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| Transatlantic Antigua to the UK - 30th April to 5th June 2005
Daily Log No.1
-
Northern Child -
All's quiet on Northern Child as she
sits bobbing at anchor off Nelson's Dockyard is in Party mode
this afternoon - locals have been flooding in all day and although it is prize
giving for sailing week it is also their day down in the dockyard. Northern
Child's racing crew went up to collect a prize for 3rd in class in Racing
Division A and the Quin Farara Cup for the highest placed yacht over 20 years
old in class. The meeting point for our
Transatlantic Crew was HQ bar in the Old Officers Quarters of the Dockyard. The
Dockyard is well restored and many of the old buildings from Nelson's days are
still largely intact. Four of our crew turned up at the meeting point. To make some introductions: David had
sailed across the Daily Log No.2
- We woke up to a beautiful morning in We motored our way clear of Daily Log No.3
- 1st/2nd May
- St Maarten A beautiful evening's sail to St
Maarten in a fading breeze - pretty hard to have a better first night passage
for a new crew. Most of the time we were making 7.5 knots straight towards our
destination under a star filled sky and full moon. All along the route we could
see the navigation lights of other sailing vessels heading from Having sighted the Island about 30
miles away, it took us until about 4 am to reach our anchorage off Simpson Bay,
where we had to wait until 9 am for the bridge to open to allow us passage into
the inner lagoon. A lovely early morning light breeze greeted the early risers,
with the mainsail and genoa to fold and the boat to tidy up after our passage.
St Maarten is a curious Missing Andrew from It is now nearly
The trouble with the Caribbean is
that it's hot - now, if you're lying on a beach with surf tickling your toes and
a waiter bringing you Pina Coladas, it's okay.
However, if you have a long list of jobs to accomplish and possibly have a
hangover as well it is a different matter.... The crew's night out last night
finished quite late and by this morning Kate was heard to say that she had been
forced to accept those last few drinks, as it is part of her job to look after
the crew! An early start over to the rigging shop to change our forestay didn't
help. Talking of which On the way back across the lagoon to
rejoin Milanto in the marina we managed to get stuck in some thick mud for 10
minutes before our dinghy pushed us off. The lagoon is very shallow and it is
interesting for a boat with our draft of 9 feet getting across it. Our day only get better when we
arrived back and found that Milanto had been due on the fuel dock followed by
ourselves, but in fact a very large motoryacht had gone in instead and would be
there instead. So much for booking. Both boats managed to get fully fuelled up
by In fact we have had a pretty
constructive day in the end and we have managed to achieve enough to keep us on
schedule for leaving on Thursday morning as planned. Wednesday will be a
busy day for us in the sun here, so if you are at your desk looking out the
window at the grey skies, spare a second's thought for all your friends or
relatives out here with us on Daily Log Today was our last full day ashore.
At a team meeting last night we had been split up into jobs for today in an
effort to get everything finished by Andrew is a doctor in normal life and
had been detailed off to examine our medical kits and to see what else we
needed. In fact his only comment at the end was that he was interested to find
abortion pills in the kit - god bless the MCA! Most of the rest of the crew split up
into teams to complete odd jobs for the morning. Milanto gave Kate and myself a
lift to a big supermarket in Philipsburg where we spent a frantic 3 hours
shopping and remarkably got everything on our lists - Kate's friends might
actually like to know that she does know what she is talking about in a
supermarket! Talking about recipes and stuff like that - would you believe it!
