Last 5 days!
The Last few days are the slowest Another hard days sailing in blistering sunshine after a starry starry night, we had good winds throughout the night. Yesterday was a record for us at 162miles our best yet. Hope to get a good one in today as well, the Grib file said we should have 20knts plus all day, but it died off in the heat of the afternoon, down to 8 to 10knts, we had the cruising chute up but not the spinnaker as we are 120 to the wind and we do not want to go further south, we are almost on the same latitude as St Lucia, the ocean flow is drifting us south. Had a cracking breakfast/brunch of egg bacon and the trimmings, Becky said it all needed eating up, no one complained! Even the dog did well. She has developed her routines, and actually enjoys her regular drenching in sea water to cool her down. I think she sees it as part of the family activity, as we do it to each other all the time. A quick bucket over the head, on with the shampoo, a good lather up and that is the mornings wash. The dog joins in! Into the mid 600s to go now and should break the 500 tonight, so it will be just like a quick run across Biscay after that. The winds look set to continue. We have no idea what time zone we should be on but I am sure we are well out, on our clocks it does not get dark until 8:00pm plus and not light until the same time in the morning. This is messing up our watch pattern a bit. I know when we have been in the Caribbean before it goes dark at 6 and light at 6 the next day. Still keeping in touch with boats around us, there are quite a few now and I guess as we all home in on St Lucia, we will get closer, no yachts in sight last night but a huge tanker went behind us. Nice bright ¾ moon last night so when we arrive it should not matter whether it is day or night we will be able to go straight on in. If I remember rightly it is not too tricky an entrance anyway. Morale on board is good and the kids continue to work the lap tops on overtime, film after film after game etc. Becky and I watched Mama Mia last night while on watch: naughty to do but a good silly jolly film for the night. Lots of complaints on the SSB radio discussions now about the weather and lack of wind, people are stretching their resources, many expected to be in by now and like us are still some days out. Still it is Wednesday tomorrow and the machine is telling us if we keep this up we will be in by Saturday evening. The term this years ‘float across’ has become the jargon of the day. Sorry to say that I have grown a beard, well sort of as it is a bit straggly, this was by popular request. I though the request would be rescinded as soon as it became manifest but hey no she likes it, so I guess it will stay until say Christmas. Looking back at this blog it is a bit of a ramble, clearly a symptom of the same demise as yesterday’s blog, we have settled into a routine and we are concentrating on sailing the boat. The little frisson we had today was the cruising chute managed to get itself all tangled around the forestay and right up to the top of the mast. This can be a bit dramatic as it is a huge sail and there was a fair bit of wind: when we got it down the halyard that holds it up remained tangled around the top of the forestay, the obvious remedy was to send Jordan up the mast, with a lump in his throat he went off to get the bosun’s chair to go up the mast. A the same time I was studying the top of the mast with binoculars, I could see that the tangle was not that bad in fact it had caught on the head sail shackle onto the furling mechanism, by unfurling a bit of head sail it came out. Jordan asked if he could he still go up, however I suspect this was bravado and for once parental refusal was not challenged at all! The day was finished off nicely by a double catch, Jordan and I had fishing lines out and almost simultaneously we both got a bite. I landed a proper tuna and Jordan thinks his is an amberjack; both are a respectable 5-9lb. The tuna put up more of a fight than any of the larger fish we have caught. So straight from the rod to the plate, our fresh supplies have become scarce and the ones we have managed to hold onto are slightly dubious, a strange aroma wafts around the boat when Becky opens the fridge, which has become nothing more than a cupboard in the dark! So fresh food is appreciated Squalls & Pies! I am writing this on what I believe will be my last night at sea, with less than 130 miles to go now we should be in before midnight tomorrow. I must confess to mixed emotions, it has been a