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| Transatlantic ARC 2006
NORTHERN CHILD COMPLETED HER 6TH TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING IN 15 DAYS, 16 hours, 4 minutes and 31 seconds Below are Northern Child's daily logs - enjoy the reading and please do get in contact if you too wish to experience a transatlantic crossing on our Swan 51. Daily
Log No.17 Northern Child Arrived!
AT 0104 local time Northern Child crossed the finish line in Rodney Bay of ARC
2006, her 6th successive finish in the last 6 years! The
wind held good for us all afternoon and the miles ticked away. It seemed that
the closer we got, the slower the miles ticked down - can't be! A beautiful
sunny afternoon gave way initially to a star lit sky, which was joined by the
moon shining strongly down on our arrival later on in the evening. As we drew
closer to Just
short of the finish we were joined by Tim Wright who buzzed around us for 10
minutes in his dinghy taking photographs of our arrival. Then the line! A huge
cheer and we were over! What a great feeling, a great satisfaction of having
done a good crossing. Our
final run was 136 miles all of which was under spinnaker, apart from rounding
up for the finish line. The total distance sailed was 2,856 miles all under
sail. We finished the passage having achieved our objectives: we sailed the On
arrival in What
next for Northern Child? We are going to stay in It
leaves me now to say thank you to everyone who participated in this adventure
with me. Thank you to the girls, Kat and Kathy for looking after us so well
all the way across the That
leaves me still with one thank you to do: to Magali, my wife, who sticks by me
through thick and thin, organises absolutely everything and has been our link
to shore during the whole Atlantic passage - she has been our email contact,
our log publisher, our support team. Mags, without you none of this would
happen, so thanks for everything. That's
it, finished. The last log completed. Northern Child is straining at her
mooring lines, raring to go again, to fulfill other dreams. Maybe in a couple
of days the crew will be ready too! To you, the readers: this log has been for
you. I hope that you have enjoyed this journey across the ocean with us - join
us again, come sailing or live another voyage with us through the logs. Either
way, we look forward to hearing from you again. If you wish to receive any
information about Northern Child and our program, please feel free to contact
Magali on magali@northernchild.com. A
bientot and lots of happy sailing to all. Julian,
Northern Child. Daily
Log No.16 Northern Child Another
beautiful day out here on the ocean as we draw ever closer to During
Sunday afternoon the winds dropped down to 15 knots, so we dropped the headsails
and put up our repaired running spinnaker - see the photo! This held nicely for
us, the only problem being that within two hours the wind had backed to the East
North East and it was time for a gybe. As well as changing direction on us, the
wind had also picked up to 20 knots again so we successfully retrieved the
spinnaker, gybed Northern Child and went back to our two running headsails. The
new gybe came exactly at the right time, and meant that we are now pointing
right at Sunday
was Dave A's 50th birthday and a good excuse to eat ourselves into oblivion!
Having started the day off watch, Dave A started his birthday by opening cards
which were hung up in the saloon. Amongst rounds of very poor renditions of
Happy Birthday to you, he finally got the bacon baguettes he had been dreaming
of for ages for lunch. Freshly made scones for tea, champagne with aperitifs
before dinner, thirds of spaghetti carbonara followed by two helpings of
birthday cake, all finished off by his present of a box of Ferrero Rocher, and
even Dave A admitted he was full!
Going
on deck at 0400 this morning was a real treat. With Javier driving and Rich's
watch on deck we were making a steady 8 knots towards This
morning we have a new speed king - 'Enri hit 13.4 knots, is delighted, and now
hopes that the wind is going to moderate a little, our pace will slow, and no
one else can beat him! So
what is our ETA? If only we knew! So much depends on the wind that it is almost
impossible to get it right, but I would hope around midnight tonight local time,
unless we lose the wind when it could be midday Tuesday! What is the worst time
to arrive - 0400 local? That's probably going to be our arrival time! We have
covered 192 miles in the last 24 hours, a great run considering the lighter
winds of yesterday afternoon. We have now sailed 2,723 miles from Bay
Daily
Log No.15 Northern Child That
serves me right! No sooner had I finished typing the paragraph in yesterday's
log hoping that the wind would hold steady for us, than the wind changed! Oh no!
