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Northern Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 11 at 1500GMT, 8th
June 2008. Finished
– Job done! After nearly 4,000 miles Northern Child is once again safely
moored in We
left Entering
the Solent just after dawn into a bitingly cold Having
lifted the anchor we motored in light winds gently over to the Thanks
to everyone who has participated in the voyage – your enthusiasm and humour
made it a great success. To our watch leaders, Tim and Rob, our most heartfelt
thanks – volunteered in the Army fashion at the start we couldn’t have done
it without you and couldn’t have chosen better. To Carly, who is responsible
for us all putting on weight instead of losing it, goes masses of thanks; she
put up with us all throughout all our silly moments and deserves praise for her
never ending smile! To the rest of the crew go my admiration: not only did you
have to put up with both Carly and more importantly myself, you also had to
pretend that you liked Rob and Tim’s jokes! Jonny, king of the pause and the
one liners that slayed us time after time. Dimitrius, how you ever put up with
the mad Brits, I don’t know, but you were a great crew mate and it was a
privilege to get to know you, mucker! Wheels (normally called Shela), you
were sick as a dog from Antigua to St Martin, and earned our admiration for
sticking with it, and coming up trumps – you had what was needed inside you,
stuck with it and have now crossed the Ocean; your husband would have been
proud. Chris, oh Chris, the Big Game Fisherman from That’s
it, the last log of our Transatlantic adventure from Antigua to the Northern Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 10 at 0800GMT, 6th
June 2008. Northern
Child is currently moored in The
crew is now ready for the last overnight passage to Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 9 at 0800GMT, 4th June 2008. What
a beautiful day! It's now Wednesday morning and we are happily bobbing away on a
mooring buoy in
We
had a fantastic run up from the Soon
after lunch the tide turned in our favour, the sun came out and with 10 miles
left we swept up the Swinge Channel to the west of Alderney, rounded up to drop
the main and after nearly 1,350 miles, motored along calmly behind the
breakwater to buoy number 5, our home for Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Having
squared away the boat in quick time, we called the water taxi to drop us ashore;
the idea of long, hot showers that don't move proving irresistible! Finding an
open pub terrace only a stone's throw from the showers, with a view over the
beach curving away to the East, we decided we deserved a beer, and another and
another. Luckily,
one of the best restaurants in Waking
up this morning in the picturesque Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 8 at 0700GMT, 3rd June 2008 More
of the grey stuff! For a few hours on Monday evening the clouds cleared away
and we were treated to beautiful skies as the sun set and a bit of warmth
settled on deck. During the first part of the night watches the stars came out
and played peekaboo behind the cumulus clouds hurrying away to the south.
However, as the night wore on the sky clouded over yet again and by dawn we
were treated to nothing more than grey skies and grey seas; welcome to the
But
finally we have been treated to a good strong breeze out of the As
the tide changed in our favour towards midnight our ground speed crept up
until we were doing between 10 and 12 knots over the ground. This will only
last of course for a few hours, but we were lucky enough to have the full
force of it underneath as we rounded the corner of We
reached our waypoint off Ushant during the watch changeover at 2200 and set
course for the tiny but beautiful Beyond
that the plan is still to go to Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 7 at 0900GMT, 2nd June 2008 The
view from Northern Child this morning is pretty similar to that of yesterday -
grey seas melting on the horizon into grey skies. Luckily there hasn't been
that much rain but the impression created is of lousy English Channel weather
- come on, summer, you have 5 days to sort yourself out and become beautiful
before we get back to the For
those of you who would like to come and meet us on our arrival, we are still
on for our ETA of 1300 on Saturday at
Apart
from the grey, we have had an excellent 24 hours run, not having to use the
motor and covering 161 miles in generally light conditions. Hats off to the
crew, they keep working the boat and putting maximum effort in; everyone is
quite tired and the cold has been getting to us a bit, with the watch on deck
needing waterproof gear to help keep the cold out. But we have had great
sailing and made excellent progress and that makes the hard work worthwhile.