'The boys' under the direction of
David were voted the task of stripping and cleaning out our 4m dinghy and
storing it in the container for next season. Being the middle of the day they
came back extremely hot, but had actually completed the job much better than I
would have been able to! Jo helped us pack away all the fresh
stores we had bought into every available nook and cranny on board. The sail
locker, as well as having loads of sails in it, is now also a shop selling fruit
and veg, and starting to smell that way too! A very late lunch with a few beers
led by Steve, no surprise, turned into an early evening briefing session lasting
three hours, where I tried to explain to the crew how we were going to sail
across the Atlantic without killing each other - I'll let you know if they
listened to me at the end of the trip. They definitely didn't get the bit about
not drinking too much on the last night ashore – Northern Child has now
monopolised the table for 7 hours! Jo has now passed into a phase of 'justbeingexcited'
and is eating her second desert. It's now 2230 and both boats are all
packed up and ready to leave St Maarten. Our plan is to leave the lagoon
together at 0930 tomorrow and head upwind to St Barts before turning north east
for Horta, some 2,500 miles away. Our next log will come to you from sea - day 1
of our longest leg on the way back to the Daily Log - Northern Child -
Pre departure Northern Child crew had a really nice last night ashore
in the nearest bar last night - everyone pretty relaxed, a little anxious and
very much looking forward to departure. The excuse was that last minute nerves
had to be calmed by a few cold Caribs, the local Caribbean beer! The name Carib
is taken from one of the original Indian tribes who inhabited these It is now 7.30 in the morning and the crew are up and
about, taking their last long shower ashore, telephoning home or bustling around
doing pre-departure jobs on board. 9.30 am on the dot, the bridge out of the
lagoon opens and we will be there, setting off the longest sea journey most of
the crew have ever done. In fact, Milanto and Northern Child are lying next to each other
on the same dock here in St Maarten, we will leave together and point in the
same direction together. It is likely that after a few hours we will lose sight
of each other for the next 2 weeks, but that we will arrive in Horta at exactly
the same time. Party time at Peter's Bar! News already of one of our friends on passage - John on
‘Om Shanti’ with 5 crew got 250 miles out of Antigua for the Azores when
they had total engine failure, so has had to return to Antigua for repairs -
Anything can and will happen out there. Our thoughts and luck are with him. I have been asked if I still get emotional or excited
about leaving on ocean passages - absolutely! My stomach feels like I am going
into an exam aged 11 1/2! The day I stop getting emotional about it, I will give
up. The thought of taking Northern Child again across the The wind today is looking like 20 knots true on the
nose as we depart so it will be a tough first 24 hours for everyone as we depart
the Daily Log Part 2
- 40 miles North of St Maarten - 5th May We
exited the bridge and the first task we had to do was haul up our big headsail
onto the furling gear. When we go racing, as we have done for the last 2 months,
we use big Kevlar headsails that we manually have to put up and down, depending
on the wind strength. When doing the transatlantics, we use a big headsail on a
furling mechanism which allows us to wind the sail in smaller as the wind
increases and is therefore theoretically easier. Having put the sail up and
rolled it away, we proceeded to hoist the mainsail and head east up the South
Coast of St Maarten. We practised shortening sail by putting a reef in and
setting our smallest heavy weather headsail, the trusty staysail. Andrew
wanted to know if the nearby As
we approached the corner of the We
had a few seasickness casualties during the day, but with the exception of Nick,
no-one actually sick. Nick was hugely enjoying himself last night downing Carib
beers, and we all slightly suspect that the reason he has twice had his head
over the rail is more to do with that than the sea! He is still in great spirits
and has now recovered; I just heard him on deck saying how brilliant the sailing
is. We are pretty maxed out at the moment however, and may well reduce sail as
it comes on dark, to make it easier in the dark hours. Dave,
our fisherman, managed to land a smallish tuna, which we were all very pleased
with, and will form lunch tomorrow. We're just waiting for the big brother to
take a bite on the lure! As
I am writing this it is pretty breezy out on deck, and I am having to stand
sidewise at the chart table to type, as the angle of the chart table seat is so
severe I can't stay on it! There are huge amounts of laughter from the watch on
deck and loud noises coming from Jo as she gets instruction on steering the boat
in quite big seas! We'll let you know how she progresses.... If
any of you would like to contact anyone on board by email, you can send to
guest@northernchild.com and it will be forwarded onto the boat. Remember that it
is a satellite link, and they are paying, so select plain text and don't send
