|
|
|
| Transatlantic arc 2005 - from 20th November 2005
NORTHERN
CHILD ARRIVED IN ST LUCIA FIRST IN CLASS ON THE LINE Northern Child and her 11 crew received the following ARC Prizes: 1.
Net Controllers Prize (awarded to all the ARC radio net controllers) 2.
Winner on corrected time of Class D (18
yachts) 3.
The Spirit of the ARC Prize 4. OVERALL WINNER OF THE CRUISING DIVISION (160 yachts) ARC 2005
clients comments include: NORTHERN CHILD DAILY LOG ARC 2005 Transatlantic crossing in 18 days, 8 hours 10 minutes and 39 seconds Crew:
Julian, Vicky, Mike, Paul, Craig, Neil, Sharon, Maria, Lawrence, Don and
Franck Daily
Log Northern Child What
a fantastic start to this 20th edition of the ARC, 2005. As I write this we
are just clearing the south end of the Having
looked out of our forehatch in the middle of the night and seen very little
wind with the skies clouding over, I was reassured this morning to wake up to
a beautiful sunny morning. We
cleared out of the marina in The
start of the ARC is just outside the We
had a fantastic start exactly where we wanted to be, and popped up in good
clear, apparent air, scooting out ahead of the fleet in grand style. We were
prepared for a spinnaker hoist and after a couple of minutes, decided to go
for an early hoist, keeping clear ahead of nearly the whole fleet for the
first hour and a half. The wind gradually decreased during the afternoon and
we had an extremely frustrating hour putting the spinnaker up and down 3 times
and going round in circles whilst a lot of the fleet switched their engines on
and overtook us! However
the new breeze came down to us from the right hand side of the course and we
were in good shape to set off upwind to Everyone
on board is fine and we are now beating clear of the Island into 30 - 35 knots
of apparent wind with our staysail up and one reef in the main. Vicki has
pre-cooked pasta this evening for us, so we are all looking forward to that,
and everyone is up for an exhausting night of hard progress - the winds should
moderate by Monday morning. I have just overheard a comment from on deck from
our American cousin Don: 'Gee, I haven't seen it like this on This
is Northern Child signing off after writing this log in pretty difficult
conditions! Julian, Skipper. Daily
Log Northern Child Since
sending the log yesterday we have had an interesting 24 hours... more later!
Incidentally, ARC stands for the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers and this year is
the 20th running of the event and Northern Child's 5th consecutive entry. The
rally is held each year, attracts about 220 boats and the objective is to get
the fleet over to the The
wind was on the nose last night - all night - mutterings of ' you said this
was a downwind rally skip' It built as we reached the southern tip of the
Island to a solid 25-30 knots true, a good force six on the nose which if it
means nothing to you, is just wet! However, we had fun throughout the night
going down to our smallest headsail and a reef in the main, keeping as close
to the wind as we could and by this morning the wind was down and the sea had
started to flatten out. In
fact by dawn the wind had dropped away to almost nothing so by the time it got
light I went up on the foredeck with Paul, Don and Franck and it was down with
the small headsail and up with our biggest genoa. I would like to say that
this helped a lot - it didn't! The wind has continued to drop through the day,
so much so that Mike's watch of Craig, Maria, Lawrence and Neil have now been
re-christened cicle-watch.... We
were settling down to a fairly quiet day when over the SSB (long-range radio)
came a call from Vessel ID no 223, Leyenda, a Canadian yacht, that she was
sinking. Wondering if I had misheard, I questioned the vessel who indeed
confirmed that they were in need of help and there followed 4 hours of radio
and SSB work from Northern Child co-ordinating the rescue of 223. Within 20
minutes we had another vessel from the ARC alongside and offering assistance
with 2 more diverting off their route to help. Very quickly they bought the
situation under control - a great example of why people choose to sail on the
ARC and not alone across the On
deck it has been hot and slow. The wind down to 3 knots with the two watches
under Paul and Mike taking it in turns to keep the boat moving and not
pointing towards Mike
has had his teddy bear, Rose, nicked by unknown parties on board and it is
currently swinging away under the boom - not sure if it has been hung or
merely put there for safe keeping. We have two other stuffed animals also on
board called Peter, on his third Transatlantic and Squiddles the seadog, who
is on his first transatlantic.... hmmm, anyone care to guess the average age
of this crew?! Our
objective is to not motor at all - I think we will be tested again tomorrow!