Also as yesterday was Sunday, Carly had a cooking marathon and we just didn't
stop eating all day! This
morning we have crossed the continental shelf where the depths rise from about
4,000 metres to a couple of hundred in 30 miles. In bad weather we can heave
pretty rough seas in this area, but this morning it has been very easy. We
have also just started to feel the effects of the continental tides - at the
moment we have a knot running against us as high tide was at 0400 this morning
at Our
waypoint now lies some 95 miles ahead of us, just the other side of the
shipping lanes. If we are lucky we should manage to just get across the lanes
in the fading light this evening, before entering the Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 6 at 1400GMT, 1st June 2008. We
can feel ourselves getting closer to continental Europe, our milestones tick
away; 1,000, 500, now 250 left to our waypoint off We
are starting to see more ships; there is definitely life on the planet. Our
first big fishing boat crossed our path in the afternoon: no fishing nets out,
no seagulls following, no one on deck - I wonder what he's doing? Could be
Spanish, Portuguese, or French, who knows? We
have a ship identification system on our navigation computer called UAIS which
identifies all vessels over 300 tons in our vicinity and gives us a closest
point of approach to each other, their name and destination etc. Vessels coming
towards us are heading for Christobel, People
reckon that these ocean passages are dangerous; I disagree and I have been doing
them for 20 years. It's much more dangerous close inshore where there's land,
rocks, ships, fishing boats - you get the idea, things that don't move out of
the way. Our last few days up the Over
the last 24 hours we have made good progress, both under sail and having to use
the engine when the wind has dropped. Saturday afternoon and evening remained
nice weather and better sailing conditions with us mostly sailing along at 7
knots. However, just after midnight we lost the wind and since then we have been
doing a mixture of motoring and sailing. All's not lost when we use the motor
however, as we manage to charge the batteries and run the watermaker at the same
time, allowing everyone to take a hot shower. During
the last log period we've had sunny gin and tonic sailing to flat calm motoring
in the rain! Shela finally found a use for that umbrella of hers - back to the
start of this log and my comments about the summer! Where's it gone?
We
are now some 220 miles from our waypoint off Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 5 at 0600GMT, 31st May 2008 The
sun came back just after finishing yesterday's log and, combined with lighter
winds, we passed a very pleasant day sailing along on calm seas towards Following
on from Carly's photo with yesterday's log, she continued to go all out and had
a massive day of cooking. The photo showed her cooking breakfast of pancakes,
lunch was pasta carbonara, chocolate brownies for afternoon tea and cottage pie
for dinner! Although the winds are lower and this obviously makes galley work
easier, dinner was cooked at a 25 degree angle as the wind was coming from the
bow and the boat really leaning over. Having
started the morning with light winds and the thought that we might have to
motor, we persevered and managed to sail all day. The winds are coming down from
the North and this means that combined with our course the apparent wind is
coming from forward of the beam and therefore we can sail faster in the lighter
airs. So far we have been lucky as we are still able to sail directly towards Driek
from
DRIEK If
you noticed that our Sleepmonster tracker wasn't on during the evening, don't
panic! The battery had run down so we were just charging her up. It was the
first time we have had to charge her since A
lovely day turned into a lovely evening and it was nice to have the whole crew
on deck for dinner in the sun. The seas overnight remained calm and the winds
fair so we have had a good night at sea. As I finish writing this log, we are
making just over 7 knots under sail again and have sailed 132 miles in the last
24 hours in very light winds. We are still expecting the winds to die even
further later on today as the high builds over the top of us which means that we
will probably lose the wind. But for we now have 432 miles left to go to Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 4 at 0800GMT, 30th May 2008 The
last 24 hours have been a period of two extremes - plenty of wind until half
way through the night and then none at all! Our tracker must be showing a
slight slow down by now... Thursday
afternoon followed the pattern of the previous few days: good wind speed and
direction giving rise to good boat speed. Lots of visits from dolphins again,
all in all a pleasant afternoons sailing. Which wasn't how we would describe
last night: a series of squalls passed over the top of us during the wee dark
hours of last night, bringing rain and 25 knots of wind speed. Hmmm, where is
that high pressure system then? On
top of us this morning, is the answer! The reason for the decreasing winds we
are getting now is that the high pressure system behind us has extended a
ridge towards the north east, resulting in very little wind in our location.
Currently we have 6 knots of wind with a flat sea and are making 3.5 knots
towards We
can use some diesel and motor, however what we can't do is motor all the way
in. With 565 miles still to go to Of
course there is always a good side to everything and according to Driek the As
the wind has changed in speed so it has in direction and we now find ourselves
sitting in a more northerly wind flow. This will result in us heeling over
more on the port tack, as the wind is coming from closer on the nose; however
combined with calmer seas and sunshine we should have quite a nice day.