We had a squall come through with driving rain and 30 knot winds which meant
that we ended up having to put a reef in the mainsail (we made it smaller) and
haul the no.1 back on deck; and we could only head in a north-westerly
direction, away from St Lucia! After the squall had passed through the sun
reappeared and the wind died right away! It wasn't until later in the afternoon
that the wind strengthened and we were back onto our original course - Oh well,
that's sailing! I
was chatting yesterday afternoon with Dave E, who explained his mood. Although
keen to arrive and see Mind
you, we aren't that close - looking at the distance to go at dawn this morning
we still have 350 miles left to run, an equivalent distance to sailing across
the Bay of Biscay from South Brittany to La Coruna in northern Spain! The
difference being that we are set up with nice trade winds on our stern so we are
able to cover good distances every day, instead of having to beat into cold,
grey seas. It's
Dave A's birthday today, although as I write this he is asleep as he is off
watch. We will cover birthday celebrations tomorrow. I know that Kitty has a few
surprises lined up in the galley for him! All
night we have been making good speed with our two headsails flying out the front
of the boat. The wind steadily picked up in the dark hours until just before
dawn it was blowing up to 30 knots and the watch on deck decided to take down
the bigger of the two headsails, the no.1. With Henri driving, it was an
amazingly slick manoeuvre; Dave A on halyard, Dave C on the bow backed up by Having
an eye on the weather and anticipating an arrival into
Daily
Log No.14 Northern Child Yesterday
we had a beautiful afternoon's sailing out here on the This
year we have had a very steady run of easterly trades ever since we crossed the
trough well over a week ago. The winds have been remarkably constant in
direction and strength and have offered few shifts on which you are able to pass
onto a more favourable gybe, to take advantage of a new angle to
There
is a four hour time difference between During
last night we gybed onto a new heading towards Daily Log No.13 Northern Child How
can I start another daily log in the same vein as yesterdays? But it's difficult
not to - it's that old sunshine, blue skies, blue sea, wind behind and puffy
white cumulus thing again! The sort of thing that Frank Sinatra should have
written a song about; maybe he did! What's
happening on board at the moment? Rich's watch are on deck, keeping us pointing
nicely at St Lucia as we are swooping down the face of the big easterly swells
with Ian driving. As we accelerate off the crests the speed lifts from 9 to 10
to 11 to 12, and down below you hear the water rushing past the hull. The swells
eventually pass beneath us and the boat heels right over to port, water rushing
over the leeward deck, then immediately corrects back to starboard. Momentarily
you lose your balance again and grab hold onto whatever you can, until the
status quo is re-established for a fraction of a second before it all starts
over again! Today's picture is of the off watch relaxing below decks.
The
power, the beauty of the never ending rollers as they pass underneath the hull
endlessly; nature at her best, still largely not ruined by mankind. Describing
the attraction of why we are out here is impossible - it can be tough,
uncomfortable, challenging, tiring, frightening, but it's vital and real and I
know that this time next year I will be back here again for my 10th ARC. That's
sailing. Last
night we almost had a murder mystery on board. Kat had come up with her boat -
famous lasagne (it has to be tasted to be believed, but one thing it isn't, is
low cal). Three of us were silly enough to go for thirds, no names Dave A, We
have been asked how the final results are arrived at for the ARC. In the
cruising division, which we are in, each yacht has a ARC rating – furthermore
the use of the engine is permitted but penalised with a time adjustment at the
end of the rally. The motoring penalty factor is not known and is decided by the
ARC Committee each year. Our aim on Northern Child is not to use the motor or
the autopilot on the crossing, which we so far have managed. Our
daily run for the last 24 hours has been the best of the trip so far for us -
209 miles towards Daily
Log No.12 Northern Child This
trip to We
haven't seen much over the last few days, in fact the highpoint has been an
Egret that came and flew around us for an hour or two and then flew off again.
