light can be stressful, but with the sock (we don't have that on Prism's spinnaker) dousing should be a straight forward process despite the conditions. The more experience with this sail the more comfortable and confident I will get with it. This will go down as one of the most idealistic days of sailing I have ever had in 34 years of sailing, thank you to all who put out the good energy for us over the last few days, it worked.

15/05/2024

Our penance of bad weather was rewarded at around 10AM today as we finally made it to the north Atlantic westerlies. 13-17knts on the starboard aft quarter. Lena loves this point of sail and with the gennaker set she stretched her legs hitting easy 10 knots and surfing down waves at nearly 14, what a ride. Seas for most of the day were confused confirming things weren't nice in the part of the ocean last night. As the sun set we were joined by a pod of dolphins, sorry no photos as the foredeck was getting spray constantly. The photo of Anne running is her lame attempt at staying dry. We will continue to use these winds as much as possible running a NNE direction until we are at the proper latitude of the Azores then we will shoot directly at them. Our best guess is we will be there in 8-9 days. We are officially half way there (cue Bon Jovi livin on a prayer) and that puts us 1200 miles from any land. starting tonight we will be now closer to the Azores than any other land mass. Today also marks our 9th day, officially my longest passage taking the place of sailing Prism down from Washington to San Francisco in 2013, I can confirm even on a fast cat like Lena, this is a long passage.

14/05/2024

We caught the weather. With that said over the last 24hrs we have seen the whole gamut of said weather. From calms to near gales, rain to sunny skies, rainbows to lightning. Everything is damp now on the boat and the average temp has dropped to the low 70s. This type of sailing tests your patience as it seems as soon as we get a sail configuration set the wind will change either in velocity or direction, sometimes in huge swings. Looks like we will have a few more days of this before we emerge to more settled conditions.

13/05/2024

Stress and anxiety built amongst the crew today, unspoken but definitely there. A low pressure we have been tracking since the beginning of this trip is planned to arrive tonight bringing lighting, rain, increased sea state and winds in the high 20s low 30s. This is just part of this journey during this time of year to use these systems to help pull you across the north Atlantic. The trick is not to be fully engulfed by one. As of right now we are skirting the back edge just as we planned. The advantage of this is we should stay out of the worst of it but the disadvantage is we might be left behind in the calm these storms leaving in their wake after sucking all the energy out of the area. A risk we all are willing to take. Having all these models at our fingertips can also be quite frustrating as we learned today where the model and the actual conditions don't align. We had about 4hrs of motoring instead of 15knts on the beam. A reminder that these winds represented on the computer are just forecasts, you have to be willing to take what you get out here. Still no luck on the fishing but the sargassum has become less frequent. Anne informed me we have ran out of fresh butter and have moved on to "Prism" butter, a single can of new Zealand butter that she removed off Prism for us in Trinidad as we still had stores on her we didn't want to leave unattended for over a year. Wish us luck tonight and probably for the next few days, we will use every bit of it to make this part of the passage a good experience.

12/05/2024

What an incredible night, the solar event didn't end up disrupting gps (thank Neptune) but it did treat us with northern lights at 28 degrees latitude which is insane. Shooting from a moving object was tough but I think that photo still works, once I get home I'll play with it in the editor a bit more and clean it up. We motored throughout the night but as day broke we decided to use the little breeze we had and set up the parasailor. What a cool sail. In 5-6 knots of wind we made 3.8-4.2 which is pretty remarkable. Looks like a lack of wind will be the least of our worries after examining the last forecast, Sunday Monday looks like it will be spicy out here.

11/05/2024

What was originally thought at first to be a chill day in the doldrums turned out to be quite the contrary. Being greeted with a beautiful sunrise I took over for Anne for the last watch 5-8am. After a delicious cup of decaf I watched the sun rise and waited for my sail mates to emerge from their cabins. One by one they arose and we all thought it was going to be just another day motoring. After some clean up chores mainly sweeping and washing salt off of everything we topped off the diesel tanks off once again with Jerry cans and just as I was about to take a nap the crew decided it was time to jump into the ocean as there was no swell or wind and we were in nearly limitless water. I don't know if anyone on the crew had done this before but it was really something to be in crystal clear water surrounded by nothing but blue and light rays. After rinsing off I found out that there was going to be a "major solar event" that could disrupt gps and satellite communications (in fact it still could happen so we shall see) with this information we pulled out the paper charts and plotted our positions as well as jotted down a compass and heading route just in case. After that interesting news Mitch found that our mainsheet traveler decided it wanted to come apart letting go by a vital pin splitting in half. Luckily this happened in dead flat conditions and Mitch just so happened to have ONE spare clevis pin that fit. After some tinkering, the main was operational again but with this vibe we all thought it would be prudent to do a rig inspection. Anne volunteered herself to go up aloft.After rigging a static line she was able to spot a few issues that she resolved herself but the most troubling was she spotted our jib had begun to rip along its boltrope at the head of the sail. With the sun setting and our stomachs growling we all set into motion to lower the sail and fix it before the day was over as we have plans on sailing tomorrow. I must say we all did a great job and just as the final light vanished from the sky Anne had fished her last stitch. Under the light of headlamps we got the sail hoisted again and we all felt very confident in Lena continuing to the Azores.

