First of all, Albin Vega is a tremendous good boat if you fix her small faults before you throw the mooring for an extensive blue water cruise. When I left Norway in July 97 I strengthen the midship bulkhead with 3mm aluminium plates which is a known veakness on Vega. (the mast could sag if you sail hard) I also changed the windows to 8mm lexanplates fastened with lots of 6mm bolts. Not very nice to look at, but dead solid. Else there where very little to do. Now after 1/2 year sailing I get more and more feeling for her. She sail quite good into windvard and and on reach (my best 24 hour is 147 nm) still she is dry and quite comfortable. Now when we are almost in Trinidad we average approx 110-115 nm/day after 20 days. And the best thing, I havent used the main for 20 days. Instead of spinnaker which is usually a mess to sail with, I have 2 spread genoas on the same forestay, together with spinnaker booms to prevent it from dipping into the sea. All the well known problems with a rolling boats was not a problem at all as a feard. It seems that she actually rolls less with two spread foresail on booms. So for the leg from Canaries to Trinidad. On this leg from Canaries to Trinidad I had with me two guys from Norway (Steffen and Magne) None of them had much experience from sailing before. The biggest problem is usually not sailingexperience but to cooperate on a small boat. Another problem related to small boats is space. I calculated with 90 gallon of water and food for 40 days, so we had to lift the waterline an inch when we paintet the boat in Tenerife. (real poisenous stuff this time and not the hempel crap i bought in Norway) We left Los Cristianos feb 9 heading for Cape Verde, which is 900 nm south. The wind was force 1-2 the 2-3 first days and we used the engine for approx 15 hours in this period. The third night out I heard a loud bang and the boat liftet approx 5 inch. The speed was around 3 knots under engine so I wasn't much afraid of hole but it was quite an interesting experience, especially since I had just read Steven Calahan "Adrift." We looked around to find the culprit which was probably a sleeping whale but with no luck. The rest of the trip down to Cape Verde was easy sailing without anything particulary happening. We arrived in Sao Vicente 19th feb. Cape Verde is like africa. Lots of poor people and kids begging for money or food. Cape Verde is a former Portugese colony and the main income seems to be fishing. Tourist is almost unheard but the government is trying to get into the touristbusiness so in some years mabye this will be another canaries. (hope not)
The week we stayed in Cape Verde was used mainly to fix things on the boat and stocking up with more food and water. We have no fridge onboard so the choice is either tin food or better making your own tin-food with a pressure cocker. I got tired of heinz chicken soup in Lisboa so we bought a pressure cocker and 50 glass with rubber and bayonet-lock to preserve food in. Just make your favourite menu and pressurecock it for an hour. No need to cock the meat before it goes into the glass. And on long watches, open a glass and heat it for 3 minutes and there you have an instant dinner. McDonalds couldn't do it faster.
Else, we bake bread every second day. (Nothing can beat real norwegian dark bread) Now, 18 days and 2000 nm out from Cap Verde and just a few days to Trinidad this leg has been quite comfortable. The first week out we sailed with just one genoa. The next week there were variable wind and we put out the other genoa. Since then we have mostly used two genoas. (and did I say that the boat is not rolling?!!) Not much running on the foredeck anymore, so life down here is quite easy. Lots of reading and sunbathing.
Cheers
Jonny
SY OMNI