With so many boats all heading to the same place you might have the idea that we
are sailing along in company with one another, but that really isn't the case;
it's a huge ocean out here. We
have settled down into a routine where eating, sleeping and being on watch rule
our 24 hour existence. Yesterday was a bank holiday in
Progress has been fine over the last 24 hours -
we have sailed 202 miles towards Daily
Log No.11 Northern Child
During Happy Hour last night we
wrote down anticipated ETA's from all the crew. Having spent all afternoon
pondering the problem, we have arrived with a spread from 0200 on Tuesday
morning from Luis, to midnight on Tuesday night from 'Enri. Last year I
supported a local St Lucia Charity, the Ciceron Orphanage, and proceeds from our
ETA competition will be going to them. The Orphanage has between 25 and 30
street children residential, and is not supported by any government agency. It
occurred to me that the fleet that annually sails on the ARC is extremely
wealthy, and as the future lies with the children of the The
speed keeps on going the right way - up. Brendan from the We
have sailed a fantastic 207 miles in a south westerly direction, the 4th
day in a row that we have clocked up mileages of more than 196. We have 1120
miles to sail to the northern end of Daily
Log No.10 Northern Child It
would be difficult to describe the sea conditions of the last 12 hours as
anything approaching comfortable - the sea has been whipped up by an increase of
wind speed to 25 knots steady. Of course there is always a good side to
everything and with the increase in wind has come a good daily mileage, and this
last 24 hours we have managed to cover 199 miles, making three good 24 hour runs
of over 8 knots over the ground for the last three days. We
were lucky that the wind has come up this morning, because my early morning on
deck inspection revealed a 6 foot tear in the leech, or aft end of our biggest
genoa. Set on our spinnaker pole to windward, our biggest Dacron headsail has
been used and abused on this trip so far, so it deserves a bit of TLC. Having
wrestled the sail to the deck, it is now drying in the morning sun, and waiting
for our talented sail mending team to get to work - I am not sure who it will be
today - some lucky on-watch crew! Today
we have two pictures with the log. The first is of young 'Enri’ enjoying the
thrills of surfing downwind in 25 knots of breeze at 10 knots. The second is of
the reigning speed kings from port watch: on the right is Al with 11.3, who has
been christened Ernest due to the new beard, and on the left is the reigning
champion Dave A with 11.5 knots - like the hat, Dave! There is a rumour that
starboard watch achieved 11.7 knots, but no one has stepped forward to claim it;
they are now trying to involve me and claim me as a witness, but I know nothing!
As
last night we were going to be at or around the half way mark to The
winds look excellent for the next four or five days, giving promise to a wild
but fast run in to the vicinity of the Our
course at the moment isn't perfect; we are being forced down a little bit
further south of our ideal line, but with 25 knots blowing it is safer to keep
the wind on one side of the boat, and not right behind us. The atmosphere on
board this morning has been fantastic. We have covered 199 miles in the last 24
hours, have sailed a total of 1,514 miles and have approximately 1,315 miles
left to run to the north corner of Daily
Log No.9 Northern Child Ho
hum, another day in paradise - or not as the case may be. The wind has
remained up around the 20 knot mark for the last 24 hours so the sailing has
been hard and fun, with a good 24 hour run of 196 miles to add to our total
distance from The
problem with the wind being up is that the sea hasn't been calm, far from it.