That's it for now - the sun has set, we are about 140 miles from Northern
Child Daily Log Posn:
26.29N 17.14W Wind 2 knots Our
speed is now actually 0.0! All
is fine on board - we aren't actually going anywhere but all is fine! The wind
has been light and at times almost nonexistent and we have probably made 65
miles towards The
boat is split into two watches standing turn about and Vicky and myself,
Julian, floating, in other words sleeping our way to Craig
is American - A very keen sailor he is used to serious offshore racing and
sailing and when I popped my head out at dawn he was trimming the genoa in
three knots of breeze whilst talking technical speak with Mike. Incidentally
the whole watch was on the leeward side - very impressive. Maria
from Norway has raised morale considerably amongst the boys by not only
speaking good English with a pleasant Scandinavian accent but also by
listening to what her watch is saying and pretending to be interested...(she
says, genuinely interested and also wants to point out she is a damn good
helm!) This
morning Neil
is from Glasgow - quietly spoken with a great accent he has received the
nickname of Scotty Dog and I was just pleased that we managed to get him on
board for the start as we had to get him through Friday and Saturday night out
on the town without being arrested, but we looked after him! The second watch is ably led by our second Lymington boy, Paul. Again a keen racer and sailor, he was volunteered to be a watch leader on arrival and has an International watch with Don, Sharon and Franck in his team. Hopefully a healthy rivalry will develop between the two watches as Paul and Mike are friends from home, and neither likes to be beaten by the other. Don
is American, from the Mid-west somewhere and seems to sail on Lakes - big ones
apparently. Although his longest passage by far, he has taken to it like a
duck to water, and is making his presence felt helping out down below as well
as on deck. Finally
to Franck, our Frenchman. In the year of the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar,
we thought it would be fun to have a Frenchman on board for those long, hot
sunny afternoons where you are looking for some entertainment. Although he
refuses to discuss the 2012 Olympics with us, he is keen to learn the English
terminology for sailing, although I suspect his watch is actually telling him
completely the wrong translations just for fun! We
are ably looked after by Vicki, who is a cross between Attila the Hun and
Delia Smith - just don't go in the wrong cupboard. She is more than capable of
skippering the boat and was volunteered to look after the catering side on
passage, producing a particularly fine Thai curry last night. She is also
completing her sunsights for her Ocean Passage whilst out here, so will be
seen at various times prancing around the boat with our sextant out. The
author of these logs is myself, Julian; during the day I mainly occupy myself
with navigation, weather and tactics and give unhelpful comments to the watch
on deck about sailtrim! We are also one of four Net Controllers on the ARC,
and we look after routine and emergency communications for the fleet whilst on
passage, using the VHF and HF SSB radios and Iridium satphone for data and
voice. Although we have no wind it is a beautiful day out here, calm with a slight swell and we have just had a huge school of dolphins slowly parading around the boat. The main message from all on board is that we hope you are all fine at work and everyone on board is thinking of you. That's
it for today. Julian Daily
Log Northern Child Posn:
Still not far from 26.17N
17.59W Heading 260 degrees XXXXX
STOP PRESS XXXXX NEW
NORTHERN CHILD RECORD If
you are wondering about how we fill our day, here is a selection of things
that happened to us yesterday. The
first thing to bear in mind is that we have to sail the boat 24 hours a day -
steering, sail setting and continuous trimming. This we do by way of our watch
system; we are running two watches as explained yesterday who run for 6 hours
during the day and four hours at night. The first watch is stood from 0600 -
1200, the second team then comes on from 1200 - 1800. We then start the night
watches which run for four hours, the first team doing 1800 - 2200, the second
doing 2200 - 0200 and finally reverting to the first team who do 0200 - 0600.
Thus the watches rotate every 24 hours and one night the first team stands two
night watches and then the next night then stand one. During the on watch time
the watch task is to sail the boat as efficiently as possibly in whatever
direction we can! By
about 9.30 Tuesday morning we were virtually becalmed, the tin of tuna
incident behind us, and everyone on deck. Paul decided it was time to go
swimming and eventually we had almost the whole crew in - it's clear, warm and
very deep - probably 3 or 4 kilometres deep. Mike tried towing the boat with a
line out the bow but found 22 tons too much of a challenge. Because we can run
the watermaker, which we do almost every day, we can use the showers, so after
getting all salty in the ocean it was great to get back on board and be able
to have a fresh shower. We
had two sailing vessels pass by us really close in the early afternoon - under
motor. The first was an old Dutch boat, motoring calmly along with a couple on
board who came by and said hi. The second was a new blue Beneteau who we think
was on the ARC, but although they seemed to want to say hello, they passed by
about 200 metres away and didn't make contact - as we were sailing at half a
knot it was not possible for us to go over to them. Today
has been nominated as turtle day - we have had turtles floating by sunbathing
all day. Some of them up to a meter in length, they raise their heads out of
the water as we go sailing by and regard us with mild curiosity. Mike
would like to point out to his missus that the rash he has at the moment is in
fact due to little stingy things in the sea, and not Margarita from Vicky
decided to spoil us during the afternoon - after a fresh salad for lunch it
was freshly baked chocolate cake for tea and then stir fried beef, vegetables
and noodles. She did admit to me later that the meat was prime chopped filet
steak! The
boys on board had a bit of a thrill this morning - a long legged Norwegian
girl was seen backing out of the forward head (Toilet/shower) on her hands and
knees in a bikini - she says she was cleaning the head... Maria was also the
speed record holder of just 7 knots a day ago, until Franck just beat it half
an hour ago with 7.5 knots and then Paul topped it by a fraction. Here
is a bit of log for you in Scandinavian from Maria: Efter
super start och därefter två lugna dagar med liten framdrift, käns det i
dag som vi flyger over havet i 7 knop. I natt under stjärnhimmeln hissade vi
spinnaker för första gåmg - magiskt. Det är fortfarande en lång väg
kvart til As
I finish writing this the sea is still calm and the sun is out. We have picked
up a little bit of breeze now and have replaced our asymmetric spinnaker with
our big daddy ARC spinnaker. Happily we have managed to maintain 6 or 7 knots
in the right direction for a couple of hours which has helped our daily run
enormously. Have we caught enough breeze to hold us ahead of the hole we have
all been in or are we going to be caught by the calm again? Only time will
tell, so log on tomorrow and we'll let you know! Julian.
Daily
Log Northern Child Finally
- wind! Having had a few days that have tested us pretty hard with no wind we
are now happy to report that we have wind. In fact, wind has been the big
feature of the last 24 hour period. I calculated this morning that at 0800 we
had run the same distance in the last 20 hours as the preceeding two and a
half days! Life
within the watches has got a little more hectic as the wind speed got up and
we started off with the big daddy ARC downwind spinnaker up. Pretty soon the
wind had got up and come forward enough for us to need to change to the
asymmetric spinnaker - in essence any spinnaker is a big multicoloured sail
that looks like a big balloon that we fly off the front of the boat. We have 3
on board of different shapes and sizes which allow us to sail with a spinnaker
(kite) at different angles and different wind speeds. The only problem with
these sails is that they can be a bit of a nightmare to get down; as the wind
increases the boat becomes unstable and we are forced to drop them. To
illustrate what a fun activity this can be, at 0300 this morning we had both
watches and the skipper on deck fighting to get the kite down in plenty of
wind on the beam (side of the boat) By the time the new genoa was set and the
kite packed away it was 0430 - fun! Then Mike, Craig, Maria, Lawrence and Neil
decided to get the damn thing back up again at 0800 - when I realised what
they were up to, I struggled out of my bunk, poked my head out of the hatch
and found a row of grinning, naughty schoolboys and Mike saying Busted! Mike
says the reason he was full of energy was because he had had two Quell
anti-seasickness tablets, a coffee with sugar, a muesli bar and a snickers bar
all for breakfast! Mind you, the wind hadn't decreased and I was pretty
sceptical of us holding it for long – sure enough, at 1030, down it comes
again! Life at sea. We
passed during the day an ARC boat full of Frenchmen heading south, so we put
Franck on the radio to have a chat with them. They wanted to know all about
the tropical storm that is building in the middle of the Everyone
is fine on board, even the quieter workers - there does seem to be a strange
correlation between noise and work done... the noisier you are, the less gets
done? Any time a spinnaker needs
packing Don and Sharon seem to be on it, whatever the time of day or night.