roller coaster ride over the last few weeks with many highs & lows. I have asked all the crew to fill in a quick questionnaire I put together so I can share with you a mixture of views on what the journey has really been like. As I have written all but one of the daily blogs, your impressions of our trip have probably been a little biased! Dave has written an account of his thoughts and feelings on what happened to us mid journey which makes an interesting read – and which I’ll publish when we arrive. So sitting here in the cockpit just starting my first watch it is easy to feel very romantic about the last 3 weeks! We started with no moon, bowling along in the pitch black, full of nervous anticipation about what big atlantic sea would feel like. Although I had done a number of night sails before they had always been a trial and were something to be endured, a means to an end, a necessary evil! I certainly never thought I’d get used to them. Some 20 nights later we now have an almost full moon and the reflection of the moon on the water combined with the stars and the graceful swishing noise the boat makes as it cuts through the black water under sail is quite a magical experience. I am very glad that this no longer frightens me and I can appreciate it for what it is, a truly unique experience, I am also glad our journey is ending on such a positive note. The weather has not been great today – we got off our watch at 4am, but we were back up at 6am as we decided to get the cruising chute up as soon as it was light, as we have now moved our clocks forward to St Lucia time, so it is light by 6am and very dark by 6pm. However once up – a squall appeared and that is more or less how the whole morning went, the wind would die away to nothing and we would be wallowing along at 4knts or less so we’d get the crew ready to change the sails and whilst they were all on the bow hoisting the cruising chute, the winds would pick up to 20knts plus. This continued until around 11am, by which time everyone was tired and fed up, we now have our sights firmly set on the finish line and we didn’t feel like we were making progress! In the end we got it up but about 20 mins later all hell let loose, a squall appeared from nowhere and the boat took off, I was down below and everything just fell sideways as she almost broached, (went over sideways with the force of the wind in the sail) whilst Dave was trying to let the sail go the dog nearly went over the side, so he was trying to get a hold of her whilst shouting for help, (Jordan was still playing on Indy’s Nintendo!) and not fully able to control the boat, at the same time the wind blew the bimini (sun awning) out of its brackets in the cockpit and it sort of landed in a heap on top of Dave so now he couldn’t see either! Help arrived and we let all the lines go, there was alot of flapping but in the middle of a torrential downpour and further 30knt gusts we got the sail down and order was restored! The squalls have continued all day and into tonight so we have made frustrating slow progress sailing directly downwind with the white sails goosewinged again. Tonight was probably the highlight of our day, we caught no fish today (thank god!) so we were able to truly savour a wonderful fray bentos moment. I had bought a stash of emergency fray bentos pies in the UK some 8 months ago, they had now travelled over 4500 miles with us waiting for a night such as this! With no fresh or frozen food available - fray bentos came to the rescue. (My sister will be so proud!) So everyone picked a pie and they were cooked and served with tinned veg, we even ate out of the tins to cut down on washing up as we have no water. There was a slightly worrying moment when the can opener I have onboard wouldn't open the tins, but 2 sailors with 2 leathermen later and they went in the oven. Earlier in the day I cooked the last of the vacuum packed american bacon and served it with fried eggs and part baked bread (now baked obvioulsy!) , no small feat given the roll - both meals were extremely well received - a fitting end to our attempt at eating our way across the Atlantic!December 7th
Position 14.43N 45.41W
Still going well - have motored all night in light winds, the stud is still firmly in place (we marked it with nail varnish to check for movement!) the batteries are all now fully charged, Kids now happy as laptiops and ipods working once more! I got 8 hours of sleep! We now have less than 1000 miles to go, the sea is calm, We have wonderful friends, the world is a beautiful place...