As we weave our way amongst the swells and waves, the boat experiences some
quite abrupt movements which translate to - uncomfortable! It doesn't seem so
bad on deck as it does down below when you are trying to do anything that
involves balancing! Our
resident cook, Kitty Kat, suffers down below as have her predecessors. Her job
sounds great - I think I sold it to her along the lines of: Sail to the
Caribbean, it will be fabulous, waving palm trees, sandy beaches, clear water
and rum punches! However. A big however - we have to sail nearly 3,000 miles
across the It
is easy to feel queasy out here, as the ocean never really rests. The annoying
thing is that it can happen to anyone anytime, and does. Nelson used to be
sick the whole time, so I guess that he's good company. Seasickness sucks,
it's that simple. Starboard
watch under It's
not all sweetness and light out here, at times it's real, it's hard and it can
be frightening. Challenging personal boundaries can be exactly that,
challenging. As skipper, yesterday afternoon I made the decision to put up a
second headsail forcing the watch on deck to dance on the narrow, moving,
potentially frightening and frequently wet foredeck. Not popular amongst some
of the watch! But, they did it, we achieved our goal and the boat felt better
for it - faster and steadier. We faced the challenge, we succeeded, good work,
boys and girls. By
midnight tonight we should have reached the half-way mileage marker. Roughly
1,400 miles sailed, 1,400 miles to go. It's a long way to sail; a lot of the
remainder of the voyage will be taken up with: When will we arrive! But,
there's still a way to go yet, adventures to be faced and friends to be made.
A Bientot, Julian NC Daily
Log No.8 Northern Child We
have had a fantastic 24 hours sailing and have sailed our furthest 24 hour
distance of the trip so far. The wind has remained constant for us out of the
east at roughly 20 knots and we have revelled in the constant trade winds. An
east or north-east wind in this region at this time of year is called a 'Trade
Wind' because in the old days of square rigged sailing ships the Captains of the
vessels would be looking to sail downwind, or away from the wind, because they
only set square sails that operated efficiently downwind. They
were trading cargoes out to the The
only problem is that as the winds go up, so does the sea, which makes living on
board less comfortable. In case you think that your friends or loved ones on
board were having an easy time out here, let me run a scenario past you. Say you
were on watch from 1800 to 2200 hours, the sea was running quite high and you
were having to work hard, both steering and changing sails. You then go down for
four hours rest at 2200 hours, but at the same time the sea builds up on the
beam and so you are thrown around in your bunk the whole time you are trying to
sleep. You finally get some shut eye at 0130, only to have the watch on deck
wake you up 10 minutes later for your next shift from 0200 to 0600 - that's what
happened last night! Oh well, anything worth doing is not necessarily easy. I
have been mulling over a question that I thought you might like to share with me
- why are the crew here? What is it that made them arrange a month or so away
from friends or family, not an easy thing to do anyway, and made them want to
cross an ocean on a small sailing boat? Everyone had different answers, but
through them ran a similar thread. Here is a selection of answers: Dave C - 8
years ago I knew someone else who was doing it, I became inquisitive and
realised that I would like to know how I would cope for so long at sea in the
same circumstances. Ian
- I love exploring and traveling and also felt that I needed to do something
that challenged me and got me out of my comfort zone. This trip provides for
both of these needs in spades.
We
have sailed 197 miles towards Daily Log No.7 Northern Child Over
the last 24 hours the wind has continued to build up from the East and is now
blowing a steady and useful 20 knots. This means that we have been able to point
pretty well straight at The
sun has continued to shine on the worthy, with the temperature down below decks
hovering around the 30 degree centigrade mark. On deck we are now sporting our
bimini - a cover on a stainless steel frame, to keep the sun off the helmsman
and the watch in the aft cockpit. Our main problem now is avoiding sunburn!