King of the washing up is definitely Don - I get the impression that we could
ask him to do anything and the reply in his Mid West American drawl would
always be - sure, no problem. Now
a little guest log written by Neil (AKA Scotty):
When I started out on this adventure I thought I knew a bit about
sailing. After spending some time with Mike and Craig working on the foredeck
this morning I now realise how little I know. The knowledge and skill of these
guys is breathtaking. With That's
it for today, the sun has come back out although there is a lot of cloud
around. Vicky has something smelling great on the stove and it's thanksgiving
out here, so Vicki is going to try and do an apple Thanksgiving dessert for
the American contingent. Julian
Daily
Log Northern Child Position
at 1115UTC: 23.15N 22.33W A
second 24 hour run of light to moderate winds has enabled us to complete a
fairly successful 24 hour run of 159 nautical miles made good, which at least
means that if we look at our Atlantic chart we are now moving away from the
Canaries quite well! We
have been making to the South West over the last 24 hours as a result of
looking at the prognosis of tropical storm Delta, which seems to be winging
its way around the middle of the One
of the key elements to sailing across the Over
the last few days you may have wondered how we go about dealing with emails on
board. On board we have an Iridium satellite phone that we can use both for
data and for voice calls. The emails get compressed and forwarded both ways
via Magali in France who then, if it is a log, publishes it on the Web for us.
Taking up a great deal of her time, she is our greatest supporter and knows
the position of all our competitors all the time! Yesterday
was a big day for Vicky because as well as doing her normal fantastic stuff in
the galley it was Thanksgiving for the two Americans, Don and Craig. After a
great sweet and sour chicken and rice, Vicki managed to produce a fantastic
apple crumble - her mother would be proud of her! In between we do let her out
of the galley and she is normally to be found either wandering around on deck
with my sextant, or with her head in the books trying to do the maths for
reducing her sights. (Thank you, Malcolm) I have just spotted her on the helm,
her first time since the Canaries – Mind you, it is the most exciting
sailing we have had since the Canaries! The
two watches decided to have a 4 hour race yesterday as we were going upwind,
and although the results were close we have to report that Paul, Don, Sharon
and Franck were the winners by just over a mile - rumours were that the prize
was an extra hour in bed, although I am not sure it will ever happen! Sharon
has started her watch singing which, if you are down below trying to sleep is
quite painful... Now
a word from our French crewmate: " Vendredi est traditionnellement le
jour du poisson, c'est ce que nous avons pensé a 1hoo du matin lorsque notre
ligne tendue a émis un son strident. PAUL s'est battu une demi-heure pour
retirer un ..... magnifique sac plastique ! La vie s'organise a bord de
NORTHERN CHILD au rythme des quarts (éprouvants). L'ambiance est excellente
et chacun fait le maximum pour rendre notre traversee agreable. Chaque équipier,
selon son niveau, contribue à faire naviguer au mieux notre magnifique SWAN.
Cette course est aussi une véritable aventure humaine, notre bateau abolit
les frontieres, les cultures et nous rend solidaires. Julian, notre skipper,
en plus d'etre un chic type, est un véritable renard des mers, trs experimenté,
qui nous trace une route très au nord. Cette option s'avère payante (8/9 N
sous spi). Nous pensons etre en bonne position. J'ai une pensee particulière
pour ma femme (je t'aime) et mes enfants que j'embrasse affectueusement.
Amical bonjour à tous mes amis et à tous ceux qui me soutiennent dans cette
aventure" Bien a vous. FRANCK
the Frog We
are going along beautifully with a spinnaker up at 8 1/2 or 9 knots over the
ground. There is a lot of cloud around associated with the front coming off
Tropical storm Delta, but all is fine on board and we are revelling in the
great sailing conditions. We have 22 knots of true breeze on the beam and are
right on the edge of having to bring the spi down - but it is fun! Wow,
fresh from the press - we just hooked onto a blue marlin! Only problem was we
were doing 9 knots with the spinnaker up - by the time we had blown the kite
the line went slack and he was gone. We reeled in to check the lure and found
that he had bitten clean through the wire leader so he must have been big.
Sharon saw him leaping clear of the waves behind us; we have now decided not
to fish whilst we have the kite up as it is too difficult to get the fish back
in to the boat and we only want to catch what we can eat. That's
it for today. Julian and Franck
Paul,
Franck, Sharon, Don trimming the kite and Vicky at the helm Daily
Log Position
20.59N, 24.43W Last
night Craig and Scotty volunteered to make dinner to give Vicky an evening
off. They did wonders using a pack of chopped beef (filet steak?) a couple of
onions, potatoes, beer, thyme, carrots, croutons, cream and a photocopy of
Delia Smith's "Beef in Beer Stew".
Vicky enjoyed her evening out of Northern Childs rolling sauna!!
Yesterday, as it was Friday, was fish day, so we also tried fishing.
