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ARC 2002
- Start: 24th November 2002 -
This is the journal the Northern Child crew sent to the ARC organiser World Cruising Club
during the transatlantic crossing via on-board satellite email. Please click on
the thumbnails to enlarge the pictures on the sides. For more information about the
ARC 2003, please contact Magali or Julian on mailto:julian@northernchild.com.
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Aidan, Bhavna, Aslihan, Bekir, Andrew, Peter, Inma,
Maarten, Adam, Phil, Annabel and Julian
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The crew gather together in Las Palmas Marina the week
before the start. We complete the victualling of the boat and spend some
time going out as a crew in the evenings to get to know one another. Las
Palmas is a great town and the crew do a mixture of visiting the town and
the Island. By Saturday we are ready, with only a few small things to
finish off - We have filled the sail locker with fresh provisions and
there is hardly an unused locker left on the boat. But we are ready: Ready
for 2,800 miles of ocean sailing with no stops en route! |
Northern Child's crew
has been split into two watches of five crew each, skipper Julian and mate Bella
staying out of the watch system. Having skippered the boat from St Tropez to Las
Palmas, Bella has kindly volunteered to cook on the Transatlantic voyage, which
has resulted in relieved sighs from many of the crew! The two watches are
following a system of 3 x four hours at night and 2 x 6 hours during the
day. The result of this is that the watches rotate every 24 hours and everyone
gets enough sleep during their off-watch period; Once the crew has settled into
the routine it proves once again to be popular.
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Second Day: 'Northern Child continues to make good progress
south-west looking for the trades, either under spinnaker or poled out genoa. We
are concentrating on starting our suntans and eating our way through loads of
fresh vegetables and fruit, which are rapidly ripening in the increasingly hot
weather. Food has become the focal point of the day and people have regained
their appetites after the first night's blow of 35 knots on the nose. One of our
Dutch Crewman, Maarten, managed a fourth helping of cottage pie last night!'
'Skipper Julian has been the one voice of sanity in
the wilderness. Overseeing, navigating ("when ARE we going to turn right,
JuJu?") and springing dip-pole gybes on the oncoming watch at 6 in the
morning in 30 knots. Bella (aka The Flasher or Jamie Oliver) has been working up
a sweat in the galley and spent this morning mucking out Mark Fowlers stall in
the forepeak. An experience akin to being put inside a tumble drier full of
compost on the Ride of Death at
Blackpool
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In
Andy's watch (Andy: half man, half rock): Aidan, currently holds the helming
speed record of 10.1 knots; Bekir, International Man of Mystery, has been
receiving text messages at all hours of day and night. At the magic beep of the
Iridium he has been known to abandon the wheel and rush below, only to return to
his post after making another million (so we presume); Inma (HRH) can not only
paint her toenails on a slow watch, but mucks in during all the wet and messy
bits to emerge looking like something out of Spanish Vogue; Peter "PeeWee"
is Foredeck Monkey Extraordinaire for his heroic, wet, pole-wrestling during this
morning's gybe at Silly O'Clock - fool!
Adam's
watch has been very busy. The hottest debate has not been Routing or Weather,
it's been who's going to do the washing up. Bhavna - Rota Queen - came up with a
simple, elegant solution that only requires a basic grasp of advanced
mathematics and a good working knowledge of Excel spreadsheets; Asli has been
silent and mysterious with her 100-watt smile, while Maarten continues to mess
up portion control on the boat and do most of the steering
; Phil the Chill has been doing sterling work
holding his bunk down in all conditions, and cannot be faulted for his
commitment to the duvet. Watch aside, the boat is in fine form and romping along
between 8-9 knts in 20-30knts - heading West towards the sunshine and rum
punches!'
Mon 2nd Dec. Average NC Crew Age: 30 going on 13
....
'Comparisons
are being drawn between the collapse of society in Lord of the Flies and the
collapse of maturity on NC. How can 12 adults regress to the level of teenagers
after just one week at sea? The giggling, high jinks and silly japes on board in
the last couple of days would do credit to a particularly juvenile prep school.
Day after day, under the burning sun, the cackles and guffawing from the cockpit
(over quite dreadful scraping-the-barrel-type jokes) ring out over the endless
rolling ocean. One poor guy - who shall remain nameless - innocently dozed off
in his bunk after lunch yesterday. It was decided it would be very funny if he
woke up with cerise toenails, and, amid breathless, explosive snorts of hilarity
the nail varnish was wielded and the deed was done, and many photos taken. The
poor unfortunate turned up in the cockpit for supper wearing a look of hurt
pride - and deck shoes.'
Banana Day
'The
half head of bananas, shipped in Las Palmas, which have been swinging greenly in
the sail locker for the last 10 days (rather like some crew members) have all
startlingly and simultaneously gone bright yellow! This has led to the
declaration of a ship-wide "Banana Day" (which has now been in effect
since last Tuesday). Bananas on muesli. Bananas for elevenses. Bananas with
afternoon tea. Frozen banana pops. Baked Bananas. Banana Surprise
("surprise! It's got bananas in!") And, most memorably, Banoffi Pie
Bonanza, where two large banoffi pies were assembled by Bella to follow a rather robust
supper of Balsamic Pork stuffed with basil and spuds dauphinoise. Many of the
crew had eyes somewhat larger than their stomachs; both banoffis disappeared
rapidly down gullets, and the result was a lot of lying around on side decks
groaning for the on-watch, and some technicolour dreams for those that took to
their bunks.