pictures/attachments or replies. That's
it for now; dinner is on, the light is starting to go and we are still bashing
away to windward in fairly exciting seas! Daily Log – 6th May
- 20.55N and 62.13W Our Midday position puts us some
192 nautical miles north of St Marteen, a great first days run, the best
distance I have made on day 1 of this leg ever, but it has been at some cost to
us. Although now the sun is shining on
a deep blue and white crested sea, we have been heading north in 20-30 knots of
true wind and big, confused seas. Living on board has been quite hard with
constant random movements due to the waves and the seas breaking constantly
against the side of the boat and soaking us all to the skin. Our speed and direction have been
great, and although we are hoping for conditions to moderate, we are well aware
that this would also mean losing speed. The atmosphere on board is fantastic,
and people are caring for each other - which is a good sign of a great passage
to come - remember it's just as much about the people as the sailing. Writing this isn't easy and every
couple of minutes or less there is a loud sound of a wave breaking against the
side of the boat and water being flung everywhere, followed by loads of shouting
from those crew members on deck not being able to avoid the seas. I was driving
for a couple of hours this morning and sitting down to leeward (down to the
bottom) of the steering wheel, just watching wave after wave crashing aboard the
port (left) side of the bows, and breaking and cascading along two-thirds of the
length of the boat, before draining away off the side decks. We are doing a
steady 8.5 to 9.5 knots (a knot is a nautical mile per hour) powering through
the confused seas, and as well as being tiring and wet, it is also pretty
exhilarating. When conditions are like this it
becomes more of a simple life for us all on board. As well as standing watch on
deck, 4 hours at night and 6 during the day, we are primarily interested in
sleeping and resting with a book below decks. It's a different world down below,
much quieter and insulated from what's happening outside, but also it can be
difficult as you have no horizon to fix your eyes on, and it is hot - currently
31C at the chart table. We have little electric fans fitted around the boat
which are really great and help you to sleep. SO how are your friends and
relatives getting on? Really well. You may remember that Nick was ill, he's
fully recovered now, and really getting in to it. Bang, crash, water all over us
again. Jo got hungry, made a sandwich and then everyone wanted one! Steve has
managed to get sunburnt on - ohhhh, that was a huge wave breaking over us, where
was I? Oh yes, Steve sunburnt on his back, and yes his cigarette intake is down!
Paul is a diabetic and feeling fine - he tests the whole time, and has just told
me that, oh, another wave, his level is really good. Kate is spending a lot of
her down time studying the inside of her eyelids! We managed a great bolognaise
last night, despite the conditions. Dave is Dave, solid as a rock, never
complains and is one of our watch-leaders. Andrew is hanging in there, quietly
spoken, he is on a learning curve, having sailed for years but never at night or
on the ocean; he's doing fine, and certainly his age hasn't held him back from
fully participating. Me, I have a fuel problem to solve for the generator this
afternoon, and a split mainsail to repair whenever it is dry and calm enough to
do it. Everyone is on deck getting a suntan-with-seawater, and chatting away. We
are now alone on this big wide ocean, heading in the right direction with a blue
sea and sky... Nothing worth doing is easy!
Julian Daily Log - 07 May
- Position: 23.53N 60.59W Our
run to The
sailing since yesterday evening really has been fantastic. We are putting in
loads of good miles in the right-ish direction, the seas are deep blue flecked
by the occasional white crest breaking around us, the winds moderate and morale
is high as a consequence. People have become more chatty as they find they are
able to relax. Everyone is also now used to the watch routine, and having to get
out of bed at I
asked Paul how he found the last 24 hours; 'really good, sitting on deck eating
a curry, listening to music, watching the sun go down was absolutely magic!' To
cap that, one of the songs we listened to was the song chosen as the first dance
at his wedding - ahhhhh! Talking
of curry, our Kate produced us a blindingly good chicken curry and rice, in
reasonably testing conditions. A great way to set us up for the night's fun.... I
was summoned on deck by Steve and Kate at 0130 this morning with a sailing boat
who was nearing us on our starboard, windward side and obviously not keeping a
great lookout. Although we had the right of way we decided to keep clear and
were very glad to have done so. Despite having flashed him with our powerful
'steamer scarer' light and called him numerous times on the VHF, we got no
reaction from him, and he continued along on the same course towards Bermuda -
it might be a big ocean, but if there are idiots out there, you still have to be
careful. Talking
with Andrew this morning, we tried to find out how it was that he kept youthful.