All we managed to do was loose the favourite lucky green squid lure to
a blue marlin (at least 700lbs!!!) and 2 other bites that got away so beef in
beer it was! Vicky
was up early this morning - all of 6:55 - due to a wave that poured down the
hatch and onto her bunk - even poor Squiddles the sea dog (her teddy bear)
will have to get the salt out of his fur. So she has volunteered to help with
this log. The
two watches have settled in well, and now have names.
First is "Ham" watch, named after their fearless watch
leader's (Paul's) claim to be the descendent to someone named Cyrano (Serrano)
de Bergerac(which is ham in Spanish). Sharon continues her karaoke and keeping
ham watch awake and alert. Paul
has discovered the Bounty bars in the midnight box and Franck now has stickers
all over the boat pointing him in the right direction as he steers the boat! ( The
second watch is Circle watch, owing to their dubious helming abilities one
night early on in the trip whilst we were becalmed.
Scotty (Neil) was on the helm this morning, but after a big Friday
night out on the town, our Glaswegian's helming this Saturday morning leaves a
little to be desired! They are also known as the tweeky watch as Craig was
spotted this morning attaching wool and duck tape to the Staysail so they
could trim it better! Lawrence is the stalwart helm of the team less prone to
sailing in circles. There is still fierce competition over the highest boat
speed achieved. Scotty reached 8.6 Knots as he broached the boat on a wrong
course this morning and big breaking news - Craig has just hit 9.8! At least
the speed is going in the right direction, up. Having
spent hours downloading the weather and considering our options we have
settled on our current course to the south-west which is taking us around the
edge of the low pressure system Tropical Storm/Hurricane Delta; as a result of
this storm activity we have had a lot of cloud cover, and the crew are
complaining about the lack of sun tans! The storm system is due to fade away
to the north-east and so shouldn't be a direct problem to us. We are expecting
to pick up the trade winds by Tuesday and we can then turn right, head west
and have the sunny downwind sailing that the ARC is famous for! The only
problem is that between us and the trades is a big area of light winds - here
we go again! Our
last 24 hour run has been our best run so far of 184 miles over the ground
towards the south-west. Unfortunately this does not directly translate to 184
miles towards St Lucia as it lies to the west of us, as does Storm Delta,
which is why we are taking the long route round! Remember however that we have
sailed all the way so far and that all is left to play for over the remaining
2,000 miles to St Lucia; I don't do this to come last! That's it for now,
Vicky and Julian
HAPPY
HOUR ON DECK YESTERDAY FOR MARIA, FRANCK, DON AND SHARON Daily
Log Northern Child 1200UTC 27/11/05
Position:
18.30N 27.13W Course:
SW at 8 knots, in a dying southeast wind. Our
highest run of the trip so far - 198.5 miles over the ground in the last 24
hours - fantastic. Ok, not exactly towards St Lucia, but it is all part of the
cunning plan. Yes, believe it or not, we are following a grand plan which is
going fine at the moment. Our position puts us just 130 nautical miles
north-west of the Cap Verde Islands if you are looking at a chart or map of
our route. Today's
picture winging its' way to you from the tropical Mid Atlantic is of our two
fearless watchleaders, Paul and Mike. As
you can see, the sun has finally come out and we are half-way to sunburn
already... it has now started getting hot both on deck and down below. All
those members of the crew who only yesterday were saying it was more like the
English Channel are now much happier. At
the time of this log we have now completed our first week at sea – having
left at 1300 hours last Sunday. Our total distance made good has now gone up
to a very respectable 920 miles, all under sail. We have even managed to catch
up and in some cases overtake some of the boats of a similar size to us who
have motored earlier on in the trip, which is extremely pleasing. Both watches
to continue to sail well, looking at sail trim constantly to get the best out
of the boat. It does make a difference, especially in the light stuff. Up
until now the sky has been pretty cloudy as a result of Tropical Storm Delta,
but for the first time this morning the clouds are moving away to the
north-east and we are left with a mostly blue sky and the temperature soaring.
Associated with this will be a light patch of wind over the next two days,
which, because of its' size will be pretty hard to avoid. However, out the
other side of this is sailing Nirvana heaven - the North East Trades. Called
Alizees in French, they were named as such because in the old days of trade
under sail, they could only sail downwind. Which is why we are also looking
for them; we should get 20 knots from behind us for days at a time, sufficient
wind to be able to point nicely at St Lucia with good mileage being ticked off
every day and bright sunshine. A
guest appearance in this log from our Jerseyman Lawrence: I
first heard of the ARC two years ago when I was invited to crew on the yacht
of a friend who was positioning his boat in Southern Portugal, prior to
joining the 2003 crossing of the Atlantic. This was my first long distance
passage in a yacht (Previous long sea voyages having been taken by courtesy of
Her Britannic Majesty's Royal Navy). I then read in the St Hélier Yacht Club
newsletter of a member who had made the crossing on board a boat called We
have indeed just caught a fish, although it is appetiser size more than
anything else! But the good news is that we have broken our duck and managed
to land, kill, gut and prepare a dorado, definitely the sweetest eating fish
in this part of the sea. Skipper's method of killing it was to chop its' head
off with a diving knife, which certain members of the crew didn't find
particularly nice - But hey, it is now filleted and sitting in the fridge
ready as a starter for tonight. Life's okay out here on the ocean wave! Until
tomorrow, Julian and Lawrence
Paul
and Mike, Northern Child’s watchleaders Daily
Log Northern Child 1030UTC 28/11/05
Position: 17.08N
29.05W What
a beautiful morning - the sun came up on a beautiful calm empty sea apart from
Northern Child, a few sea birds and a few puffy clouds away on the horizon.
