More pictures from the Brighton - La Coruna leg

More pictures from the great leg :)

Brighton to La Coruna. 3 1/2 day

The crew onboard Sana is very sorry for the delay of updating this blog. Due to some technical wifi problems and the fact that the crew was in desperately needs of some good food and a good drink yesterday :)

However we do have a LOT to report back home about. It's been a fantastic leg with wind, waves, swells, fog, big cargo vessels, small fishing boats, small and big fishes and of course some great sailing.

But the lets start out from Brighton. We tried the bread recipy from Knut Johan (from now on called K2) and headed out from Brighton Saturday evening. Even onboard and during our leg we baked and it's so much better to eat something which reminds you about the norwegian bread instead of the very white bread you can buy around these areas.

We aslo would like to say thanks to Mads at frivind.no who was spot on in terms of the weather forecast which we posted last time. It was foggy, really foggy and from time to time we could not see more then 30-50 meters around the boat. That is normally not a problem onboard Sana as she is equipped with radar and AIS (AIS is a system who indentify your boat and others based on the VHF radio system were we can see all other boats around us if they have AIS. Then we also can see their CPA which stands for Closest Point of Arrival and adjust our course accordingly). The problem though is the others... who do not have radars or AIS signal. That along with some bad seamanship can result in some interesting episodes. But nothing seriously but we had to be awake and consentrate about what we do.

After 1 1/2 half day the fog let go and we could start to be only one on watch at the time. During the fog we were always two on watch and in the long run you get a little bit tired to go 4 hours on watch and only 2 hours off. So when the fog disappeared we started with the 2 hours on and 4 hours off. If you add that up you could if you want sleep for 16 hours during a day and have only 8 hours of steering. This was something I was not used too before I met Asle and Christian in Dover. "A nap a day, keeps the doctor way". They did not have a big excuse before they took a little seeping nap and I can say that same went for this leg as well. Only this time I was a huge part of it, even though I had some problems in the beginning I found my selves reading or sleeping most of my free watches.

We have though seen both dolfhins and whales and that was a great moment.

It's not true that we always slept when we did not have our watch. We had nice dinners and in lack of wifi during the trip, we started to use the Facebook non electronic. We poked each other and if somebody had a good comment we gave him the thumbs up and liked it :)

Tomorrow Asle will leave back home and Marianne, Kristoffer, Hege, Kaja and Herman will arrive and we will start the holliday and the "job" in transport Sana south to Faro at the Algarve coast.

Until next time we onboard Sana would like to wich everyone a great summer and as always - Ship ahoy :)

Weather forecast looks good

Below is the weather forcast for the next days. We plan to start from Brighton at 02UTC. The route is aprox 600nm and our eta is late Wednesday.

Hei!

Under følger værmelding for evnt avreise til natten. Det blir dessverre stor fare for tåke utover kanalen. Dersom dette går greit for dere bør avreise være mulig.

VÆRMELDING FOR SANA

Utstedt: 25.06, 06 UTC

Det generelle værbildet
L 993 mb ligger 450 nm NV av Irland, kaldfront ligger fra senteret mot SV.
H 1027 mb ligger nær La Rochelle.

Hvordan dette utvikler seg fremover i tid
L 993 holder seg stasjonært til mandag, trekker så NØ og blir utenfor betydning.
Kaldfronten fra dette trekker Ø og svekkes, når Brest natt til mandag (ligger da i nord/sør retning). Blir så tilnærmet stasjonær langs en linje fra Gijon(Spania) - Isle of Wight utover mandag. På denne vil det da danne seg ett lavtrykk over Frankrike natt til tirsdag. Dette ventes å trekke NØ og bli utenfor betydning innen onsdag.
H 1027 trekker Ø og blir utenfor interesse.
Nytt H trekker inn fra NV og ligger tirsdag morgen rett N av Azorene, dette trekker NØ og blir liggende mellom Azorene og Irland frem mot neste helg.
Videre synker trykket over NV'lige Spania/Portugal utover neste uke, dette er ett forholdsvis vanlig fenomen for dette området.

Om avreise
For seilas over Biscaya ønsker vi oss vanligvis ett større stabil H som plasserer seg N av Azorene, dette fører til N'lig vind og at ingen L trekker inn fra V. En slik situasjon ser det ut til at vi får utover neste uke.
Under følger en værmelding for avreise mandag. Dersom dette virker ok for dere har jeg foreløpig ikke innvendinger på avreise her. Dette under forutsetning at det er greit for dere å passere Kanalen i tåke og nedsatt sikt. Presiserer at å bestemme avreise er opp til dere.

