We have now started on the long atlantic passage. Holding 351 degres towards Bermuda. Have done 66 Nm after 9,5 hours and have 858 Nm left. That gives us an average of 6,94 kts. Will with that average arrive in 5,1 days. It is now 9.30 Pm (local time) on the 8 of may. Have 3 boats behind and 8 ahead. We started as the second last. Its 1-3 m waves and wind is 10-15 kts East, so it is perfect sailing conditions.Vincent has pulled out 3 Barracuda (went back in the water, may be poisoned here) and one king macrel and a tuna. We are now preparing the tuna the Brazilian way by Armando.

Here is a bright picture of the boat in Jolly Harbour, Antigua. You might see that I got my banana and the fishing rod in the cockpit. The dinghy is strapped to the deck and the ARC flag is up. For information about the sailing while out to sea, check the official ARC Europe site: www.worldcruising.com and you can see our position on the fleet viewer: here
Armando should arrive any minute here in the harbour, must be exhausted after 7 flights.. Provisioning is going well, have now 684 liters of water, soft drinks, juice, etc. 465 liters of that is on 3 separate water tanks. Got 130 liters of diesel in the tank, and 189 liters spare in diesel cans. We are then able to run the engine for 127 hours, if we need to. Hope we only need to run the engine 1-2 hours a day, to charge the batteries. If we're lucky not even that if the windgenerator produce enough power. The food has not been bought yet, waiting for help with that. (not sure what we need) Yesterday we had a welcoming drink, or two in the marina. Nice to meet all. Most of the crew I've already met walking around in the harbour. Today it's dinner, and tomorrow captains briefing. I will have my safety check as-well tomorrow. Vincent (one of my crew members) does the safety check. Hope he accepts the boat. I am missing the man overboard pole and the radar reflector, the customs detained it at the airport. So I will head over there tomorrow morning.. and then mount it. It is really nice here in the marina, but can't wait to set sail. Thursday at 10 AM we will cross the start line just outside the marina. Just realised I will be a year older when I touch land again, since I will be 39 the 14th of may. But it's just another day (and closer to death)

The crew for the ARC Europe 2008 is:

Have been doing some tacking to be able to sail southwest, and been motoring some. The worst part is that the wind has been to light, so at times I couldn't sail no matter how I was tacking to get here. My plan was to go from St.Martin and directly to Antigua and according to the US Grib (wind forecast) I should be able to sail for the first 10-12 hours almost directly east and then go more or less south. But that was not the case I figured out after a few hours passing north of St.Barthelemy. So changed my plans to the schedule above. Has been nice out there on my own. Beutiful wheather (but to little wind..) Ps. click on "read more"

I have now been in St.Martin for a few days, looking for crew. Kevin Morrison from Ireland are now looking for flight tickets to join in from Bermuda to the UK.

I've met another Norwegian boat in the lagoon: Lufelia with Erik and Christian. Had a few beers with them on tuesday and Christian is thinking about signing up as a crewmember from Bermuda. He flew back to Norway yesterday, and will let me know. Met Erik again yesterday and had a look on his boat, and had a beer at Jimbo's restaurant. He is shipping his boat back to Denmark in a few weeks. He sailed the ARC from Gran Canaria in nov/des. He showed me the program he uses for weather forecast: Ugrib. Had heard about it, but have now installed it, and familiarised myself with it. Really awesome. 

Sunday  we sailed from Marina Cay to The Baths in Virgin Gorda(picture), after declaring out from the BVI in Spanish Town. Fueled up and provisioned. We sat sail at 12.50 going for St.Martin. Since the wind was directly west (as usual) we had to tack a couple of times. In direct line it would be about 78 Nm, but our trip was 98 Nm. The wind turned of course during the night, so I decided to motor the last 25 Nm. Was not able to beat my speed record with Felizia, which is 10,8. The weather was perfect. Had sun most of the day, and full moon at night with more or less cloudless sky. The wind was 8-14 knots. Our average speed was 4.9, which is ok, but not more than that. The reason for the low speed was that we sailed up-toward the wind as much as possible to shorten the length before tacking.

This morning Martin and Gunn Sissel told me that they were not upto crossing the Atlantic but would not mind sailing here in the Caribbean. That means that I don't have a crew for the passage. Except for my brother who will sail with me from Antigua to Bermuda. Bella are only going to Antigua. So for the ARC Europe I am alone from Bermuda. So If you know somebody upto doing offshore sailing, let me know. I will have to start searching for crew. We spend the night here in Sopers Hole and did not go to Norman yesterday since it was so late. Today I think we head for The Baths on Virgin Gorda, have sailed passed it many times, think it is worth seeing. Tomorrow morning I'll set sail for St.Martin.

Since my last entry to the blog we have spent an evening and night in Caneel Bay in St.John and went to Cruz Bay to eat in the evening and back again the next morning to declare out of US and we also fueled. We finally sailed from St.Thomas to St.John :-) Sailed yesterday to Jost Van Dyke in the BVI and declared in there. Moved the boat to White Harbour and anchored.  In the bay there where 3 norwegian boats! Spend some time chatting with them, and sailed with them to Sandy Cay today and had a few beers on the beach. I got a sandwich with norwegian Norvegia cheese :-)Tomorrow we will probably meet them again on Marina Cay, where it will be a full moon party. So this day has been relaxed with sailing, sun and beer. Gunn Sissel and Martin have taken the sail up and down to get some training. They seem to enjoy. We are now in Sopers Hole buying some groceries and checking mail and so. It's now 4:25 Pm local time. The weather is superb. Much sun and good wind. We leave for Norman Island in a few minutes. Hope we are lucky enough to find a mooring ball.