Absolutely no other human life to be seen, amazing. The
wind has progressively calmed down overnight as we thought it might and by
dawn we were left going to windward on a flat sea at 3 and 1/2 knots. We
downloaded some more weather files onto the laptop which told us that our
current target of still going another degree south, 60 miles, would in the
medium term get us to our trade winds. Further
south we are expecting the winds to pick up to 15 knots from behind and then
24 hours later we should be into east or north-easterly 20 knots, just what
the doctored ordered. We can't however be confident that we have managed to
get past the hole until later this afternoon so by tomorrow's log we will
either be very happy sailors or just plain depressed. Considering
the lighter patches of breeze that we have encountered, our last 24 hour run
of 145 miles has been excellent, again all under sail, at an average speed of
6 knots over the ground. Both watches are pretty tired now as it is extremely
difficult to keep the average speeds up in the light stuff. We have sailed
over 1,000 miles from Las Palmas and we have some 1,850 still to go to St
Lucia; calls of 'we are almost there' by certain crew members might be a
little way still from the truth! We are now 200 miles west of the nearest
point of land, the Last
night happy hour commenced with champagne to celebrate completion of seven
days at sea without using the engine. We thought we would try and repair
Foreign Relations and Franck (French) and Don (American)made dinner for us.
Having caught a second small Dorado earlier on in the afternoon, they conjured
up pan fried Dorado filets in garlic, olive oil and fresh lemon juice as a
starter. Chilli con carne evolved into an excellent Trade Winds Beef washed
down with a bottle of Spanish Red. The further south we go the hotter the
galley becomes! We
have a great B and G instrument system (Brookes and Gatehouse, a well
established UK firm building high quality marine instruments) which as well as
other displays around the boat has three large red repeaters on the mast with
big digits that the watch can set to read out any information they want. As
you are steering at night you can look forward through the mast to the horizon
ahead with your steering information right in your line of sight - brilliant!(
except that certain ex-B and G employees on board keep on fiddling with the
buttons and I never know what piece of information I am going to find where!) Sharon
nursed a bird back to health on deck last night. Thought to be a land bird
from the Cap Verdes, it landed in the cockpit absolutely exhausted and spent
20 minutes having a chat with Sharon before flying off refreshed... (Having
studied the bird book on board, we have decided that it wasn't a sea based
bird, therefore our conclusion was that it must have been a Cap Verde bird). We
are far enough south now to start seeing flying fish, much to the amazement of
some on board. These guys are really fast and have evolved their side fins to
extend almost like wings, so that when they are being chased by tuna they can
leap clear of the waves and skim along the surface of the sea. Unfortunately
if a yacht happens to be in the way at night, then they land on board. If you
don't discover it until morning, it can be a pretty smelly experience! Just
after 0800 we picked up a great bit of breeze from the south east – we are
hard on the wind doing 8.0 knots away from the side of this hole - fingers
crossed, if we can keep this up then we could be into the trades by this
evening..... At least that's what we keep hoping. Oh no, the wind's off a bit
already! That's sailing. Craig has just come down the hatch after a fast 30
minutes steering with a big grin on his face - he says his face muscles ache
from too much smiling. I
asked if anyone had any comments for this log: Scotty Dog, Neil, says he is
having a great time, amazing sailing and Vicky wants Malcolm to know that her
astro sight of Mars worked out really well! That's
it for today; the sun is baking down on us, the wind is back down to 7 knots
and we are making 5.2 knots to the west-south-west. Mike's watch is on duty
trying to keep us moving and Paul's watch are spread out over the decks in
various spots. It is quite amusing, we are in the middle of the Atlantic and
Mike has just called for all the crew on deck to go and sit on the low side -
a light weather racing tactic used in inshore races - great. We are expecting
a slow, hot day with hopes for the wind picking up again later. Julian Daily
Log Position
16.05N 30.05W Our
last 24 hour run has been a real test of all of us! The good news is that by
dawn this morning the wind had gone round to the north-east and come up enough
for us to head more to the west and put our big running kite (spinnaker) up.
We are now finally pointing in the right direction for St Lucia, Hallelujah! We
have only managed to cover a testing 87 miles in the last 24 hours, but
believe me every mile has been hard fought for and won, the engine still
hasn't been used and we are now out of that hole. It leaves us with just on
1800 miles to run to St Lucia which will takes us approximately 10 days under
sail. It is a funny feeling, as we are now pointing at St Lucia it somehow
feels like we are almost there, but in fact we are not even half way! Oh
well... The wind went really light lunchtime yesterday and with Paul's watch on deck we managed to head in all directions at no speed whatsoever. Paul confidently tells me that it was the hardest watch of the trip so far. We did manage to go for a swim, the only problem with that being that we were swimming faster than the boat! As you can see from the picture, we really are down in the tropics now - the sea and sky are blue and it's HOT! Currently we have 32 degrees at the chart table.