Aside
from banana activities; the days and nights have followed each other in a
succession of stunning dawns, bright blue skies, boat maintenance, sunbathing,
admiring sunsets, collecting green flashes and eating rather more than strictly
necessary. There's also a new night pastime of peering up at the moonless,
brilliantly star-stuffed night sky and then perusing by mini-maglight the
excellent children's star book by H.A.Rey.
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Midway
to St Lucia
The
seas have now laid down, making for a much more comfortable motion and the winds
are lighter, allowing for lots of messing round with spinnakers during the day.
The Arrivals Sweepstake has been pinned above the nav-station with bets varying
from Tues at one minute past
midnight
, right through to next Thurs.
It feels like we're on the homeward stretch now, it's a bright brassy hot morning
in the tropics and we're charging along the rhumb line at 8 knots with 1013nm to
go to St.Lucia. There's a sunset party planned for this evening to celebrate
less than 1000 miles to go, a "Down To Three Figures" Party. There'll
be lots of beer at the party, as well as Bucks Fizz and champagne. And, of
course, bananas.'
Desperately Seeking Shadow
'The NC
crew now have the rather smug-making problem of too much hot sun. Most crew
members have turned the colour of toast (with four exceptions who started with
an unfair advantage); some have even started to show the gratifying-to-some
problem of skin damage with the odd bubble and flake on the shoulders despite
copious amounts of Factor 30. Come lunchtime when the decks are almost too hot
to stand on, the saloon becomes rather crowded with slightly Romanesque scenes
of half-dressed people lounging around, not actually panting but close to it.
(Unfortunately, there are no grapes on board to peel, so we have to make do with
bananas.) And yes, bananas featured faithfully on the breakfast menu this
morning for the on-watch crew with smiley-face banana pancakes. There was a
triumph for Bhavna and Aidan after breakfast this morning: yesterday saw the
disastrous problem of a missing Wisdom toothbrush. Bhav dutifully made up a
Wanted poster (including a picture of the recalcitrant item in case anyone was
in doubt about what a toothbrush looked like) and pinned it up in the aft heads
(alongside one of Andy's limericks about the 13th crew member, Ted - you don't
want to know). There was even a reward for the missing toothbrush; although
when people found out that the reward was Aidan, interest waned slightly. Then,
this morning, the missing item surfaced and the collective sigh of relief must
have given us an extra half a knot. And so on we roll, goosewinged with 15-20
knots of breeze on the starboard quarter, and 800nm to go to St Lucia, rum punches and journey's
end. Some of the madder elements of the crew have resorted to pouring
buckets of salt water over themselves on deck! '
The Final
Countdown
'Champagne corks popped again yesterday afternoon in the cockpit of Northern
Child to a particularly tuneless rendition of The Final Countdown. The party was
to celebrate less than 500 nm to go and also Inma's Saints' Day (Immaculate
Conception Day - cause of much hilarity & ribald jokes). The sweepstake list
has Maarten looking the favourite, with Tues 1400, closely followed by Bhav who
plumped for Wed 0600, although we're all hoping to get in Tues before dark. The
sweepstake list has some curious pictorial additions next to some of the names.
Andy, Bhav, Inma and Adam all have little cartoon fish drawn next to their names, a source of puzzlement
to some of the crew until it was explained that this is also the "hit
list" - crew who have been hit by fleeing flying fish on night watch! A
rather startling experience to those concerned, including the fish.
Intense
plotting is underway for activities when we reach terra firma. Marina bar
first, obviously. Boat scrubbing on Wed, obviously (although it has been mooted
that it might be easier just to buy a new boat rather than clean this one).
Aidan is salivating at the thought of reaching the end of his
"no-chocolate" bet with Bhavna, and small stashes of Milky Bars and
Snickers can be found around the boat, clearly as insurance in case the
chocolate box runs dry before we get in. The girls are planning a luxurious
session in a spa at one of the posh hotels, for a general hosing down and a
glorious re-entry into the world of the feminine gender. There are also Pitons
to be climbed, beaches to be lounged around on and markets to be scoured for
bargains. But there's a faint note of poignancy that, if you listen closely, can
be heard echoing around these plans. For, exciting as it may be to dust down the
St.Lucia courtesy flag and prepare mooring warps and passports, all these things
signify the end of the passage. No more endless rolling ocean, with the Swan
powering through the enormous Atlantic swells. No more giggling in the cockpit
over tea and oranges as the sun rises though clouds of rose and saffron. No more
surging along under the star-filled southern sky, following the moon's path
through the waves. No more purple prose from this author. No more trying to wake
Phil up for a
2am
watch. No
more journey of a lifetime.'
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Northern Child on the finish line in St Lucia - by Tim Wright
Northern
Child completed ARC 2002 in 16 days with a tired but extremely satisfied crew of
Transatlantic sailors. Rodney Bay has been gearing up to deal with our arrival
and the crew have managed to sample a great variety of bars and restaurants,
including Northern Child's favourite, Spinnakers Beach Bar and Restaurant. Quite
a few of the crew have deserted ashore to hotels or apartments from where we have
been receiving reports of half - hour showers and large comfy beds!
Northern Child route - ARC
2002
Spinnaker beach in St Lucia
Following
three days in St Lucia, Northern Child with half a dozen of the ARC Crew set off
north to her winter base of St Martin. We spent five days cruising north and
visited all the skippers' favourite anchorages including Martinique, Dominica,
Les Saintes, St Barthelemy and we arrived in St Martin after a five day cruise.
We managed to sample what is truly Caribbean cruising at its best - quiet, empty
anchorages, glorious clear seas and winds on the beam. The crew voted it a
brilliant way to finish off the ARC.
Here are a few more
pictures - please click on each of the picture to enlarge them.
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