Which isn't the same at all for Dave E's family – an email from back home in
Thinking
of bananas, we perform a daily chore - rooting through all the fruit and
vegetables that we bought in Just after dark last night we managed to twist the spinnaker around the forestay, but after a 20 minute fight we emerged victorious with the smaller kite intact, back on deck and back in its' bag. The wind having got up during the afternoon we made the decision of sailing overnight with two headsails instead of the spinnaker much easier. Over the last 24 hours we have managed to sail 178 miles, and with the current wind holding we are hoping for another better 24 hours to come. Have a nice weekend - we will! A bientot, Julian Northern Child Daily
Log No.6 Northern Child This
morning it is the 1st of December and I guess that for most of you the days
are drawing in, the temperatures are becoming cooler and the weather more
wintry? Well,
out here we're suffering too - the wind has been generally light for the last
36 hours, which has meant that the boat has been nice and steady. The skies
are typical of this region at this time of year, mostly blue with puffy white
cumulus clouds dotted around like woolly sheep and during the day the
temperature has got up to around 30 degrees C. Hmm, I guess it's not that bad!
Off watch in the afternoon, the crew is mostly to be found reading on the
foredeck in the shade of the sails, listening to the water rushing past the
foredeck. Just
before dark yesterday evening we had to gybe, bringing the wind across to the
other side of the boat, as it had shifted. Now feeling mildly confident with
our abilities, the old spinnaker came down, gybe completed pretty quick and
the spinnaker hoisted on the new side. Then it went wrong! As we hoisted the
big blue and white kite, the boat went through a massive series of rolls and
the sail managed to wrap itself around our inner forestay. No problem. Down it
came again, except a little too far and in fact managed to drop itself into
the water. Oh no. Now, spinnakers
are not meant to be used in the water and so we quickly released the corners
and hauled it on board in under a minute - trouble was, it had suffered as a
result of its aquatic adventures and on packing it back into its bag we
discovered a 10 foot rip - ooops! Not
to be discouraged, we hoisted our asymmetric spi PDQ and were off again at 6
knots in light breeze towards The
picture today has been of the Port watch, under Dave C. Dave C has given the
trip to himself as his 50th birthday present - way to go, Dave! He has been
sailing for 15 years, the first 10 years in dinghys and the last 5 years
racing offshore. Dave has participated in RORC and JOG offshores and owns a
Hawk 20 daysailor, with which he taught his children to sail. Dave
A celebrates his 50th on passage, just before we get in to
This
morning I overheard a lovely conversation between Kitty Kat and Dave A. Dave A
on deck: Dolphins: Kitty: Where? Dave A: In the water! We
have had a super 24 hours sail - mostly in calm waters with sunshine and under
a star studded night. We have sailed 140 miles towards Daily
Log No.5 Northern Child Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream! You might gather from this that the wind died on us last night! We were doing fine until the sun dropped, when exactly at the same time, the wind died as well. The
problem out here on the Full
being a relative term - during the 0-God-Awful-o'clock watch, the wind had
died away to 4 knots and still with the spinnaker up, we only managed 2 knots
over the ground, with our record low of .6 of a knot! Mind you, a marked
improvement on our first night off Gran Canaria where we went backwards! In
order to try and make some headway and bring the apparent wind speed up, we
altered course to the south overnight, hoping to find more wind in the
morning. This
morning dawn came up bright and sunny, the first great dawn of the trip. One
of the nice things about sailing in these latitudes is that sunsets and
sunrises are spectacular. We have a great moon at the moment and half the
night was spent in beautiful moonlight under a carpet of stars. An added bonus
is that the weather is nice enough to keep the decks dry at night, so night
watches are a lot more pleasant than in Northern European waters. We now have
enough wind to get Northern Child back up to around 5 knots of boat speed. With
this log today is a picture of the Starboard watch, with
We
have had a quiet 24 hours with little wind, but it has been very pleasant!