As
the day wore on into the evening the wind started to come up for us and we
went from a drifter to a sailing boat again. Most pleasingly it started to go
around until by the end of the evening it was exactly where we wanted it -
behind us! We have found the trades! Now
a guest appearance from Franck: COCORICO
LA "Face
a la mer" chante Julian, grand fan de CALOGERO : seuls au monde au milieu
de l'Ocean, notre horizon au quotidien. Nous evoluons favorablement apres
avoir connu une mer d'huile hier A.M : ambiance croisiere et plongeon dans le
grand bleu. Nous sommes maintenant dans le couloir des alizes, nous attendons
20 nds. Tout droit a fond. Esperons arriver jeudi 8, ca va etre chaud pour
l'avion de vendredi !! juste le temps d'un rhum (ou 2). Cote classement on
vise toujours la premiere place dans notre division (pas de moteur, pas de
pilote auto) et au general tout est possible, ceux qui utilisent le moteur (autre
division) sont tres penalises, c'est une course a handicap. Je poursuis mon
apprentissage, je vais bientôt quitter la categorie "mousse" avec
les conseils de CRAIG, MIKE, PAUL et DON, habitues des competitions et bien
entendu JULIAN, notre skipper avise. Belle equipe, tres solidaire (idee stage
entreprise !), bonne ambiance a bord, j'ai une chance formidable de vivre
cette aventure. J'en profite pour vous donner notre recette du "boeuf des
alizes", repas concocte avec DON dimanche : Vous prenez une cuisine,
petite si possible, vous chauffez la piece a 35/40, pas moins, vous montez sur
votre skate et vous vous lancez : faites revenir oignons, carottes, ail dans
de l'huile d'olive, puis rajoutez ensuite votre hachis de boeuf, accompagne de
puree de tomates et de sauce mexicaine, epices, en fin de cuisson versez le
riz, melangez regulierement, laissez gonfler le riz, voilà, et si vous etes
toujours debout, sans trop de contusions, sortez de votre sauna et allez
servir vos invites, qui seront tout d'abord etonnes de votre mine de homard
ebouillante, bon appetit !!! amities a groupe LELIEVRE, Sofial (bon courage)
et mes partenaires. Bonjour a mes parents, Jocelyne et Fernand et toute ma
famille. A tous mes proches et nombreux amis, merci pour votre soutien, becs a
Lise et Philippe (OK for the bordoouu). Je pense surtout a ma femme (mille
merci) et mes enfants, vous me manquez. Gros bisous, je vous aime. Franck
the froggy sailor
If
you are looking at yacht positions on the web, it is really difficult to see
who is doing well, as so many boats have motored, and it is not normally until
after the rally is finished do you really know how well individual boats have
done. We're
happy; we're sailing in the right direction at 8 knots with a massive blue and
white spinnaker up, the weather is getting hotter and everyone's still friends
- what more need I say? Until tomorrow, Julian Daily
Log Northern Child 1200UTC 301105 Ho
hum, the sun is out, the sea is blue, the sky is blue and the trades have
stayed in steady for us over the last 24 hours; We've maintained constant good
progress towards Overnight
the wind increased a bit to average 20 knots from the east and we dropped the
spinnaker at last light, replacing it with a poled out genoa (a big white
headsail attached to the end of a spinnaker boom) and a staysail. Despite
reducing the sail area by getting rid of the spinnaker, we still managed, in
the increased wind, to keep our speed roughly the same. What the sail change
has done is to allow us to keep the boat more under control in the dark,
because if you are going to have a problem, it will involve a spinnaker in
rough seas at night! The
weather outlook is holding good for the next few days with a slight lightening
of the winds expected this afternoon into tomorrow. Associated with this will
be a slight shift south over the next couple of days of the wind, so our
strategy is to keep climbing down the lines of latitude so that we position
ourselves okay for the expected weather.(Latitude are the lines that go
horizontally around the Earth - the equator is a line of Latitude) By
dawn this morning we found that we were no longer able to point in the desired
direction, so with both watches on deck for a watch changeover we gybed the
boat onto a slightly more south-westerly course. Although normally this is a
pretty quick operation, when we are running deep in the tropics, we set up
lots of extra ropes and poles to keep the sails steady, stop things chafing
and to make things safer for us. By the time that everything has been taken
over to the new side, the boat steadied onto her new course and the sails
trimmed properly it can easily have taken 30 minutes to accomplish. With the
water rushing past the hull at 8 or 9 knots, darkness, the wind up to 20 knots
and the waves starting to build, Mike on the foredeck (sharp/narrow end) of
the boat had to admit that things were getting lively! It
is starting to get warm down below - by 0900UTC this morning it was already 29
degrees C (85F). This makes everything more difficult including sleeping,
which has now become an interesting game. As you are lying in your bunk in the
heat you may be lucky enough to have a hatch open near you, or you may have
your fan working. It can easily be 30-32 degrees, there is constant noise of
winches and footsteps on deck, the continuous rushing noise of water past the
hull, the wind in the rigging and the boat is not only rolling from side to
side but also being moved in all directions at all times - fun! Despite this
we are all getting enough sleep, and in fact now that the weather is so
fabulous, more and more off-watch periods are being spent on deck, either
sunbathing or hiding from the sun in whatever shade can be found. Everyone has
now also got over any feelings of seasickness they might have once had, so it
is now easier to relax and enjoy the sailing. The
watch on duty are lucky - they have a lovely bimini, white canvas hood
stretched over an aluminium frame, stretched over the aft cockpit where the
steering position is, so they can hide out of the sun but still have the
breeze blowing through. One
of the favoured activities we get up to on deck during the crossing is wooling
the kite - sounds bizarre, but in fact is merely packing the spinnaker the
correct way after it has been dropped. In an effort to make sure that it goes
up okay the next time, we sort out the edges and then apply woollen ties every
meter or so, so that when we are next pulling it to the top of the mast the
spinnaker can get all the way up without being full of wind, this being much
safer for the crew. A skilled wooling team of Sharon, Franck, Maria and Don
yesterday left a message attached to the spinnaker for the next hoisting crew,
saying that they had packed it and it was guaranteed to launch successfully -
if not then the note was good for a rum punch in St Lucia! Guest
appearance from Don: So
far, I think that the crossing has been 5 different experiences.
The start, where we pulled ahead, and the brief gale the first
afternoon going down the coast of A
key to our success is Julian studying massive amounts of weather data and
plotting our course. I think we
also have exceptional watch leaders in Mike and Paul, assisted by Craig who
also has big boat racing experience. The
rest of us fill in our roles--driving the boat, trimming, sails, helping with
sail changes, etc. I think we're a
good team. Finally, there's Vicky
who is managing to practice her sextant work for her next yachtmaster's
license while cooking for all of us. Amazing.
Well, time to go topside. Hope you're all enjoying the logs.
-- Don That's
all for today, think of us down here in the sunny trades, good wishes to all
of you. Julian
and Don Daily
Log Northern Child 01/12/05
Position:
14.03N 36.14W Half Way! Our
daily run of 183 miles has been great - not as much as we can do, but the wind
has been down a touch and we didn't fly the spinnaker overnight due to a large
mess up on a hoist last night – more later! We are now officially half way
distance wise, with 1,438 miles still to run, although we are confident in
saying that we are well over half way time wise as we are now firmly in the
favourable winds. At
the moment we are right on the edge of what we, as a group, are capable of!