You might have guessed by now that Andrew is past the age of retirement (enough
said!), but is as agile around the boat as any of the younger crew members. He
says that he does a lot of outside activities, for instance in the mountains
climbing, and the secret is never to stop doing the things you like. Andrew is
particularly taken with the flying fish, and every time he sees one he gets
excited! We have started to get some feed back from you via texts and emails; these go down really well with everyone on board, so please support your relatives or friends on board by texting or emailing us - emails tend to be more private, texts are fair game for the crew. For instance, texts that start 'Dear Grumpy' and end 'lumpy' have to be read out to all to identify who the message is for. That's
it for now - it's the weekend for you, but no different for us, the boat is run
24 hours a day and it could be any day of the week, all we know is that we are
starting day 3! As I finish this Dave has a fish on the line - Will we get it
in? More fishy tales tomorrow. Daily Log - 1600UTC 080505 -
position: 25.49N 58.32W A slightly lower daily run of 177
nautical miles is still excellent at this stage of the trip. Normally we would
have run out of wind by now, and be motoring to get to the next area of wind. We
are particularly interested in an area of low pressure, which essentially means
wind, which is deepening off We have great sources of getting
weather information on board, but like any forecast, they are only forecasts and
more than 36 hours ahead are normally wrong! Within the last 5 years we have
moved on from weather fax to an internet based remote server in the We talked with our sistership Milanto
via satellite phone this morning and at 1430 UTC there were at 24.12N and
57.43W, approximately 106 miles to our south and east, obviously going in a more
direct line to Horta and therefore relatively about the same distance out as us.
They were all fine, and like us had no big fishy tales to tell - it seems like a
bit of an empty bit of ocean. The fish we were hooked into
yesterday was reeled in by Nick - a hard 15 minute fight, sweat on his manly
brow, primeval contest of man versus animal, much beating of chests etc, turned
out to be a large chunk of weed! We did however hook into something large - you
should see the size of hook he bit off! The fishing duo of Nick and Dave now
tell me that we are changing tactics and going deep - hmmm, I still think I will
get something out of the freezer.... Jo is having a remarkably turbo
charged morning this morning - when, or more to the point, how will it all end?
Having done toast for the watch on deck, she did a stint on the wheel and has
now asked permission to bake a cake - if you followed our earlier logs this was
the woman who was having serious doubts about the whole thing only 10 miles out
of Antigua - I guess that Northern Child has worked its' magic on her.
Whilst on watch earlier she was heard to say: 'Oh Dave, Oh Dave, I don't
like it when it's all wibbly wobbly' - now, I presume that had something to do
with her steering, but there are certain things that have to stay private on the
boat.... Nick seems to have lost confidence in
Kate managed to instruct the watch on
deck at 2.30 this morning in the finer art of steering without the main slamming
and hit her bunk again at Andrew was spotted this morning with
a large bruise on his side - up until now it has been quite testing conditions.
Dave commented: 'daily beatings will continue until the crews morale improves!
Enough said. Whilst provisioning in St Maarten we
managed to find special low glycemic cookies for Paul, who has to be careful
with what he eats. Kate and I were really pleased with ourselves, brought them
back to the boat in triumph, stored them and lost them! Anyway, this morning we
found them, presented them to Paul and were completely underwhelmed by his
response - he says he was being careful because they might have been useless,
but in fact we might have done okay. Either way, he's eating the damn things..! As we sail on our merry way, the task
of running the boat continues. We have to generate power, make water, write the
logs, cook, sort out provisions, do any repairs necessary. For instance, we had
a leak above the chart table headlining that was annoying me because as I sat at
the chart table writing these logs, navigating or whatever, it dripped on my
head. 4 hours of taking apart and reassembling above the chart table and
hopefully that's fixed. It would have been much easier to do in port without the
boat rolling around. Red Steve, he of sunburn fame, who
claims it's a suntan, is doing fine; still trying to sell us all dodgy cars, he
always has a smile ready for you. That about wraps up my ramblings for