Thankyou again
The above is a copy of the brief email I sent to our "boat" friends first thing this monring, it kind of sums up how we felt first thing, and the day just got better really. The problems of the last 48 hours seemed to have vanished, the sun was shining, the sea was once again a mill pond - ok there was no winds but after the few days before I was quite hapopy to have an easy day! As you see from above I got 8 hrs sleep last night as Dave let me sleep through my watch, so I woke at 8 and sent Dave back to bed for a few hours. Jordan was on watch with Dave so he was sat on the back of the boat fishing. I sat down at the computer to check the course etc when all of a sudden there was a commotion up top and Jordan appeared in the hatchway hyperventilating that he had caught a "massive fish - now for those of you that know Jordan, you will know that every fish is a massive fish! But this time, he was right, it was a massive Wahu! The noise woke Dave who came running thinking it was a man over board moment, and together they reeeled it in, losing the gaff over the side in the process. Now without scales it is difficult to be accurate, but it was 148cm's long and Dave W estimated it's weight as around 70lbs! I have attached a picture of the monster on the ARC blog website. It took a while to die and nearly a pint of whiskey! Some for the fish and some for Jordan who was still hyperventilating with excitement! It was so big, it was beautiful and it almost seemed a shame to kill it - but as my fresh meat supplies are now nil we weren't going to look a gift fish in the mouth. Wilson the butcher did the honours again, it took over an hour, this one was too big to be done in the galley so the back deck became something of a bloodbath! There was so much meat I'm not sure we are going to be able to eat it all, I prepared a huge plate of sushi - but the wasabi is now running low so it won't be as popular as usual.
After all that excitement, and as there was still not a breath of wind, we decided it was time for another swim, and so we slowed the boat - put out the usual lines and fenders, then everyone, (including me, much to the kids amusement!) jumped off the side of the boat - it was absolute heaven! Shampoo and shower gel came out in force and we soaped and sudded before jumping in again to rinse, we even wore items of clothing that needed washing, you can imagine whow a few fish scales and bllod gets spread around!. The water situation is now fairly critical, we have plenty of bottled water to drink - but we are down to the last 10% in the water tanks - we are using this for washing up and washing hands, cleaning teeth etc But it is so low - I even sat on the back of the boat with the bigger pans and washed them in the sea today - I think as this final week progresses that will become the norm.
During the afternoon the boys slept and I made bread for the first time, not a bad effort and the kids thought it was great. I served it at dinner with our celebration meal, we were celebrating getting our problems sorted and breaking through the last 1000 mile barrier!. The meal consisted of Wahu, poached in coconut milk, thai spices and pineaple, served with Jasmine rice, bombay potatoes and mango chutney. This was followed by chocolate fondue with fresh melon (our last one) and pineapple. We all wore necklaces made of fresh chillies, these had been made earlier by dave W. We had such a huge bag of chillis on board and they were going off so we decided to string them up to dry them out - hence the necklaces, you just had to be careful not to fiddle with your necklace and then rub your eyes... which of course Indy had to do! The evenings entertainment , hosted by India, consisted of more poems, this time the theme was supposed to be facing life's challenges but the poems that were produced, whilst good, bore little resemblance to the theme and the authors all went off free style! I will write them up over the next few blogs. This was followed by an ipod request show, with music ranging from Bob Dylan, Modern times to Dizzy Rascal Dance wiv Me, to Sweet Home Alabama. We all stayed up much later than we usually do, and a great evening was had by all. With now less than 900miles to go, the party boat spirit has returned and we are all planning how we are going to celebrate, seeing land for the first time and arriving in St Lucia
PS - I reread one of my other blogs tonight , written in the wee hours and the typing is appalling! There is no spell check on this computer and it is quite difficult to write in the dark (you can't put a light on as it ruins your night vision!) swaying around with th swell - so I,m sorry if I appear completely illiterate!
No News Day!
December 8thPosition 14.17N, 48.59W
Well not alot to say about today really, the winds have improved so we have been under sail most of the day, downside to that is power gets low so computer is off most of the day and I can't check or send emails - our lifeline back home. Have had some wonderful ones form freinds and family - for all those reading this who have sent emails in the last week or so - we love getting them - so many diffenrent people have got in touch - I even had one from some really old frineds - my favourite Aunty Gloria! Sam and Dave had one from Sam's Grandparents who don't have access to a computer and who emailed via their neighboour - they sent some lovely words - which were really appreciated. So Thanks All and keep them coming!