Hva vil drive deres vind
Vinden fra V løyer utover kvelden og natten ettersom H rygg trekker over området. Kommer så tilbake fra SØ og dreier Ø når denne har passert og ligger S og Ø av dere. Blir så varierende igjen fra søndag kveld når rester av kaldfront trekker over området, dette holder seg til ut på mandag. Deretter økende vind fra rundt N mellom nytt H mot V og front med L mot V. Synker igjen for en periode natt til onsdag når dere passerer en H rygg, øker igjen fra NØ på slutten mellom pga akselerasjon nær kysten av Spania.

Værvarsel for deres posisjoner fremover:

0 - 24 timer (fra evnt avreise 26.06, rundt 02 UTC)
Vind: 8 - 12 synker til 0 - 5 kn innen tidlig søndag morgen, 240 - 270 grader. Blir så varierende 0 - 5 kn før den litt senere på morgenen kommer tilbake med 5 - 9 kn fra 120 - 140 grader. Øker så til 13 - 20 kn på ettermiddagen, dreier på 80 - 100 grader. Dette holder seg til kvelden før det synker til en periode varierende 0 - 6 kn. Holder seg ut perioden.
Bølger: 1 synker til 0,5 og øker til 1,5 igjen. Noe rotete sjø utover perioden.
Vær: Delvis skyet, stor fare for tåke. Tåke vil i store deler av tiden ligge over området.

24 – 48 timer
Vind: Varierende 0 - 6 kn blir 4 - 8 kn fra 260 - 390 grader tidlig mandag. Øker så til 10 - 15 kn og dreier på 340 - 0 grader innen mandag ettermiddag. Øker så videre til 18 - 24 kn, 350 - 10 grader utover mandag kveld og tidlig natt til tirsdag.
Bølger: Rundt 1,5 m, mest svell
Vær: Skiftende skydekke, fortsatt fare for tåke. For første del av perioden vil tåke ligge over området store deler av tiden.

Videre utsikter mot La Coruna
20 - 26 kn, N eller NNV frem til tirsdag kveld. Synker så til 10 - 15 kn og dreier NNØ natt til onsdag. Utover onsdag økende til 15 - 25 kn, NØ.
*usikkerhet helt på slutten av seilasen, kan nå 20 - 35 kn fra NØ her.

Rutevalg
Ut kanalen foreslår jeg dere går slik dere selv ønsker ut fra trafikkforhold mm. Det blir motorkjøring i starten, deretter ok seilvind utover søndag før det blir motor igjen fra kvelden. Videre passerer dere utenfor Ushant og legger kursen ca rett mot La Coruna videre. Ok seilvind fra mandag ettermiddag og videre.

Annet
Viktig: Send en test epost fra sat tlf til post@frivind.no før avreise slik at vi vet at dette fungerer som det skal.
Videre skal dere sende posisjons rapporter til 06 UTC hver dag dere er underveis, dere mottar så melding til 12 UTC. Det anbefales også at sat tlf står påslått hele tiden slik at vi evnt kan ta kontakt med dere også utenfor disse tidene dersom nødvendig.

Fint med en tilbakemelding på når dere evnt tenker avreise. Ellers bare å komme med spørsmål om dere har det!

Ha en fin dag,

Mads

Frivind.no
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Repair and dry day in Brighton

Last night we arrived Newhaven which is a "do not stop harbour" but still good enough for us, as after 12 hours in the sea the pizza tasted very good. The deckmaster had a rough turn on the deck, with approximately 13 - 16 m/sec strait in the front trying to secure the genaker which was on her way out of the bag. It was a wet experience and as you can see from the attached video and the deckmaster had a tough day at work :)

Therefore we set the course this morning to Brighton which is such a marina we would like it to be!!! Here we have a fine chandlery and a workshop which we needed as we had a leak in the dorade vent in the bow. That has now been repaired with Sicaflex and hopefully we do not have to do that again. Only thing we did not find was a WIFI antenna but will see what to get tomorrow in town.

We have got new weather forecast from Mats from Frivind, which show that there will be a high pressure in the Biscaya from Sunday morning so that means we will set sail for La Coruna, a 600 nm leg. Looking forward to get more south and hopefully better weather.

Until next time, Ship ahoy

Sana in Dover and Kim's arrival !!!

After a 330 nm journey Sana arrived Dover last night. Asle, Christian and Jan has had a very nice trip but not without some wind and waves :)

Jan left the boat this morning and are probably in Lyngør as we speak. To bad I missed you Jan, as I (Kim) the editor has just arrived in Dover and I'm trilled and excited to finally be here. After and a smooth travel true Gatwick airport and change of train I was met by Christian and after a normal hug, Asle opened the Champagne for my welcome. Thank you guys :)

Tomorrow we are heading for Portsmouth which is a sailing for about 110 nm. The weather forecast for the next days looks very good so we might go for the Biscaya crossing on Friday, maybe Saturday.

