Sat, Oct 18, 2014 at 12:06: We are at sea for the next 450 miles, now doing 4.6 mph! So far a little choppy for our tender stomachs. 2 weeks without moving leaves us unprepared for movements on the boat.

Sat, Oct 18, 2014 at 18:00
Just sent spot. sea confused a bit, random waves about 3 feet but spread out, pitching a bit every which way. Will go to corner of the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme) Shipping lanes.


Sat, Oct 18, 2014 at 21:32
Heading Now 220 deg. We are moving 220 deg now. Will keep it up for 12 hours pending updates, sails full now with beam wind at 8 knots right now. Totally dark, no light, dodging ships, light winds but choppy and rough on boat. Getting sea legs back slowly

Sat, Oct 18, 2014 at 21:46
Total blackness, bouncing around and lunging in small waves tonight. Many tankers. Just near one 3 miles away headed to New York City.
3 hours of black till dawn... but can see milky way clearly tonight. Wish we had a moon.

Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 07:12
Sunday Morning at sea. It is 7:12 and we are 72 miles at 213 degrees from Lagos, bashing lunging from time to time into pure darkness last night. NOW Sky has lightened so we can see the horizon and the sea. 384 miles at 249 degrees from Porto Santo. Now on heading 210 degrees. Wind is 90 degrees to Port and varies between 8 and 11 knots. We have been motor sailing all the time. EFK is glad to now get some sleep... again... dopey from exhaustion. Sue going on duty.

Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 16:30
We are turned on a heading of 250 deg Magnetic... direct to Porto Santo! 326 miles direct to Porto Santo.
35 deg 26.28' North
10 deg 20.27' West
125 miles... In the first 24 hours... (despite slow speeds to stop the slamming so bad in the night, but with higher speeds today ( at 6.2 for a few hours now). We have tried wing and wing but then have to shoot 10 degrees north of Porto Santo to keep sail full.

Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 17:13
We are headed right towards Puerto Santo and behind it on the straight line, about 30 miles further is Madeira. One of our friends that got to Porto Santo Thursday night said on the radio today they had torrential downpours and thunderstorms. We were lurching and pitching last night, today still a little but we can at least see, we would have stayed on any solid bit of earth. Madeira has been described by two different very good friends as the nicest of all the islands they have ever been to. We worry about West coast of African islands from a health standpoint. It might look bad to say at an arrival in a Caribbean island that we made our last stop at a W. African island other than the European ones.
We paid to have our dinghy re-repaired in the Lagos boatyard. They had two part cement that was stronger and they put it on with an inside patch after my earlier reinforced patch failed. The dinghy was a worry, as we can use it as a lifeboat if ever we needed to, though its reported that Catalacs are one of the boats that seemingly are unsinkable due to all the watertight compartments everywhere. We are totally sealed down, including all the 11 watertight storage compartments outside that are all bolted shut with 1/4 inch stainless steel bolts.

Sun, Oct 20, 2014 at 01:26
1:26am Monday, lonely out here, Sue going off her 3 hrs, Ed on. The two sails are both on the forestay laid over one another keeping course. Less whacking tonight than last night. We do not see a thing at night. Just rock ... jerk, lunge, dip, yaw, jerk,... for hour after hour... Great view up at stars, and we can see white foam behind us in wake of stern light, and to the side the darkness black water is brilliantly interrupted by effervescence in the water of brilliant spots of bright light from the phosphorescence... duh cannot even write. Better go sit outside and keep my watch.
We see ships every 20 miles or so away from us in different directions on electronics, but see none at all in person for 28 hours now.
We are showing speed of 6.3 knots, Heading 250 to Puerto Santo, ETA saying 45.50 hours to go if speed direction can be kept up.
We are discussing whether we should not end up staying on Madeira longer waiting for hurricane season to end than going to events on Lanzarote in Canaries, thinking hard on it.

Ed & Sue Angel Louise (12m Catalac) View their current position