today - remember that we are writing these logs for you to keep track of us, so
do reply to us on board. Fair winds, Julian Daily Log – 9th May -
1600UTC – position: 27.40N 55.48W The daily run for the last 24 hours
has been 183 nautical miles for a total distance run in the last 96 hours of 745
miles at an average ground speed of 7.75knots. Although we are sailing at higher
speeds than this, our distance run over 24 hours is what is important. We get
this reading from comparing 24 hour positions from the GPS - a small electronic
gadget continually reading out our position, course and speed. Our weather forecasts are still
showing the low coming out of the east coast of the US and going east just to
the north of us which is exactly what we are hoping for - if we can just get in
touch with the bottom edge of this low, we can catch a ride half way to the
Azores - the wind should clock round to the south-west and then swing into the
west and north-west as the system goes by. If this works, the winds will be
pretty favourable for us in direction but we will find some rain and overcast
skies associated with the weather fronts. We are obviously watching how this
system develops as it is the key to our next few days. As I write this the wind is up to a
healthy 25 knots true just forward of the beam, with our ground speed up around
the 9 knot mark. Of course as the boat is powered up we have now gone back to
leaning over and rolling and I can sit at the chart table looking down and out
of the saloon window, which is normally above me, at the seas rushing past the
edge of the deck! We do have too much headsail up at the moment, but I figure
that the watch on deck is having fun and it keeps them on the ball. Maybe we
will reduce sail as darkness falls. We had a great afternoon sail
yesterday under our blue and white asymmetric spinnaker, showing the crew how to
trim the beast. The problem with spinnakers is that they are large and although
it makes us go fast you have to employ most of the watch on deck, Kate and I in
looking after it. A rain shower went past, sucked the air out of the vicinity
and there we were becalmed on a roly sea. An hour and a half under engine took
us out of the calm, the winds slowly built back up to the 25 knot mark and we
were off again - lovely. The girl team of Kate and Jo are
wedged in the galley making pizzas – the testing part of the operation comes
when you have to get them out of the oven! We are certainly eating very well,
there is no way anyone will lose weight on board. This is not a sexist boat at
all, in fact the girls are just as likely to be found driving or grinding in
sheets as the Julian is to be found in the galley. First thing this morning we hooked
into a big fish, which Nick got very excited about. We decided that the only way
to land it was to de-power the boat and reduce sail, but by the time we did that
he slipped off. This journey is turning out to be
tales-of-the-one-that-got-away! We
have received on board a text message on the Iridium which has us all baffled.
The best way to proceed with this is to ask if there is a Jules out there who
has recently sent someone on board a personal text message, and to request that
she text us the name of the person to which the text is intended. That's
seems to be it for today; the pizzas are coming out of the oven, the boat's
going along beautifully, Beautiful South are on the stereo and we are still all
smiling at each other! A Bientot, Julian
Daily
Log - Northern
Child - 1600UTC
Our
24 hour run was doing brilliantly until about 0800 this morning when it
all went wrong! The wind has gone from being really great to really
awful, very
little of it with intense cloud and rain activity all around us. We
reckon that this is our punishment for the last five days! Our 24 hour
run has
still been a very healthy 172 nautical miles in the right direction, for
a total distance run of 917 miles in the last five days, a truly great
start to
the passage. But it is only a start - right now we are sitting some 1,350
nautical miles from the The
watch system on board is running 24 hours a day;0600-1200; 1200-1800;
1800-2200; 2200-0200; 0200-0600. We have split the team on board into two
watches under Dave and Steve; with Dave is Paul and Jo, and with Steve is
Nick and Andrew. In deciding who was on with who, I made the initial
selection based on sailing experience, physical fitness and
compatibility,
and to date we have not had any clashes! It took the watches a couple of
days to adjust to the routine, but everyone is now used to running the
boat on a 24 hour basis. Kate and myself
are out of the watch system and on call 24 hours a day - normally one of us is
on deck or available the whole time.