10/05/2024

Today we passed into the horse latitudes and were overtaken by a large high pressure that stole all of the wind. With the flat seas we opted to use our time to transfer diesel from Jerry cans to our tanks and do a rig inspection looking for any chafe specifically on the new gennaker. Lena still makes almost 6 knots running one engine burning about a half gallon per hour allowing us to stretch our motoring range which we might need if current conditions persist. Whilst the motor is running we have unlimited power as well as hot water so with the water maker on, hot long showers followed. After everyone was squeaky clean Mitch and Anne prepared an excellent meal which again was only possible due to the moderate sea state. After dinner Derek and I had the pleasure of teaching them euchre which I think they understood... most of it as anyways. With our current route we still have around 2000 miles to go, we are all relishing the mellow in this time as our forecast looks good but tip toeing around huge lows in the middle of the north Atlantic, things are bound to get exciting in the next few days.

09/05/2024

Today we officially are sailing out of the trades and into the horse latitudes of the Atlantic. Our forecast looks strong and our hopes are to follow a light SE wind up to the westerlies ideally not motoring too much for a direct approach to the Azores. As we pe*****te further into the Sargassum Sea, keeping the fishing lines clear has become a full time job with the crew doing almost constant rounds of setting, retrieving, clearing and resetting almost on a constant loop. We figured out today that the watermaker does not like to keep primed underway as it is installed on the windward hull. After a little MacGyvering, we utilized the salt water wash down pump as a more powerful booster pump and we topped off our tanks again. After filling the tanks we set the gennaker again and we sailed hard and fast until the sun went down and we opted to go back to our more conservative sail plan. Even with the smaller jib we are making good speeds of 7 knots in 10 knots of breeze, pretty amazing. So if our models hold we should be making landfall in Horta in about 10-12 days, wish us luck!

08/05/2024

Last night was a little hellish, launching off of waves and smashing into the next set all while doing 8-10knots. Conditions were 18-25 knots with 4-6ft swell so nothing that bad but I guess that's the difference between a catamaran and a heavy monohull. Sleep was not easy but as morning broke the winds eased and we continued our journey at a more modest 6-7knots with much less slamming. Today was also left us pondering the choice of continuing to Bermuda or take a window to the Azores. After a few hours of running the models we have figured out we don't need to make the choice until the morning after hopefully speaking to Chris Parker our weather router. Bermuda looks like a slam dunk of a passage whereas Azores might require days of motoring so we don't get overtaken by the high pressure. Lena carries about 5 days worth of diesel so being sure we can motor out of the light winds is mandatory. Captain Mitch's eagle eyes spotted a screw coming loose off our gennaker furling so I opted to clip in a tighten her up. Sunset was just ok.... We fished all day and caught nothing but sargassum. Tomorrow will be the big day to know if we are stopping soon or if we are staying out for another 10-15 days.

21/06/2023

Central California Gold

05/06/2023

Until next seaon beautiful girl. 👋

03/06/2023

Caribbean sailing. Sad to put this on hold for the next few months...but you know, hurricanes.

02/06/2023

02/06/2023

Puerto Rico December 2022 We have been looking forward to cruising PR ever since we came through the canal back in 2016. We chose to skip the west side of the island because we did not want to get caught going East in strong trades like we did last season along the coast of the DR. When we left from Curaçao, we could make port in Ponce, so that is what we did....

Puerto Rico December 2022 We have been looking forward to cruising PR ever since we came through the canal back in 2016. We chose to skip the west side of the island because we did not want to get …

02/06/2023

The tallest falls in Trinidad and Tobago 😍
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18/05/2023

We had Momma Neely and our dear friend Dawn onboard for 3 weeks while we explored all of the Grenadines. It was such a blast having such incredible women with us.....really helps that they are both sailors as well! Momma Neely has a Mason 43' and Dawn has an Independence 31'

07/05/2023

This doesn't suck

05/05/2023

Crazy to think our winter season is almost over!! Where does the time go?

28/04/2023

A little rolly.....but worth it!!! This place is beautiful.