Out of the 11 on board, 9 of us are on deck working away - it's only 0930
local time, but it's really hot, 30 degrees C down below and more on deck in
the direct sunshine. Everyone's pumped up, the adrenaline is running and we
have just hoisted our big blue and white running spinnaker; there's 22 knots
of breeze in the sail and we are storming downwind weaving in and out of the
large swells that are all around us. The problem is the roll – if we were in
protected waters with the kite up, it would be happy days, but out here we are
rolling from one toerail (edge of the deck) to the other and each time we do
the masthead revolves 30 feet across the sky pulling the big kite with it,
upsetting the balance and trim of the sails. Sounds exciting - it is! Did
I mention the blue sea, blue sky and the sunshine? Oh yes, almost every day!
We are now only 840 miles north of the Equator, so the temperature is just
baking. The sky is full of small puffy cumulus clouds and we have definitely
found the trade winds - 20 plus knots out of the east, and if I can just get
the routing right we should now be able to hold wind all the way to St Lucia -
maybe sometimes going light but at least we should be able to keep going. Wow,
I've committed that to print, maybe I should put a rider at the bottom saying
I can't be held responsible for the weather....! That's
better, the wind has come down a touch and the boat feels a bit better, a bit
more in control. The trouble out here is that if we break anything, there's no
sail loft next door to repair anything. How remote are we? Well, the nearest
Island in the Cap Verdes is 670 nautical miles away to our east, upwind, and
therefore as good as unreachable. On our course, directly ahead of us and
1,100 miles away are Surinam and French Guyana in South America! Scotty
Dog, who is in fact a very highly respected University Professor, has been in
the boat news recently for many reasons. Last night Mike had been on the helm
for ages and was frustrated by lack of top end speed, until Scotty came on the
helm and beat him consistently in the first couple of minutes; he was swiftly
given the name of the Flying Scotsman! (Lots of bad language that I can't
possibly repeat here). He was also spotted in his bunk this morning still
wearing his deck shoes, as he was so tired getting in he forgot to take them
off! Unfortunately, being Glaswegian, he can't help out much in the galley as
he can't be let near sharp objects... Just
before last night and exactly at the time Vicky was trying to serve dinner we
decided to hoist our spinnaker in very boisterous conditions. It took an age
to go from the downwind sailing rig we were using to being ready for a hoist,
and on getting the spinnaker up and opening it, the boat went through a series
of huge rolls, wrapping the half opened kite around the rig at the top, 70
feet up. Luckily we noticed it very quickly and immediately went for a drop,
the result being the spinnaker back on deck but a much quieter group of
people! After that it was decided that we were happy back under our normal
genoas, and that is the way we spent the night. Having started the rice four
times for beef curry, Vicky still managed to produce for us an immaculate
curry, despite the boat rolling all over the place! There's
not that much wildlife down here at the moment, but at dawn this morning we
were treated to a show by dolphins on the bow and Sharon jumping excitedly all
over the place - she was also definitely part of the show! That's
it for today, everyone's happy, getting browner and we are reeling off the
miles to that first rum punch in St Lucia. Julian
Daily
Log Position: 13.24N 39.17W Northern
Child Features on the Home Page of World Cruising! We
have had another good days' run in lovely conditions. Our distance over the
ground has been very healthy 190 miles, the only thing to stop this being a
great run was that I ordered a gybe half way through the day. We have
therefore sailed two sides of a triangle, and not every mile we covered has
been sailed absolutely towards St Lucia. However, sailing angles is sometimes
necessary due to the wind, and in fact this was part of my grand plan! Ha, I
hear you thinking, that's where it all starts going wrong! Trouble is, all my
planning is long range, so I can only really be proved right or wrong when we
arrive. The two watches are sailing the boat really well, so I can't really
blame them, but don't tell them that! It
was a great afternoon's sailing yesterday, the wind dropping during the course
of the afternoon to between 18 and 20 knots behind us, which is perfect with
our big spinnaker up. The wind trended round to the right until it was almost
exactly right behind us, until it was time to drop the kite and bring the boat
around to starboard. I was warned by Vicky that if I ordered this manoeuvre
during dinner time again I would not be in favour, so we held off until after
dinner! As
we had passed the half way point, Vicky decided it was a good time to bring
out some ice cream cones from the freezer! On board Northern Child we have a
really good freezer system that allows us to freeze down enough fresh meat to
last us all the way across the Atlantic. On finding that she still had some
space left in the freezer, Vicky was sensible enough to fill it with ice cream
which is given out only when she thinks we deserve it! Mike's
watch of Craig, Maria, Lawrence and Scotty Dog were off watch asleep and so at
2000 hours Paul, Don, Sharon and Franck, ably assisted by Vicky and myself
blew the kite off the end of the pole (took it down!) and started the process
of gybing the main, getting it across to the other side of the boat, securing
it and then setting up our headsails for the night. As it was dark and the
winds were still ok we decided to be prudent and not put the kite up, electing
to have an easier night's sail with the mainsail, our big genoa set out to
Starboard on our pole and our smaller genoa out to port. This is a great Trade
Winds rig, because we can fly vast amounts of sail area with great safety - on
the contrary, if we handled the spinnaker wrong at night we could do great
damage to either the boat or people. During
the day I just had to take a picture of Craig and Mike on watch which you may
have seen as Magali published it with yesterday's log. She also forwarded it
to World Cruising (the organisers of the ARC) for our log which is published
on their website daily. They picked up on the photo, loved it and put it on
their Home Page and News Page! Fantastic! Nicholas,
your Daddy set a really bad example, so if you are reading this log, please
don't copy him! Yesterday evening he was slightly bored and mischievous,
hanging around the galley when he spotted Vicky's Advent Calender full of
chocolates. Mike noticed that Vicky had forgotten to open the first door so
thought he would help her out by taking off the wrapping, opening the door and
eating the chocolate inside. Of course, Mike thought it extremely funny, until
I reminded him that it is Vicky who is feeding us all the way to St Lucia.