Still
heading for Ushant we passed the half way mark between Horta and Currently
with 8 knots of true wind again, we are back up and sailing along at a good 6
knots; how long for we can't tell. The forecast is predominantly light for the
next few days, pretty spot on as forecasted so we have an interesting
challenge ahead of us. In the past 24 hours we have sailed 154 miles at an
average ground speed of 6.5 knots, although most of this before midnight! A
bientot, Julian Northern Child Pancakes
this morning in the Middle of the Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 3 at 0900GMT, 29th May 2008 Our
last 24 hours has been pretty similar to the previous 24 hours - a mixture of
sunshine and clouds, good winds and boat speed and bouncy seas. We
have been living through a bit of a wildlife safari - yet again we have had pod
after pod of dolphin racing alongside us, darting in and out of the waves all
around us. We have had a sunfish, they don't really move and they are funny
looking animals. They look like a dustbin lid on its side with a very large fin
sticking out of the water and they just drift around: cries of shark, which in
fact turned out to be the sunfish. We
have even had a few separate whale sightings, quite large ones and quite close.
They could have been Minke whales, but I think they were bigger than Minkies and
I am pretty sure that the closer whales were Fin whales. Carried away with
enthusiasm, Rob did us a fantastic drawing for the log. Appreciating real art,
as I do, I thought that I had better share the drawing here with you...
Night
watches passed agreeably enough: cold but at least without the rain and weather
front of the night before, with huge amounts of phosphorescence in the water.
Just after dawn Tim, Chris and Mick rolled out the number 3 headsail, so we are
now happily sailing along with the genoa, staysail and mainsail still with a
reef in it; still going the right direction at good speed. We
are under the weather pattern we had forecasted a few days ago. There is a nice
airflow created by a building high behind us and out to our west, and a
descending low that went across us a couple of days ago, and which will be
stationed over Northern Spain tomorrow. These north westerly winds are giving us
a tremendous run at the moment and we are hoping to keep them for at least
another day, before the winds head us and drop down in speed. Progress
continues to be good and we have sailed a total of 179 miles towards Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 2 at 1000GMT, 28th May 2008. What
a difference a day makes - or in this case, night. However, to start with
Tuesday afternoon: Sunny, hot, good wind and calm seas, just what we love, with
pod after pod of dolphins jumping all around us. Dinner
was the usual Carly meal - tasty, enormous and this time with a twist. The lid
came off the rosemary pot, so we were treated to a dinner of rosemary with a
side order of creamy chicken pasta! We ate all of it of course.... The
wind had come round behind us and we were able to set our headsail on the pole
and head directly downwind, easy sailing. Every day we download weather files,
which today indicated that a cold front, which means increasing wind, rain and
seas, was due to head south east right across us during the night. Sure enough,
by midnight the wind had ratcheted up to 25 knots and gone forward on us, so
with Chris dancing on the foredeck it was down with the pole and genoa across to
starboard. As the 2200 - 0200 watch of Chris, Tim and Mick wore on so the genoa
was slowly rolled away until we were left just with the little staysail on the
foredeck and the mainsail with a reef in. 25 knots out here is different to 25
knots inshore; we probably have an irregular swell of 2.5 metres combined with
waves of 2 metres coming from a different direction and getting all mixed up.