Currently we have bright sunshine, the wind is blowing 10 knots out of the
north east and we have our big blue and white running kite up, making good 5.4
knots towards the south west. According to a friend of ours, John from
Guadaloupe, there is a near hurricane heading across the We
have sailed 107 nautical miles in the last 24 hours, mostly in a south
westerly direction and are hopeful for the wind to pick up again later this
evening or tomorrow morning. We are now 360 miles due west of the closest
point of the west African coastline. We aren't complaining about the light
winds: This time last year one of our watches managed 4 miles backwards in 6
hours under spinnaker, headsail, spinnaker - still a record! A bientot, Julian
Northern Child Daily Log No.4 Northern Child What
is it that we lack out here? We have a great boat - a Swan 51 across an ocean
isn't too shabby. We have a great crew - sure, as yet, we hardly know each
other, but that's wonderful too, loads more to find out about each other in the
depths of the long, dark night watches. Great food - with a Kitty Kat dedicated
purely to seeing how much she can increase the size of our waistlines in the
next two weeks, we aren't going to go lacking in either quantity or quality of
food. We have a beautiful big ocean to play in, with very few other boats to
annoy us, and three spinnakers to play on it with. Okay,
you give up, don't you? You can't guess. So what is it? The SUN! We are a
miserable 1400 miles from the equator, so close that if we were any closer we
could fry an egg on deck. We are on the same line of Latitude as Fantastic
sailing! - comes the call from a smiling 18 year old Henri, 'enri' with a French
accent, as he is known on board. He's high up on the port side of the boat, with
the spinnaker billowing out behind him. The boat is heeled over to a nice angle,
but with the spinnaker up on quite a fine reach with the wind coming over the
port side at about 75 degrees. Our course is a little more to the south now, as
having looked at the weather data, there is a huge hole out to the west which
may last up to a couple of days. We know we will fall into it, but if we can
avoid it a little bit that would be handy. A lot of the ARC fleet will motor in
the next couple of days to get across, so if you are following our position on
the net, don't worry if we start to fall behind. What you cannot tell from the
net positions is which boats have motored and which boats owe us time on
handicap. Don't Panic! What
do we get up to at night on board Northern Child? Dinner usually comes around
about 1800 hours with the watch change. Just before this, if it's not too rough,
we have our own little happy hour with a drink and nibbles for all the crew on
deck. Last night we still had to celebrate Ian's birthday, so we managed to down
two bottles of champagne in record time: our first alcoholic drink of the trip
so far. We then settle down into the pattern of three night watches, with the
off watch trying to grab what sleep they can. Then
sometimes the skipper has a bright idea, which turns out to be not so bright. By
0130 this morning we were starting to lose the wind, boat speed was down and the
sails were making an awful noise as the boat was tossed around by the residual
sea and swell. Half an hour later I had had enough and I appeared on deck with
the big running kite(spinnaker) for the on-deck watch to fly. If you are a
sailor it sounds easy, but out here it is a little different. We
had been flying twin headsails - our smaller no.3 on the roller and our bigger
number 1 to port on the pole. The first thing we had to do was get the no.1
genoa down on deck, then change over the pole and set the kite ready for the
hoist. All in the dark, all on a pitching foredeck. It's then up with the kite,
always a hairy moment as the monster is heaved out of it's bag and 70 foot up
the swaying mast into the darkness. A hole in the stomach as the kite breaks
it's wool and the sail bursts open to the wind, followed by.... b....er. The
quick release has got jammed, the kite blasts off the pole and makes a big flag
forward of the boat, disappearing into the darkness! No problem: we haul the
sail back down into the cockpit amongst a small amount of swearing! To keep the
boat moving it's out with the no.3 genoa again onto the pole on port, and we're
off. At
which point we realise that the wind is back up to 20 knots again, Northern
Child is back up to speed and we needn't have bothered with the last hour and a
half! Exhausted we lie back on the bridge deck laughing and chatting for half an
hour whilst we recover. At 0400 in the morning! So: we're trying! Having
sighted a yacht under spinnaker away on our port side earlier today, we have
just managed to pass it, only separated by 100 metres of ocean. The yacht turns
out to be La Royere 2, a French Beneteau 57 in class A. We're in Class D, so
happy to see them! We communicate briefly on the VHF radio and wish them good
luck for the rest of the trip. As
I finish writing today's log, the sun has peeped out through the clouds - maybe
we're in for some sun after all! We have covered 175 miles under sail, roughly
168 of them towards Daily
Log No.3 Northern Child As
I sit here at the chart table trying to type this log, working conditions at the
keyboard have changed dramatically. There is quite a large swell coming down
from the north, causing a large slow roll on the boat. With our biggest
spinnaker up, we are powering along the ocean swells; this does however make
typing and cooking more interesting! The whole chart table is rolling away from
side to side, pitching up and down in the fore and aft dimension and trying to
push me off the seat. Never complain about working conditions at the keyboard
again!
