Datum: 08.03.2022
Author: Clara N.
Position: North Atlantic
Geographical Position: 36* 11.6′ N 39* 29.9′ W
Etmal: 170 (12.335)

We are now sailing in pretty heavy and lumpy weather, so our Pelican needs to handle a lot of pressure. So today I want to write about everything that broke on the Pelican during our Atlantic crossing and before.

Sails

We had a LOT of sails ripped. It started one month ago with the Staysail. Back then we had nice weather, it was warm and the Watchleaders and Justus repaired it in sunshine, moaning about the heat.

We all wish it would be warmer and more sunshine.

Then the „Big sail ripping“ started. Just after the start of the second Atlantic crossing we had a stormy night with wind up to 40 knots and the royal ripped.

The bosuns now took it down and are repairing it, but the weather is getting quite rough again, so they can’t move on. Soon after that, the Staysail ripped again and it is also not in its usual place anymore. Now the royal yard and the Bowsprit looks quite empty.

And then, yesterday evening, when we did a sport session on deck and were stretching afterwards, we discovered a new ripped sail. Now the course. So a lot of our sails are ripped and the bosuns have a lot of work to do. But today they were able to put the Staysail back out in the bowsprit, which you can see on the photo.

Helm

It was mentioned in some daily reports before. Two days ago our helm stopped working. In the beginning the crew needed to do some emergency helming in the salon. A big pin goes directly on the rudder and the whole process is really complicated and it ist really exhausting to stear now.

Afterwards we were under our autopilot „Mike“, which did again an AMAZING job in staying on corse. Then we could helm again but now inside the wheelhouse, with the little helm. Now you don’t stear after the magnetic compass, you stear after the electronic devices.

Some think it’s easier some think it’s harder. The opinions split. Simon and our engineer repaired it a whole day and then our usual helm worked for some time again, but then it broke again!!!

Suspicious is, that both times watchleaders were on the helm. Now we are still helming on the helm inside the wheelhouse and everybody is working to repair it.

Other stuff

And not just sails and the helm broke. In the same night, the royal splitted, some buntlins and sheets of the T’Gallant splitted. They are now new and coiling is much more fun when the rope is still soft and looks nice.

The last day the wind direction measuring device was going crazy and then was not working anymore. We now gave some more flags up to see where the wind comes from and how strong it is.

Another thing that was not working anymore was our washing machine. We got a new one on Bermuda and luckily, it’s now working without any problems.

Disclaimer

Dear Reader, it now sounds like that the ship will fall apart in some time, but our Pelican is still super safe. For me personally, I can say that I was never really worried or anxious, in a storm and our ship is, after Simon, one of the safest sailing vessels in this industry.

We have a lot of trust in our „Kutter“.

Now we can’t use the Royal and Course, but last night we still made from 8 to 10 knots with just the Topsail, Foregaff and the Spanker. So we are doing great and making progress towards the Azores.

The rest of the day was quite boring and normal. Watch, sleeping, tacking, school, eating chocolate dough and making the special tea for the captain. The only exciting thing was that Leni, Ariadni, Yarina and myself started to plan the second atlantic babtism 🙂

Und jetzt möchte ich noch Anton, Oskar, Mama, Papa, Tina, Katrin, Samo, Sophie und meine beiden Großeltern grüßen. Heute war ich auf dem Bowsprit und habe unter mir Delfine beobachten können. So schön. Und liebe Grüße an Dana, bald bist du wieder da und ich freue mich schon so 😉