It’s official we are under way. Team Nautilus (Caspar, Tates & Bruce) pushed off from the shores of Mindelo, Cabo Verde at 09:30 (GMT -1) on Saturday 23 December 2023.

After an interesting week in Cabo Verde and the last of our 3 dinners at what became our favourite local restaurant for both its name & delicious food, bar Nautilus. We headed back to our Nautilus, commenting on how quiet it was, as the past few nights had been African party central. Oh boy were we wrong, just as we’d snuggled down for our last full nights sleep for the next few weeks, BANG 💥 party time! The music was so loud, the base so high & the venue so close, that not only was every word crystal clear, the boat was physically vibrating from the audio assault. With alarms set for 07:00, blissfully silence finally arrived at 04:22.

Day 1

Saturday 23 December

Not a morning person at the best of times, I crawled out of bed, braving the post party streets, Abby, Naomi & I headed to the Portuguese bakery. Ladened with freshly baked bread & pastel de nata, I headed back to the boat. There was a final flurry of pre trip tasks, before we threw the lines, heading off on our 2015 nm blue ocean adventure.

Easing our way into our first day, we opted for a main & spinnaker sail configuration, which had us cruising south at good speeds. We’ve decided to try a 4-3-4 watch pattern, which means we get 7 hours down time between watches. We also have captains hours, to make sure we all get some time together as a team.

• Breakfast – Freshly baked pastel de nata
• Lunch – A selection of chorizo & ages cheddar & chorizo, aged cheddar & perfectly ripened Spanish tomatoes open sandwiches served on crusty Portuguese bread.
• Dinner – Home made pasta served with a delicately spiced creamy carbonara

Day 2

Sunday 24 December

After 24 hours of sailing we’ve logged 140 nm.

About 10 boats headed out of the marina yesterday aiming for the Caribbean with a handful of those heading for Barbados, we’re calling it the Cabo Verde to the Caribbean race. Unfortunately while we are one of the faster yachts, we’ve entered a race that we have no hope of winning, with the Neel 47 trimaran already 40 nm ahead of us. There are also 3 Italian solo sailors in tiny bath tub yachts, so we’re not going to be last either.

As New Kids on the Block serenade us with Christmas carols, the depth below Nautilus is greater than 4000m as we sail over the great Atlantic trench.

Today we were mainly powered by the spinnaker which has been pulling us along nicely at around 5.5 knots.

• Breakfast – Crispy fried bacon & gooey fried eggs sandwiched between flour topped Portuguese rolls
• Snacks – Salty padrón pepper, served alongside crispy Portuguese bread with truffle pâté
• Dinner – A fragrant subtly spiced cauliflower & lentil coconut red thai curry

Stats & Facts

• Distance traveled – 140 nm

Day 3 – Christmas Day

Monday 25 December

Oh dear gawd I’m full, in true Christmas fashion, even though we’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean I still managed to eat too much! If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m on watch I’d be having a traditional post lunch nap.

Mid way through the cooking extravaganza, all activity was paused as a pod of dolphins arrived to wish us a Merry Christmas, they ducked & dived, flipped & flopped their way around the boat for about 45 minutes putting on an Christmas amazing show. With a final barrel roll they swam off into the distance leaving a few flying fish a hard act to follow.

We opted for the gennaker as our sail for the daylight hours, swapping back to the spinnaker just before we sat down to our feast. With the winds being so constant we’ll leave it up for the night.

Hope your day was as spectacular as ours x

• Breakfast – Fluffy American style pancakes smothered in golden syrup
• Snack – Warm crispy bread and truffle pâté – paired with a chilled Californian sparkling Shiraz from the Ohh & Ahh winery
• Lupper- Tender roast beef wellington, served with garlic & rosemary roast potatoes & red wine, christmas spiced braised red cabbage – paired with a 2014 Australia Cabernet Shiraz from Saddlers Creek Wines

Day 4

Tuesday 26 December

What started out as another tranquil day bobbing gently on the endless blue ocean, quickly transitioned into pulse racing adrenaline, as first 2 then a third boat popped into view on the computer. A few hundred miles off the Senegalese coast, a small fleet of 10m (we’re 12m) ‘fishing’ boats suddenly appearing on AIS (automatic identification system- vessel tracking system for those non sailor) and were instantly thinking pirates 🏴‍☠️. Two of the boats suddenly changed course pointing straight towards us, quickly sending a frantic text to our buddy boat Resilience in Cabo Verde, we quickly took down the sails, started the engines, turned our AIS to dark mode (we can see but can’t be seen) and headed due south, think hunger games at sea!