Having been heading south west, we were gradually headed overnight (the wind came further round on our nose) and we were forced to gybe at about one this morning. Our current course therefore is out to the west and we have managed a solid 7 or 8 knots all day, although the wind has come down a little in strength now. Following lunch, we will get the big running spinnaker up again for a fun filled afternoon of sail trimming! A bientot, Julian, Northern Child Daily
Log Northern Child Last
night Poseidon decided to punish us for a great start, but let's start where all
good stories start, at the beginning. Following
the calm of the early morning, the The
start was just as forecasted - very light north-easterly winds with clear blue
skies and a little bit of sea running. Most of the fleet went left and massed in
a huge huddle beside the committee boat, with Northern Child staying at the
right hand end of line, in nice clear air. As the start gun went we were just
shy of the line, popped our asymmetric spinnaker and sailed sweetly off under
the bows of the fleet. Maintaining our distance on some of the bigger boats in
the division, we managed to pull out a nice lead over the rest - thank you very
much, whoever is in charge. A
collective sigh of relief - we're finally off, a trip of some two and a half
weeks that the crew have been planning for months - for many it is the dream of
a lifetime, something they have been thinking of for years. Mixed feelings for
many; we are setting off on both a physical and a mental challenge, something
that challenges beyond the normal scope of daily life. The
southern end of the Which
is where our problems started, and which brings me back to the start of this log
- Poseidon thought differently! Ok, I guess it was a little early to start
celebrating our imminent arrival into How
does dawn this morning find us? Exhausted; but we have the big blue and white
running spinnaker back up, we are making 7 knots through the water and the on
deck watch are happy and trimming for gold. It isn't calm, it isn't sunny, but
at least we are sailing - not quite in the right direction, out towards the
south-west in an effort to keep the breeze later on today when it is due to
change. Are
we happy? Oh yes, definitely. We have just had a pretty big whale breaching off
on our starboard side, the sun is poking its' head out and the two watches have
started working well; there is no friction on board and there is only 2,700
miles to go! We should be in a reasonable weather pattern for the next couple of
days, and if we work hard we should be able to make up some of the ground we
lost last night. I have a suspicion that a lot of the boats in the fleet will
have motored last night; we saw quite a few making great progress directly into
the wind! Our objective is still not to use the engine if we can avoid it. Thank
you to all of you who have sent messages and emails wishing us luck - it is
wonderful to have such great support. Families, friends, strangers, ex-crewmates
- thank you to all of you. A bientot, Julian, Northern Child Daily
Log No.1 - Sunday 18th of November 2006 Sunday
morning and we are ready for the off. Northern Child is sitting in the early
morning sun stern to on her berth in the marina in Having
arrived in Las Palmas three weeks ago, the crew on board have been working hard
to prepare Northern Child for her 11th Atlantic crossing under my command. We
stowed away the last of the fresh fruit and vegetables yesterday afternoon, had
our last showers and headed into town for our last supper. Fireworks at midnight
over the The
crew on board is as varied as ever with a good range of experience - some are
qualified skippers and boat owners in their own right, whilst others are less
experienced with little offshore sailing or spinnaker work, but I am confident
that the crew will quickly learn and gel into a cohesive unit. We
will take the start at 1300 hours today - 225 boats massing on a mile long start
line; it is more like a stampede rather than an orderly start! We then set off
to the south, leaving the Our
objective is to sail the Julian, Northern Child, Swan 51 |
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Last modified: November 22, 2007 |