The
advantage of having wind is good boat speed; by 0800 this morning we had covered
80 miles towards The
disadvantage of the increasing winds as the cold front went through? Well, where
do I start?! Everyday living is made much more difficult, just moving around,
sleeping (if possible), using the head, cooking, it's all a bit more of a
challenge. It is particularly difficult typing these logs - you have to hang
onto the keyboard whilst stabbing at letters, which are no longer in the same
place. As for the mouse, it gets everywhere, if you find it, return it to us. However,
these things always pass through, and although the sea is still a little bit
rough the sun has come out again and we are still making good speed. We have 866
miles left to run to Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 2, Number 1 at 0800GMT, 27th May 2008 Northern
Child was all squared away by 1030, all jobs for departure completed and no
excuse could be found to visit Peter's Bar again! So it was off with the lines
and we headed out of the marina into Jonny
and Dimitry have left us and will be sorely missed and Driek, Mick and Mel have
joined us. The photo of the three of them on deck as we are leaving shows us
motoring out of
We
very much enjoyed our stay in Horta, and having arrived a bit earlier than we
had expected we were able to really relax and get to know the place. Although it
is very quiet, it has a real special charm and although most of the crew were
not very adventurous it was fantastic to just be able to relax after nearly
2,200 miles at sea, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the stopover. The
leg we have now started on is substantially different in both length and
character from the last. We will be moving pretty quickly north away from the
area of high pressure centred around the The
forecast for the next two or three days for our part of the ocean is precisely
that: the passage of a couple of low pressure systems to the north and east of
us heading towards In
the early evening Tim spotted some large whales on the surface away to the north
of us, blowing away on the surface. Chris had the fishing line out but wound it
in with the onset of darkness. Carly has started to feed us up again after our
excess of large meals eaten in Horta, just in case there was any chance of
shedding a few pounds on this leg, she's decided it's not going to happen! From
Horta our next waypoint has been entered a couple of miles north of the Island
of Ushant, or Ile D'Ouessant, off the north west tip of Brittany and at the
entrance to the English Channel. As I finish typing this log we are currently
1057 miles away from the waypoint, having sailed 124 miles from Horta in 21
hours. We are sailing along at 7 knots over the ground, surrounded by a pod of
early morning visitors, dolphins. The winds have been very light since leaving
Horta, although we have managed to sail overnight. It's been a nice, quiet, calm
start to the leg and our new crew members have managed to settle in with no
problem. A bientot, Julian, Northern Child.
Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1, Number 14 at 0500GMT, 22nd May 2008 Horta!
We
have arrived - in the rain! 13 days and 11 hours out from St Martin, we are now
happily moored up in
From
left to right: Carly, Shela, Jonny, Chris, Dimitris, Tim and Rob Wednesday
was both a beautiful and a frustrating day. The clouds cleared away to leave a
very beautiful day, but at the same time the wind died down a little and
continued to blow from directly behind us, leaving us slowly sailing along
towards Horta at about 5 knots. Being stubborn however, we still reckoned it was
nicer to sail and so we saw our ETA slipping back from midnight until 0600,
finally arriving at 0200 ships' time. We
were lucky enough to get visited by lots and lots of bottle nosed dolphins in
the middle of the afternoon. We reckoned that up to 50 at a time were leaping
around us, and one particular dolphin performed a couple of back flips for us
right beside the boat. The
dinner menu was amended to include Chris' tuna. Lightly grilled and served with
rice and haricot vert, it doesn't really come fresher and was excellently
prepared by Carly with help and advice from Rob. Horta
is one of my favourite ports of call on the Atlantic Circuit and we plan to stay
here until Monday, when we shall pick up last minute fresh provisions and leave
about lunchtime, weather permitting. One of the great attractions of Horta is
that mass tourism hasn't hit yet, so there are none of those awful concrete
buildings like in the Canaries. It's pretty quiet, not much happens here, but
the marina is full of boats crossing the A
vote of thanks at this stage goes out to our two watch leaders, Rob and Dimitry
who were volunteered by me all those miles away in It's
been a great leg with lots of wind and little calm. We have completed it in a
record time for Northern Child and we have had a delightful crew. Everyone has
worked well to sail the boat as well as possible and Carly has taken care of us
in the galley fantastically well. That's it for now, so until the next log on
Tuesday when we will have left here for Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1, Number 13 at 1000GMT, 21st May 2008 Our
distance to go to Horta at 0600 this morning was down to 120 miles! Whatever
happens to the wind speed today we should arrive within the next 24 hours and
beat Northern Child's record for her fastest passage in the last 7 years from The
chart snapshot shows our route between St Martin and Horta with the Caribbean on
the bottom left,
Chris finally landed an edible sized fish, a big eyed tuna to be exact. Having landed the fish, Tim killed and gutted it and the tuna steaks are now in the fridge waiting to be cooked for lunch. We asked for volunteers to gut the fish and I thought this quote from Jonny was lovely: I'm not even very good at picking strawberries, let alone gutting a fish! Towards
the latter part of the afternoon Shela spotted some huge blows from whales in
the distance. As we close the Today
isn't a great whale watching day as the wind has come back up again from the WSW
at 17 knots and the surface of the sea is now a little bit more playful. We have
quite extensive cloud cover as a cold front is crossing us from north to south
today, but when it has passed the wind will go around into the north west and
the skies should clear. Overnight
we averaged 6 knots under sail in light winds, having been able to turn the
engine off at 2100. With the wind increasing this morning we hope that our
average speed will go up again, and help speed us into Horta. When
will we arrive? Well, if the winds hold up for us today as they should do, we
will arrive sometime between midnight and 0600 tonight. The next log tomorrow
will be from Horta, hopefully! A bientot, Julian, Northern Child
Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1, Number 12 at 1200GMT, 20th May 2008. Motoring!
