The Dream

by Tom Tripp

Krogen 44' Le Reve in 20 Foot Seas on the Atlantic

A couple of years ago, I wrote about an interesting ocean passage in which the Krogen 44 Le rêve, with owner Bill van Lenthe and crew aboard, crossed the North Atlantic nonstop from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, to the port of Horta, on the Island of Faial in the Azores, a distance of 2,250 NM. That was the first leg of a journey that brought Le rêve to IJmuiden, Netherlands, in three legs. The second leg of the trip, 1,268 NM, took the boat to Plymouth, England. And the final leg to Holland was a short jaunt of 367 NM. The successful passage was reported on the Kadey-Krogen company website, where there are links to the blogs of a number of Kadey-Krogen Yachts owners.

While many trans-Atlantic passagemakers stop at Bermuda along the way, especially when the original departure is from Florida, van Lenthe decided to forego the stop since it would have taken him significantly out of his way, given his own New Jersey departure. Van Lenthe and his wife, Joanne, were both born in Holland, hence the final destination.

The stabilized Krogen 44 encountered rather a lot of bad weather along the way; more than would be expected for a June crossing at 40 degrees north latitude. Seas encountered frequently reached 20 feet, but the owner reported no difficulties whatsoever, adding that the autopilot handled steep following seas especially well.

Here are the stats for the overall voyage:

Total days at sea                             26

Total Hr at sea                               612

Total Miles at sea                        3885

Total fuel consumed by engine   1290 gallons

Average gallons/hr                          2.1

Average m/g                                   3.01

Average speed                                6.35kts

Le rêve and the van Lenthe family went on to cruise Holland and then visited Norway in 2009; made their way to Turkey via the canals of Europe in 2010/2011, and will head to the Med next year.  I will be writing about the European legs of their cruise soon on my passagemaking news blog, OceanLines.Biz.

You can follow their travels on their blog here.

Have any transoceanic stories (or dreams) of your own to tell?

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