After 20 minutes of high alert, discussing our anti piracy measures, we received a few reassuring messages from Peter, who’d taken the time to do a bit of investigating and had noticed that a few of the other yachts had sailed through the fleet & made it to the other side. We breathed a collective sigh of relief had a few minutes of rational crew chat, looking at marine traffic (think Waze of the ocean), we noticed a few very large fishing tankers in the distance surrounded by several small fleets of smaller fishing boats.

Crisis averted, we decided to make the most of the sails being down. Throwing on our swimming gear, Bruce & I dive bombed our way into or first surprisingly warm, mid Atlantic swim, with a mere 5000m of deep blue sea below us. Feel suitably refreshed it was back to business as usual & I headed for the galley to prep of Boxing Day dinner.

• Brunch – A not so traditional South African bunny chow – Creamy (leftover) cauliflower & lentil coconut thai red curry served in a toasted sesame seed topped bun
• Dinner – Roast beef (leftover wellington) served on a generous, vibrant bed of sweet & savoury Vietnamese spiced coleslaw style salad

Day 5

Wednesday 27 December

After yesterday’s excitement, today was incredibly sedate with lighter winds wafting us steadily closer towards our final destination.

With nothing to really distract us, I’d be lying if I said that I don’t struggle with the odd bout of boredom, hence the lavish menu. To break things up a bit, we had a few rounds of Blokus, the board game that Bruce got us for Christmas. For a game with remarkably few rules, it’s strangely addictive, luckily there was no decent through the ranks as we each one a games.

Caspar has been suffering with sciatica for a few weeks now & unfortunately managed to flair it back up with some awkward lifting, making sitting a time limited affair. Luckily he’s still able to shout instructions, play Civ6, do a bit of coding & plan our course all from a prostrate position.

• Breakfast – A more-ish slice of light, fluffy, melt in your mouth perfection that is Italian panettone
• Lunch – Decadent zesty 3 cheese & Cabo Verde spinach frittata, lightly dusted with sweet Spanish paprika
• Dinner – Sweet dreams are made of cheese, a fragrant selection of French bree, crèmeux blue & Spanish semicurado, with salty jambon, freshly sliced sweet pear & a garlicky tomato, basil salsa. Served with a mountain of crispy crackers.

Day 6 – Past the point of no return!

Thursday 28 December

Every journey has a point where going back is no longer an option & on this journey today was that point. While we’ve only just reached the exciting distance milestone of 1/3, the pervading westerly winds mean that if we headed back to Cabo Verde now we’d be beating into a head wind & 2 meter seas. Which would see us emptying our stomachs & fuel tanks long before we reached land. (For the worriers among you, we have more than enough, food water, beer, wine & fuel to make it to Barbados , though we’re a little low on rum.)

I’m taking full responsibility for today’s events. Yesterday, I suggested things were a bit to sedate. BIG mistake! Clearly Fate & Poseidon, read this blog and decided to take matters into their own hands.

The day started on a high, Caspar landed dinner & our first fish of the trip, a 3kg Mahi Mahi.

Caspar noticed some rubbing on the gennaker/spinnaker halyard, (the rope that pulls our 2 big sails up towards the top of the mast) on closer inspection it turned out the outer protective sheath had rubbed clean through in 2 places, with chafing starting on the dyneema core (very much not good). With the gennaker down & the engines on, Caspar could work his splicing magic, and the batteries got a little juice as it’s been uncharacteristically cloudy today. Newly spliced protective sheath in place & the sail set we back on our way.

We’d planned a movie night, but our new projector had other ideas, refusing to get past the set up screen. Instead it was off the nod for sweet & salty dreams.

Until, red light flooded our cabin followed by 5 words you never want to hear let alone at 2am “wakeup, we’ve lost the gennaker” Thinking the repair to the halyard had failed, dumping many square metres of sail into the sea, the reality was much worse, the sail had blown (a nicer way of saying exploded). While we might have been able to rescue a sail from the water (let just say we have past experience) a blown sail is not always repairable, especially not mid ocean. With the genny replaced by the whites (main & gib), & nothing more to be achieved in the dark, it was back to bed for a few hours of restless sleep before my next shift.