Vicky has thought up a suitable revenge, which we will reveal when it occurs! One
of the wonderful things about having a large crew on board is that, even after
12 days living in a space the size of a small flat, that feels like it is
getting shaken around in an earthquake, not getting enough sleep and working
hard, you can still find someone interesting to talk to. Everyone has their
own unique life story and when the moment is right it is just great to be able
to take the time to be able to learn about someone. At times it can be quite
humbling. We
are doing just fine, the mileage left to run to
Scotty
Dog, Mike, Lawrence on the helm, Craig, Sharon, all sucking on lollipos Daily
Log Position:
13.18N 42.13W I
can't keep starting these daily logs by saying that it has been another
beautiful days sailing because you will all start to get bored - but it has
been! The sea has calmed down, the wind has as well (although a little bit too
much) and we have had an idyllic 24 hours under spinnaker. Our 24 hour run has
been a great 170 miles towards St Lucia, which in these lighter airs is great
news for us, and others will find difficult to match. We
have talked with other boats just to our north on the radio and have seen that
they have fallen into the lighter winds that we have come down south to avoid,
and that some of them have had to start motoring again. One of the things we
cannot be totally sure of is how well, or badly, we are doing in class as we
are unsure how much the other boats in our class have motored, which will
affect the final handicap results. What we do know however, is that we still
haven't motored and that we think, or are pretty sure we know, that the two
boats ahead of us in our class have motored, so hopefully we have a chance of
beating them. We are also catching both of them up anyway! A
little fluffy bird settled on Franck's lap during the night and our resident
animal lover, Sharon, was extremely excited and spent ages petting it and
looking through NC's birdbook (thanks, Dad) to finally pronounce that it was a
Leach's Storm Petrel. This bird is found widely ranging around the Atlantic
and Franck and Sharon would like to let everyone know that after a short rest,
the bird was able to fly away refreshed! We still don't have any moon at night yet, but it is now warm all the way through the night which makes the night watches much nicer. The sun set yesterday in an extraordinary riot of pink and yellow colours which stretched all the way around the horizon. Pretty soon the sky was just a carpet of stars and planets with Venus and Mars shining brilliantly amongst the others. As
the wind held steady and reasonably light, we kept the spinnaker up overnight
and in fact are still running with the same spinnaker we put up at dawn
yesterday. The wind has picked up a bit now with the new day and moved forward
on us, so we are able to keep trimming and increase our speed a little.
Wonderful sailing conditions. People are now saying that this is more like the
brochure said! All I can say in my defence is that at least we avoided the
hurricane! The
weather files are looking good for our route up to St Lucia now and we have
broken through 1,100 miles to go - it is still the same distance as Brest in
Western France to Gibraltar, so we aren't quite there yet! During happy hour
last night we asked everyone to write down an expected (hoped for!) arrival
time and they ranged from Thursday Evening to Friday Morning, with Franck
being the most optimistic as he has the earliest flight! It all now depends on
the winds and whether or not we are in the right place regarding wind strength
for the rest of the trip. As
I look out of the main hatch (the entrance way into the boat from on deck)
Sharon, Don and Franck are washing the cockpits clean and Paul is driving the
boat. It is all bright, bright blue and sunshine with the spinnaker gamely
pulling us on our way to St Lucia. There's not much movement on the boat now
due to the calm seas, but we are powering along at 8 knots over the ground
with a clean wake carving out behind us. During
the night
That's
all for today; I leave you as Paul's watch have started a water fight having
cleaned the cockpits and Mike's watch are starting to wake up. We are pointing
in the right direction at a good speed - what more can we ask for? Julian Daily
Log Position:
13.21N 45.35W We
have had a fantastic day's run and an interesting 24 hours at sea – more of
which later. The wind gods have been kind to us and we have managed to sail
196 miles, all directly towards St Lucia. This leaves us with 898 miles to
sail to St Lucia and our spread of ETA's between Thursday evening and The
wind stayed a little light during the afternoon at around 15 knots, but,
unlike many other boats to our north, we still managed to run along very
nicely under a full main and spinnaker, with enough breeze to give us a lovely
afternoon's sail. Every day I am on the radio net either giving weather
forecasts or taking the roll call, or just chatting with friends on other
boats, so we have a pretty good idea of what wind others are sailing in. At
the moment it has worked out nicely, but there is still that little matter of
900 miles to go! During
the course of the evening the wind increased as we had hoped and built to a
healthy 20 - 25 knots true. The two night watches until 0200 had an absolutely
peachy run pushing the boat hard under spinnaker with a sky full of stars and
a relatively flat sea. The moon made a new and very welcome appearance in the
west below Venus and reflected beautifully on the sea ahead of us for an hour
- it seems as if we are being beckoned down a silvery path of light leading
towards our destination when the moon is out. We look forward now to the moon
increasing in size and staying up longer each night over the coming days. Towards
the end of Paul's watch around 0500 this morning with Paul, Don, Sharon and
Franck on deck the boat was becoming a bit lively and the sea had obviously
got up a bit. I looked up out of my bunk and thought, okay, time to go on deck
and noticed that Craig had the same thought at the same time, although seeing
me go on deck he lay back down. The wind was blowing a steady 25 knots and the
waves were a bit playful, my initial thought being 'time to get this spinnaker
down'! Paul was driving, seemed happy and the wind came down a little bit; we
both thought that it seemed okay, although an extremely exhilarating ride
through the darkness of the night. I went down below for a couple of minutes when 'bang'! The wind shot up in speed, went round behind the main, collapsed the spinnaker and tried to lay us flat! This was immediately followed by the boat rolling on a huge wave the other way, us tipping wildly to port (the left) and several large breaking waves shipping aboard and drenching Scotty and Franck's bunks forward! Meanwhile on deck everything was still wild and Craig and I clambered out of the hatch to try and see what we could do. Deciding at this stage that we had had enough of this ....ing kite, Craig trippe |