As of 0030 ship's time we gave in to the inevitable and stuck the engine on as
the wind had veered round under a rain cloud and died. We
have been so incredibly lucky with the wind on this trip that we have absolutely
no complaints about losing it for a bit now. All through Monday we held a
beautiful light breeze coming in off our starboard side and were able to hold
our blue and white asymmetric spinnaker. This gave us an amazing 7 - 8 knots of
boat speed towards Horta in only 10 -13 knots of breeze, on a completely calm
sea. The picture today of Rob trimming the spinnaker shows the conditions very
well.
Having
eaten our way through a lovely day of sailing, the moon came out for the first
night watch and all was well - the wind held and we were able to continue
sailing. As I said, however, just after midnight the wind failed and it was time
to use some of our diesel. We
haven't had to use very much diesel so far on this trip, so we have plenty now
that we need it. How fast we motor affects how much diesel we use, so we have
settled her down at a steady 2500 RPM which is giving us 7 knots over the
ground, a very good long distance motoring speed. We have reserves of fuel in
auxiliary tanks in the bilge and jerry cans in the lazarette locker should we
need them. On
deck we will spend the day fishing and whale watching. As the depths decrease as
we close into Horta because of our approach to the Mid Atlantic Ridge, sea life
should pick up again and we are hopeful that Chris will finally land the perfect
fish for us. Again, because the seas around the Having
downloaded the latest forecasted data files, our strategy remains the same. We
will motor for approximately 24 hours in the calm weather today and then we
should pick up a new band of good wind for our last 24 hours to Horta. With 246
miles left to run at 1140 GMT we are looking at an ETA into Horta of sometime
Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Everyone is very excited about not only
our imminent arrival into Horta but also by the fact that we have made such a
wonderful passage. We are all privately hoping that Carly doesn't feed us so
much throughout the day - I smell fresh bread baking in the oven however! A
bientot, Julian, Northern Child Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1, Number 11 at 1000GMT, 19th May 2008. How
do I start the log today - exactly the same as yesterday? It might be the best
way, because it has been a fantastic 24 hours sailing. Okay, progress has been
slow, there's no denying the truth of the tracker and the fact that we've slowed
down, but every single mile has been under sail in exactly the right direction. Despite
the fact that the winds died to just a very light breeze during Sunday morning,
we kept on sailing throughout Sunday and Sunday night and by 0600 this morning
we have covered another 151 miles under sail directly towards Horta. We are
extremely pleased with ourselves! We
can only say that the weather in our little part of the ocean has been
absolutely beautiful. We are running along the As
the sea has calmed down, food has become a huge factor in our day, and Carly
brings out a never ending supply from the galley. Of course we need it less as
it is so hot here, but this doesn't seem to slow down our eating! Night
watches went fine. Tim was overheard this morning to say 'the watch last night
was like the bitter in my local - cloudier than it should have been and
surprisingly windy!' Bright moonlight until 0330 and then myself, Rob, Jonny and
Chris hoisted the asymmetric reaching spinnaker at 0445 after a beautiful
sunrise. The picture shows Jonny just after the hoist on the foredeck, not
posing!
During
this leg we have alcohol on board but surprisingly little has been consumed.