I’d just like to make is abundantly clear, that I’m an in no way bored, I’m just very relaxed, occasionally reaching a zen like state.

• Breakfast – Deliciously creamy hot Scottish rolled oats, infused with butter & cinnamon topped with golden honey
• Dinner – Braai seared, sweet & zesty, honey & lime marinade line caught Mahi Mahi, topped with a spicy mango salsa & served with rosemary & garlic potatoes

Day 7

Friday 29 December

With the gennaker out of action & the halyard repair already showing signs of chafing, we had a busy morning ahead of us. Caspar spliced a soft shackle onto a ring to allow the halyard omnidirectional movement, the only downside to this amazing fix is that it needs to be attached to the current problematic d-ring, which is attached to the top part of the mast 18m above us.

Engines running & sails dropped, there was a huge splash to the left of the boat, followed by a series of intermittent blows (: a cloud or column of moist air forcefully expelled through the blowhole) & eventually the tip of a dorsal fin slipping back below the surface! Our first whale!!

Excitement over it was back to the serious task of winching Caspar up the mast. While he’s become a bit of an old hat at shimmying up the mast over the past 2 years, he’s never been up mid ocean in large rolling seas. Falling isn’t really a concern, it’s more the risk of loosing his grip off the mast, which would cause him to swing wildly. Think wrecking ball or more accurately piñata. With Bruce at the helm, keeping the waves directly behind us to reduce the amount of swing, Casp was winched up the mast. A nerve wracking hour later, fix in place, he was lowered back to as much terraferma as an ocean crossing allows.

With the spinnaker back up it was time to examine the gennaker, with 2 rather large rips, she’s seen the last of her Atlantic adventures for this trip, hopefully we’ll be able to get her stitched back up in Martinique.

We ended the day with sundowners on the foredeck, the sun disappeared behind the clouds before it kissed the ocean, but we were treated to a sky of silver linings before heading back inside for dinner.

• Breakfast – Simple but delicious melted butter on toasted homemade bread
• Lunch – The boys had ham & cheese sandwiches ( I was asleep)
• Dinner – Freshly made roasted butternut gnocchi in a creamy burnt sage butter & bleu cheese sauce

Day 8 – A week at sea

Saturday 30 December

We started noticing patches of Sargassum seaweed about half a day into our crossing. Golden brown mats, floating all around us, varying in size from a fist to clumps as big as Nautilus. It’s nothing new as in 1492, Christopher Columbus, wrote that he feared his boat would be trapped in it, Chris & Caspar are apparently on the same wavelength. The last time we ran the engines we dropped them into reverse & a plume of gold came whooshing out from Nautilus’s belly.

While some days it’s like a field of floating islands as far as the eye can see, we’re definitely not seeing the worst of it. There’s a giant patch, known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, it stretches like a sea monster across the ocean, with its nose in the Gulf of Mexico and its tail in the mouth of the Congo, she’s a beast!

I had a night off & Bruce took up galley wench duties, whilst staying hydrated sipping on an ice cold beer he knocked up an incredibly tasty Mango mahi-mahi curry a la Bruce. A word from the chef “super pleased with how the curry came out, spicy but not overly, tangy from the fruit, the sweet potato holds up perfectly and it was a great combination of spices. The fish tasted delicious, mahi mahi is a great choice for this sort of dish, not overpowering and great texture for a soupy curry”

• Lunch – Giant open taco, lavishly loaded with roast ham, black olives, spring onion, scrambled, tomatoes & cheese drizzled with chilli oil & baked in the bbq
• Dinner – Tangy coconut, mango, Mahi Mahi curry served with steamed basmati rice

Day 9 – New Years Eve

Sunday 31 December

Today’s been a big day, it’s the last day of 2023, but more importantly it the day that we finally cross over the half distance milestone. To celebrate I broke out our extravagant/heavy cocktail blender & set about whipping us up a round of my famous Nautilus cocktails. Frozen boozy watermelon deliciousness in hand we made our way to the foredeck to toast the occasion.

We let off a flash bang for some new years fireworks but the light show was a bit fizz pop & the thought of a second wave of reverberating sound didn’t fill Bruce or I with warm fuzzies, so Caspar reluctantly put them away. With friends & family scattered around the world & our body clocks out of whack from our watch pattern we decided to raise a glass of port as Mariah Carey belted out her rendition of Auld Lang Syne & the clocks struck 00:00 in Florence (dinner was an Italian feast after all), all partied out those of us who could went to sleep.