Possibly of special note is Jordan read his first book - no I am not being sarcastic, he has always maintained that reading is "boring" - but he picked up private peacful by Micheal Morpurgo in the morning and did not put it down till he finished it - he then asked me to get him more books... wow! The disappointment of the day was that we ran out of water - the gauge said we should still have 100 litres left but the tanks are empty - so a new washing up strategy has been adopted which to date has consisted of Dave W, a bottle of fairy, a large black bucket and the sea... I guess we won't be the only things that are a little greasy when we arrive! We also got all the bottled water out from under our bed - we have 72 litres left so we have rationed that out to ensure we make it last! I guess we could always move onto wine if the water runs dry.
The sun was out in force yeaterday and we all dozed on and off - still trying to catch up on sleep - last night was quite rolly again and 10 minutes after finishing our first early watch - Dave and I went to bed, then the boat rocked wildly and a huge wave came though the window and dumped water on the bed - we were sat in a huge puddle, I was not amused - the bed had to be completely stripped and we are waiting for the sun to come out now to get all the bedding out to dry. Another lesson learned. But after that I couldn't sleep , neither could Sam - so we sort of spent the night wandering around, lying down in different places trying to get comfortable - we really are a very communal boat!
Well we now have just under 700 miles to go and we are all starting to get really excited. According to our reckoning and the predicted wind forecasts that means we will be in by saturday - please GOD that we are.
9th December 2008
Position 14:12N 49:41W
Position 14.02N 56.45W
December 11th
Well after a night that kept most of us awake, today turned out OK! As I was writing last nights blog the winds picked up and a squall blew in, I raised Dave W & Sam from sleep and all were on the foredeck with lifejackets & safety harnesses within 2 minutes in order to get the cruising chute down - that's what a slick team we have become.... It took a bit of doing as the wind was gusting 20knts by that time but we got it sorted and put the white sails up. Unfortunately the wind was right behind us and the boat does not sail well in that postition, the sails flog as wind gets behind them and it puts a huge strain on the rig - so we decided to sail at an angle for a few hours and then tack in the opposite direction. Because the computer and nav software wasn't on (they use too much power!) - we weren't able to see how far off course we were going so we probably lost about 25 miles over night simply by zigzagging along our route. 1000 miles ago that wouldn't have been an issue but now every mile counts! We still managed to clock up a 150 mile day however, but we did lose ground over some of the others we have remained well ahead of - not that we are competitive or anything, but we have been coming 3rd in our class¬! Not bad for a heavy old girl.
This morning we goosewinged the sails with (in my opionion) disastous effects, we rolled so badly that the windows either side iof the boat went in the water continually, the dog was stressed, the last of my mugs got smashed and I had a strop! I was in serious danger of spirally downwards, I don't understand it but there is something about putting sails out on each side of the boat that causes the roll, particularily in large atlantic swell. I complained to the boys but they said I had no choice if we wanted to stick to our route! Well after several hours of everyone clinging on for dear life, even they had had enough! Jordan attempted to make pancakes - but after mixing the batter - he put the first cup in the frying pan, the boat pitched and the whole galley got covered in 2 pints of pancake batter! With no water to clean up - I was not amused... realising I was probably quite close to the edge - we agreed to take in the sails and put out the chute again - heaven, a small swell but nothing we couldn't manage.
Supper turned up at around the usual time and a fray bentos moment was once again narrowlly avoided. Dave caught a large dorado at sunset, it was so big we felt bad about keeping it, in the end we took fillets from one side and tossed the rest back for the little fishes - without a fridge it just doen't keep well - the day before we had emptied a stinking box of sushi I had prepared overboard - I thought it would be OK preserved in Lime juice. We then all sat fantasising about what we are going to order as soon as we get to a restaurant... and all of us decided we'd be giving fish a miss for a month or two!
Well - we now have less than 250 miles to go and we are fairly confident we will be in on saturday night, so I think tomorrow we will start getting the boat as presentable as we can and the kids want to tie balloons etc to the rails. We have heard that every time a boat arives now the otherboats sound their horns etc So we are all getting very excited about the prospect. It's been quite a journey for us all.
Position 13:58N, 58:45W
December12th