Several crew members aspired to a drying out period to the It
is currently 0700 ships time as I finish writing this log, and it is still
lovely and cool - only 24 (75) degrees at the chart table at the moment. The
watch on deck is Shela, Tim and Dimitry and they are fully occupied trimming the
spinnaker. There are three jobs to do - helming, trimming and grinding the
winch, so it is full on work for the whole 6 hour watch! With only 11 knots of
breeze from the starboard beam, we are making roughly 7 knots towards Horta. We
keep on talking about our ETA into the harbour, which obviously changes as our
speed changes. However, if we maintain present progress we will arrive sometime
late on Thursday which would be great. Friday morning would be okay, but the
idea of Thursday before the bar closes would be even better! A bientot, Julian
Northern Child Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1, Number 10 at 1100GMT, 18th May 2008. A
serene, gentleman's night was how Rob described Saturday night and especially
his night watch. The
clouds had pulled away to the west during the day, leaving us with a flat sea
and a hot and sunny afternoon: it was back on with the suntan cream. The wind
had been steadily dropping to leave us with about 15 knots coming from behind,
just enough to ensure lovely sailing conditions - not as fast as previous days
but still up around the 7 knots over the ground mark, very comfortable, very
nice. Carly
went mad and had a domestic blow-out in the galley. Quiche and 'day 10 tasty,
very tasty salad' for lunch, chocolate cake for afternoon tea followed by honey
and whole grain mustard marinated pork chops( I think I got that right) served
with garlic and onion roast potatoes, and steamed vegetables. We can't wait for
today to see what is going to come out of the galley - she is already planning a
full day of eating! Yet
again we were visited by dolphins, lots of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, according
to our book. During Jonny's night watch they were so close to the leeward side
of the boat that he was convinced one of them was going to jump right on board;
watching dolphins race through the moonlight was pretty special. Night
watches were a whole lot more fun: bright moonlight and no rain. Rob, Chris and
Jonny were sipping hot chocolate, discussing constitutional monarchies and
dolphin watching whilst Tim, Dimitry and Shela started the 0200 - 0600 in bright
moonlight sailing down the silvery path of the moon and finished it in bright
sunlight with the sun rising right ahead of us. Not bad, eh? Thinking
of Chris, we liked this picture of him in the galley(kitchen) doing the washing
- up, and thought his family might like to witness how keen he has been helping
out down there! The picture of Carly with her cake is self explanatory, it looks
great. None of us are losing, or stand any chance of losing, any weight on this
leg. The
barometer is rising slowly, it doesn't have that far to go as we are fairly
close to the centre of the high pressure. The centre of the high pressure means
calm seas, sunshine and .... no wind. We know, as we close in towards the We
have sailed 178 miles in the last 24 hours at an average speed of 7.4 knots. As
I finish this log at 1100GMT we have 563 miles left to run and we are sailing
under full mainsail, large genoa and staysail at 8.0 knots right towards Horta.
It's a hot and sunny day, flat calm and all's well on board. A bientot, Julian,
Northern Child
Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1, Number 9 at 1100GMT, 17th May 2008. Progress
has been fantastic again, with great speed in the right direction in quite
testing conditions. We are still running along under the effects of the
lingering cold front off to our west, which has ensured another consistent high
mileage day with fantastic winds. From
0600 on the 16th until 0600 this morning we have made good 197 miles over the
ground towards our destination at an average speed of 8 knots. The 48 hour run
made good from 0600 on the 15th to 0600 on the 17th has been a very pleasing 400
miles. Rob, Jonny and Chris also managed to set a new six hour record of 54
miles in one watch. We are measuring these miles towards a waypoint off the
south east corner of Horta, just 3 miles away from the harbour entrance, so when
we look at the distance covered and the distance still to run there is great
interest from all of the crew. We
have put together a sweepstake for our ETA into Horta, which ranges from an
optimistic Carly at 15.30 on Thursday, to a pessimistic Chris at 0100 Saturday,
and all times in between. I have been banned from entering due to the very high
possibility that I will cheat and that whatever time I put down is when we will
arrive! There is a bit of history behind that, because one year we arrived into
Horta at 2031 when my guess had been 2030.... the only reason we were a minute
late was because there was another boat on the dock moving off and I had to do a
circle with NC to let him get clear! Getting the time right isn't as easy as it
sounds, because although at the moment we have good speed towards Horta in a
straight line, we do have the problem of the unknown amount of time that it will
take us to get across or around the high pressure system ahead of us. At
the moment it looks like the high pressure system is doing us a favour by
drifting slowly east and this combined with our slightly northerly track means
that we will hold good winds for at least another 24 hours and possibly longer.