• Brunch – Bruce’s Fluffy paprika scrambled eggs on freshly beaked rolls
• Dinner – Caspar’s famous ricotta ravioli finished off in a zesty lime, garlic & chilli pan infused oil, with a good handful of Parmesan stirred in to insure a creamy gastronomic delight. Paired with a devine Italian “champagne”

Day 10 – A New Year

Monday 1 January

We eased our way into a beautifully sunny January 1st, sipping on Bloody Mary’s while eating our traditional New Year’s Day brunch, smoked salmon & scrambled eggs.

We lit the Cobb, (South African engineering at its finest, a charcoal braai/oven that can be placed on any surface as the exterior shell stays remarkably coo) didn’t give it long enough to heat up before putting on the giant side of pork, Caspar isn’t a very patient being and terms like ‘slow cooked’ are lost on him. Bruce had convinced him not to throw the whole lot overboard & that it would all cook perfectly it just needed time. We played a game of Carcassonne (our favourite game) to distract the beast & finally sat down to a deliciously smoky & perfectly cooked roast pork.

After our Christmas performance, we were hoping to be treated to a New Years Day dolphin show, but they must have all been nursing hangovers, as they were no where to be seen.

• Brunch – Slow cooked scrambled egg whites, finished off with folded in yokes, topped with vibrant smoked salmon, served on lightly toasted rolls
• Dinner – Deliciously smoky Cobb roasted, fennel & bay leaf pork, served with butter leeks, roast potatoes & a ‘posh’ cinnamon infused apple & butternut sauce

Day 11

Tuesday 2 January

You know you’ve been mid ocean for way too long when the chart says there’s 3000m of water below you and you think ‘oh a shallow bit’, we’ve become so used to seeing depth of 6000m or more, that 3000m seems positively terrestrial.

This evenings dinner was enhanced by the traditional Sardinian staple that is Fregola, incredibly versatile textured pasta balls of goodness, that are perfectly designed to soak up just the right amount of sauce & flavour. My taste buds are eternally grateful of its discovery. If you haven’t already tried it, it’s a must, you can thank me later. I made a variation of this recipe, I used a cube of mushroom stock rather than chicken & ditched the water for white wine, obvs!

This evening lying on the deck looking up at a sky flooded with stars, I lwas in awe of the sheer scale and beauty. The stars are so tightly knit that there is almost no black space between them. And then the moon rises, with no other light pollution around she is incredibly bright even though she’s waning, which means we only get a few hours of incredible stargazing, as the smaller stars are drowned out by her brilliance.

• Lunch – A vibrant tuna bean salad dressed with a chili oil mayonnaise
• Dinner – Lightly spiced buttery pork, leek & sun-dried tomatoes fregola topped with a handful of nutty grated Parmesan

Day 12

Wednesday 3 January

With the rhythmic Cafe del Mar beats breezing through the boat the chilled beach vibes almost tangible, we decided to pop a bottle of our finest Italian Prosecco & whip up a round of aperol sprits to celebrate Wednesday. Life is good. Sitting on the foredeck sipping on my icy cocktail, shaded by the spinnaker & our laundry, I’m reminded that even fairytales have the odd bit of domestic humdrum weaved through them.

Caspar, being a Caspar (it’s a bit like being a nicer Loki, if you know you know), saw a giant patch of sargassum weed about 7 times the size of Nautilus & in his words “didn’t quite aim for it, but did noting to avoid it”, managed to get us a little stuck, stalling the boat, he had to wait for her to slowly drift out sideways eventually breaking free.

“(MF Huge) Gas tanker Gaslog Gladstone, Gaslog Gladstone, Gaslog Gladstone, this is (teeny, tiny) sailing yacht Nautilus, Nautilus, Nautilus over” This is how the conversation started with the 280m, highly explosive gas tanker that was aiming directly for us. The very well spoken & slightly put out Eastern European man on the other end of the radio informed us that he would be holding his course and speed but assured us that he would not run over us. Thanks

• Lunch – Dijonnaise roast pork & gherkins sandwiches served on still warm Cornish sea salt & chill Cobb baked bread
• Dinner – Bruce’s Moreish Chilli con cane served on a bed of fluffy rice

Day 13 – Over 3/4 of the way there

Thursday 4 January

A plume of sliver erupts from the deep blue sea as a glide of flying fish leap into the air trying to out maneuver the predator lurking below, they elegantly skimming the waves before unceremoniously belly flopping themselves back into the water. The sides of Nautilus are pebble dashed with the scales of the unlikely ones that mistimed their escape, kamikazing themselves into her hulls.