As I arrived today I'm already looking forward to do some sailing even though the next days seems to be wind in the 20's from southwest which mean strait in the bow. And we are on a schedule so I presume there will be some engine running tomorrow as well.

Now Christian has started the dinner and Asle has opened a Marcenasco, 2007 Barolo so life is good.

Until next update, Ship ahoy

Approaching Dover !!!

It has been a long jouerny for Asle, Christian and Jan, but now Dover is within reach. Kjartan had to leave Sana on Saturday in order to get his course in London yesterday.

I'm looking so much forward to meet you guys tomorrow and continue the adventure with Sana.

As you can see from the attached pictures Sana is approaching Dover. The other picture gives you a idea of how much traffic it's in that area and this picture is from yesterday evening outside of Amsterdam. Sana can be spotted to the left in the middle.

Hold out guys and I will bring a good "anchor-drink" :)

Ship ahoy

The technical world

On my iPhone and the use of MarineTraffic I can track Sana based on their AIS system. How cool is that :) And after a quick chat on the sattelit telephone I also know that Sana is on a mission to pick up me in Dover Wednesday and they therefore have started a 52 hour jouerny. Way to go guys :) See you in 2 days.

Towards Kiel

Yesterday evening Sana came to Anholt in Denmark. After a quick dinner they continued to Kiel which are about 150nm further south. Even though they have had this though start with some bad weather I know they guys onboard are having a great time. ETA in Kiel will be tonight and I gues then they will sleep and pass the Kielerchannel tomorrow in daylight. It's a though job, but somebody has to do it :)

In the pictures attached you see a nice picture towards Anholt. Fueling in Anholt and the video is from Marstrand in Sweeden.

Ship o'hoi

Weather permitting !!!

After Sana's departure she had to go to Ellös were she has been produced at the Hallberg Rassy shipyard. There they changed the battery pack and the combi charger and inverter and hopefully now she will not experience more charging trouble.

How ever it has been the weather that has made the first leg a challange. Even though it has been blue sky in Skagerak it has been wind between 20-25 m/sec which forced Sana to go to Marstrand last night. On the video to right you see Sana surf in 16,2 knots which must have been a huge experience for the crew onboard.


Today the plan is to set course for the Kieler channel which is approximately 220 nm away which will be a sailing for about 30 hours. We all know that it's not possible to fight the weather but hope for better weather towards Kiel. Good luck guys.

Ship o'hoi

More farewell pictures

AND SHE'S OFF !!!

Finally and after much planning and impatience is the S/Y Sana finally on the way to new challenges and experiences. Today at half past eleven, she left her home port on Dronningen, that she will not see again for over a year. It's going to be an eventful trip. We that will sail with Sana the next year, wish you all a safe journey and for my part, I'm looking forward to seeing you in England in 10 days.

In the picture you can see from left: Jan, Kjartan, Dag, Asle and Christian.

Ship o'hoi

More preparations

In light winds and some rain, Christian and myself, and Ole Morten, tested our new gennaker together with Pål Berntsen from With Marine. It worked exactly as we had thought and with the light wind that was yesterday, it acted almost like a spinnaker. We could sail it in the range of 180 to 90 degrees without being collapsed and gib. Of course in the situation of an regatta we will most likely not sail it with the wind at 180 degrees. Anyway it makes the sail very flexible and we look forward to test it further south.

Yesterday also Knut Johan came onboard with vacuum packed bags of flour that we should have in order to have fresh bread on board. We can only hope customs officers do not respond to all the white powder we have :)

Tomorrow is the departure day and the final preparations are soon finnished. Lars will later today put on board part of the fishing gear we are going to have with us from his shop www.fiskeriet.no It is worth a visit for the fishing enthusiasts.

We will also collect the trysail which has been to re-sewing at Gran Seil so that things start to fall into place.

Ship o'hoi

Only 2 days left + new crew outfit

Now it's only two days until the first leg of S/Y Sana starts. Saturday June 11th a crew of 4 will race her to England were they have to be June 19th so there is not much time spare. Crew first leg will be: Asle, Christian, Kjartan and Jan.

The editor (me) will meet Sana in the south coast of England June 22nd for start of the Biscaya leg. It's going to be a great jouerny. July 1st the family of Christian and Kim will join for a nearly 3 weeks of vacation with Sana along the coast of Portugal.

I hope you guys will have a great race and I expect you will look cool in your new crew outfit.

See you guys in less then 2 weeks for some another great sailing.