Apart from the fact that it is much nicer to sail rather than motor, we always
have the problem of knowing when to use our precious diesel supplies. Although
at any one time we might think it is calm and we are going too slowly, we can't
just run the main engine without careful planning as you don't really know how
long the calm will last. Often the last couple of days closing in towards Horta
can be pretty light, and it has always paid us in the past to hold a small fuel
reserve right until the end. Seeing the The
night watches were pretty mixed. With the moon not setting until 0230 ships
time, the first couple of watches passed well enough with Tim and Dimitry saying
that they had had a brilliant 2200 to 0200 watch under bright moonlight. It was
a different story about half an hour after Rob, Jonny and Chris came on at 0200
- the moon had set and a series of squalls swept across us, with the night going
absolutely pitch black. But yet again progress was fast and they managed 33
miles in a four hour period and came off watch smiling and joking.
That's
it for today, Carly is promising a cake for tea this afternoon, we're going fast
in the right direction and all is well on board. The photo is of Shela on the
current watch of Shela, Tim and Dimitry, and we are just about to head into
another squall, a massive squall! We have 738 miles to run to Horta. A bientot,
Julian – Swan 51, Northern Child
Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1, Number 8 at 1000GMT, 16th May 2008. Half
Way! By Thursday midday, yesterday, we had achieved two targets: we have reached
the half way stage distance wise towards Horta from St Martin, and we have
sailed over 200 miles in 24 hours for the first time on this leg. 200 miles is
really just a psychological goal - 199 would have been fine but it's nice to get
the 200! Our tracker should show good progress across the The
weather pattern has behaved exactly as we hoped it would and is continuing. The
squeeze is giving us good, constant southerly breezes, touching force 6 at
times, up to 28 knots of wind. This is a superb sailing wind and has ensured
good steady progress for us for the last couple of days. We are hoping that it
lasts for another 48 hours, before we have to start dealing with the The
last 24 hours has been pretty uncomfortable and it always seems to rain more
during the dark part of the night, after 2am when the moon has set! Of course
this is also when it is coldest and we can't see anything under full cloud
cover, not a single star. During the day yesterday the sun has been hot enough
to burn, and various jokes have been going the rounds at Rob's expense: he
managed to burn his face and now resembles a traffic beacon on the motorway. Rob
has been heard mumbling about taking aloe vera, or someone anyway, to bed with
him.... Mmmmm.
it's just past dawn and I see no prospect at all at the moment of the complete
cloud cover moving away. It has been raining on and off for the last couple of
watches and the view is rather like the
In
this part of the ocean we see very little, however today we have had some close
encounters. An enormous container ship passed to port of us 4 miles away heading
for the It's
good to feel that we are now over half way to Horta. We can see the miles
ticking away, at the moment pretty rapidly. Everyone is wet on deck, but still
managing to keep warm below. We are making superb progress: We sailed 203 miles
in the last 24 hours and have the prospect of another good run in the next 24
hours. The only thing that would be nice would be if the rain moved away, and if
our forecasts are right, then that should happen in roughly 24 hours time. A
bientot, Julian, Northern Child
Northern
Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1, Number 7 at 1000GMT, 15th May 2008 Position:30.07N
49.27 It's
been a great 24 hours sailing out here with fine progress towards Horta. Wind
and waves are up a bit, as we hoped, and this increase has improved our ground
speed - the 0200 - 0600 watch of Rob,
Jonny and Chris sailed 35 miles in their 4 hours at an average speed of 8.5
knots all towards the destination. The wind has also backed round towards the
south east, so we are now feeling the wind coming at us well forward of the beam
which makes the whole thing more playful. You can't have an increase in winds
without an increase in waves! The
picture of Dimitry driving doesn't really do justice to the conditions today, in
fact it looks pretty flat and sunny. Well it is and it isn't, it's sunny but
it's no longer flat. There are occasional waves smacking against the side of the
hull now and with some of them you hear a whoosh as it explodes in spray and
gets the watch on deck.
The
tracker link from Sleepmonsters Adventure Tracking on our home page
www.northernchild.com should show good progress now, and by midday ships time we
should have reached the half way point in mileage between During
the afternoon yesterday we moved our watches forward an hour to compensate for
the fact that we are steadily moving east and dawn and dusk no longer made sense
on ships time. We are now 3 hours behind GMT and will have to change another
couple of hours en route. The routine on board keeps on: we generate power, make
water, cook, clean and do all the myriad tasks necessary to keep our lives
functioning normally. As the sea state gets up a bit, everything gets more
difficult to do, including sleeping and inevitably we all get a bit more tired.