When we sailed from Sal to Mindelo we woke to a deck littered with flying fish in various states of rigor mortis, expecting this to be a sign of things to come, we sent them of to a watery grave. That unfortunate was the last time any of them manage to soar high enough & why they haven’t featured as part of any of our meals.

The reel wizzed, excitement mounts, rushing to the helm to slow the boat, the line goes taught, pop, it slackens, we’ve lost it, bugger! Winding in the line, moments of false hope, dashed as the final inches come into view, it’s been snapped clean, just before the lure. A second wiz, a second dash, a second snap. With all our decent fishing gear, now protruding from the lips of some very large and unhappy tuna, our fishing days are behind us for the rest of this trip.

• Lunch – Delicious Beef and pork pies from our favourite Maltese baker Busy Bee. A perfect balance of meat and sauce, and the crust is oh so crispy and crumbly. Served with a tomato and cucumber salad dressed in balsamic and chilli olive oil
• Dinner – Blackened mahi mahi flacked on a generous bed of Braai chard roasted vegetables & crumbed feta tagliatelle

Day 14

Friday 5 January

We’ve stuck to GMT -1 as our time zone for the crossing, as some of us (Bruce) are actual adults with real jobs and board meetings to get back to in the UK. Though with sunrise & set out of sync & confused bodies from strange shifts & random sleep patterns, I’m not sure how much difference it going to make. That said I’m rather looking forward to a full nights sleep anchored up in a calm bay, as interesting as it’s been listening to the waves slamming themselves against the hull, rocking the boat violently at times & the boom trying to bang its way deep into our subconscious.

There’s a bit of a strange phenomena that happens when you near the end of a long adventure or momentous occasion, a kind of nostalgia or longing, possibly mild PTSD from all the hours of planning & worrying all coming to an end. You want to be there to see land, feel the sand between your toes, but a tiny part of you can’t believe that your nearly there, that the journey is nearly over, that the chapter will soon end. Ready for a new adventure to take on the blank pages.

• Lunch – Spicy 2 cheese, braai chard roasted vegetables frittata
• Dinner – Maltese olives slow cooked in a deliciously rich garlicky tomato & red wine sauce, nestled on a bed of mixed potato mash.

Day 15 – The final countdown

Saturday 6 January

When we signed up to this crazy live aboard life, we were very much the minority in our social circle, a few of our friends had sailed, but non of them had thrown caution to the wind, diving headfirst off the corporate ladder & into an ocean of endless adventures. Now just over 2 years later, our social circle has grown exponentially (sailors really are a friendly bunch). Spending our days surrounded by so many in the same proverbial boat, makes this all feel so normal, like everyone is doing it. So when it came to crossing the Atlantic, it stopped feeling like it was a big deal or scary, it’s just what all our friends doing. Then occasionally you remember that you haven’t actually seen another boat for days, and although a lot of you friends are doing this, your all actually in the minority and the ocean in a very very big place, so big in fact that there is a very good chance that on parts of this journey we have been the first people ever to floated over those bits of the planet.

• Lunch – Cheesy meaty smorgasbord of deliciousness: brie, cheddar, pate, ham, chorizo & Abby’s spicy tomato chutney, served with Caspar’s freshly baked bread
• Dinner – Chicken & spinach green Thai curry serves on a very non traditional bed of cuscus

Day 16 – Land ho

Sunday 7 January

I’ll update the missing few days soon, for those who missed it we have safely arrived in Bridgetown Barbados at 02:00 local time. Safe, sound and exhausted, after an incredible few days at sea.

Land ho, ok not quite, it’s 19:30 local time (22:30 boat time) and it is dark, dark, but in distance (about 5 hours away), on the horizon is the distinct glow of civilisation.

• Lunch – A Spanish affair, the seafood celebration that is paella, golden rice, spicy chorizo, mixed seafood topped with vibrant green peas
• Dinner – Harrods very sticky, figgy pudding topped with butterscotch sauce. Paired perfectly with a ruby red port.