But when sleep comes, it's deep and welcome. In
the middle watch last night Tim got hit by a large flying fish at speed!
Painful. People think that they are small and lightweight, but none of it, they
can be and are pretty impressive looking fish. They jump, or fly, out of the
water because they are being chased, normally by tuna, and we reckon that at
night they are attracted to the compass light, which just happens to be where
the watch on deck are sitting! As
I finish this the boat is heeled over to port, the left, and jumping around a
little. The wind is at about 20 - 22 knots and we are still making great speed
at 8.8 towards Horta. We have sailed 178 miles in the last 24 hours towards our
destination, our best days run so far on this leg. That's it for today, a
bientot, Julian. Northern Child Northern
Child Transat 2008
Log, Leg 1, Number 6 at 1200GMT, 14th May 2008 Position:
28.30N 51.48W We
have had a mixture of weather and winds over the last 24 hours, some good
sailing and some frustrating calms. All in a day's work on the As
the low pressure system comes towards us we were beginning to see the effects of
the leading edge of the cold front, with low clouds, threatening squalls and
occasional rain. The trouble with showers and squalls is that they can bring
either lots of wind or no wind at all and a lot of the time the wind will
completely change direction. It is almost impossible to look at a squall and
work out which one its going to be.
The
photo shows Tim and Rob off opposite watches working together on the windward
sheet for the genoa - I thought it was just a nice photo! The watches are each
getting their fair share of good sailing and the speed record, now of 11.4
knots, is still held by Dimitry, Shela and Tim. Rob, Jonny and Chris had a
brilliant night watch between 2200 and 0200. Despite extensive cloud cover,
behind which the moon was hiding, there was sufficient residual moonlight to see
quite clearly on deck without light. The wind came around and we got rid of the
pole and reached off under genoa and main in up to 24 knots of wind with the
boys sailing mainly at 9 or 10 knots - they were really happy about it. This
morning the weather out here has changed again and we are now back to clear
skies with the odd bit of light, high cloud cover. It is 28 degrees c at the
chart table at 0800, whilst the sea temperature has been declining steadily
since we left the Food
has been plentiful and cheerfully served: French baguettes with bacon for lunch
and creamy chicken pasta for dinner. We are starting to run out of fresh
vegetables but still have fruit and some salad in the fridge. Inevitably the
fresh food will run out as we get closer to Horta. We have a big freezer system
on board and have filled it with enough meat to last a much longer journey, so
we will not be going hungry! With the wind still looking good at 16 knots and the sun beating down pretty ferociously on deck, I am off to see what's happening with the watch up there. It's loads of suntan cream time! A bientot, Julian, Northern Child Northern Child Transat 2008 Log, Leg 1,
Number 5 at 1200GMT, 13th May 2008 It has been a great 24 hours sailing out here. The weather has been fabulous, hot, some would say too hot, and sunny. The annoying seas of Monday morning pretty soon calmed down after our gybe and we have had light, steady winds all through Monday. It is now 0800 our time and since 0200 the winds have picked up nicely so that now we have between 18 and 20 knots true from our starboard quarter, or behind us coming over our right shoulder. With the increase in wind has come an increase in speed and we are now doing a steady 8 knots over the ground towards Horta. What we have been planning to happen weather wise over the last few days has luckily come good for us. There is a huge area of high pressure away to our right hand side, between us and the Azores, whilst a low is forming off the Cape Hatteras coast and coming east towards us. The good news about this is that it is squeezing the isobars between the two systems, just where we are now sitting. This squeeze of isobaric pressure causes wind from the south and south west, just where we want it. So now what we have to do is just hang in there for the ride! The photo shows the low pressure up in the top left corner, whilst the area to the right of our track line is the high pressure system. The yellow colouring is the swell in the low, up to about 5 metres, and the blue where we are is showing swell of up to 2 metres. We are the red triangle bottom right with our projected course towards Horta being the line across the chart - we are heading top right. Between the two systems you can clearly see the isobars being squeezed together, creating wind. If we went too far right we would be in the clams of the high, too far left and we would be in the waves and winds of the low.
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