I was able to watch from my bunk in the saloon this morning at
The
weather has remained particularly English all morning - horizon to
horizon clouds and lots of rain, little wind coming at us from all
directions with leftover sloppy waves and swell - lovely! By late morning
we have had finally had enough, started the engine and for the last
couple of hours we
have been motoring our way across a very confused ocean towards where we
are hoping the wind will be! You
may remember that we repaired a leak above the chart table a couple of
days ago - after all the rain of the last couple of days, I can
definitely report
that we have solved the problem! On
board this year we are lucky enough to have Kate looking after us -
initially she was given as her territory the galley, however having
mastered that
her sphere of influence is reaching out to most other areas of the
boat! A woman of firm opinions, we can confirm that, at times, she can be
right! As an example of how we eat on board, take yesterday. Soon after
0600 Kate
decided it was time for bacon sandwiches, which of course disappeared
very quickly. The homemade pizzas came out of the oven fine for lunch,
and with
a choice of vegetarian or pepperoni the crew managed to get through two
enormous pizzas with little effort. By 1800 Kate was back in the galley
preparing home-made lasagna to my mother's recipe, muttering about her
béchamel sauce, the end result being an absolutely fabulous, yummy
dinner. As
I finish this log, what are our hopes for the coming 24 hours? Well, we
would like the wind back please, the sea to stop being extremely annoying
and for the sun to make an appearance - surely that's not too much to
ask! Daily Log
- 11th May - 1600UTC –
position: 30N 20.55W We've stopped - our daily position
gives us a 24hour run of 132 miles for a total distance run of 1049 nautical
miles in our six days at sea. Although it has been a very frustrating 24 hours
we are pleased to have passed the 1,000 mile mark - although we are still not
half way 1,000 miles is still the furthest that most of the crew have sailed on
one trip. We have a buffer of 2 1/2 to 3 days over last years run still to play
with. It's not any easier mentally on the
individual just because the weather has calmed down; the frustration of
continually trying to find enough wind to sail can be very telling. I personally
find it much more difficult spending the whole time we are motoring thinking of
how much of our precious diesel we are using! We don't have much, and we
certainly don't have any to waste! We are still hoping to catch the edge
of the low pressure passing to the north of us, but every hour that goes past
means the possibility of doing that diminishes. In theory we should have been in
the right place for wind for the last 12 hours, but it hasn't worked out that
way - they are only forecasts after all! We know there is wind out there - we
just have to find it! Most of the last 24 hours have been
spent alternately motoring in very light airs and rain, or sailing slowly
towards Horta when there is enough wind to do so. Last night we adopted new
tactics - Kate cooked a very spicy Thai curry, although not even that has got
the boat moving this morning! We have actually formed a little
theory on board - every time that Steve is driving the wind drops, and then
takes ages to build up again. In the old days of sailing ships they would have
done something with him; Steve is driving at the moment, oilskin hood up against
the rain, smiling every time I poke my head out of the hatch! As I send this log out we are
motoring again on a flat calm sea, horizon to horizon clouds and occasional rain
- not much change from the last 24 hours... Hopefully by this time tomorrow we
will have better news to communicate, otherwise we will have to think of what to
do about our jonah!
Daily Log We failed - utterly, miserably to get
a hitch on the weather system ahead of us. However, it seems that the skipper is
the only one on board who is sad, as we seem to be sailing along at 5 knots in
little wind on a blue sea under a very blue sky, everyone is on deck sunbathing,
reading listening to music or in Steve's case peeling (remember he had
sunburn?).... Our daily run was 142 nautical miles
for a total run of 1192 nautical miles in the last seven days. We are exactly
one week out, in the middle of our route and as far from land as we are ever
going to be on this trip. For two days the weather has been
very light with lots of rain and we have used quite a lot of our diesel trying
to get to the area of favourable winds, and then this morning I looked at the
new weather charts, saw that they were still saying we were in 20 knots of wind
(as they have for 24 hours) and thought b.....cks, I give up, lets just go
sailing. Hence our new strategy, which is hmmmmm, not sure yet, but when I have
one I will let you know. We are currently sitting in the warm sector of the
depression, so perhaps we will angle north a bit and try to connect to the
north-westerlies out the back of the depression - maybe, as I seem to remember
that we just failed to reach some other wind we went looking for...! If anyone knows where we stored the
beers, please let us know. We have a couple of slabs of 24 cans, but do you
think we can find them? No way; we know they came on board, and remember
bringing them down below (into the saloon) and thereafter it's all a blur. I
wonder if Steve knows anything about it - perhaps we should search his bunk. The main activity when off watch is
either sunbathing or reading. Preferably trash, in fact the trashier the better
- Paul has managed to finish four books already. Food is a pretty big part of
our day, and as a consequence we are all getting bigger. We managed to finish
Kate's enormous shepherds pie last night, and I can smell Croque Monsieur on the
stove for lunch – another low calorie effort. I tried to say that at least we
are having fresh coleslaw with it; however I lost the oh-aren't-we-healthy
argument when it was pointed out that the coleslaw is covered in mayonnaise. Fishing is not going well - we have a
line out, but have had no bites for a couple of days now. This bit of the ocean
seems pretty devoid of life; big news yesterday when we spotted a bird! Everyone on board is fine; Jo is in
talking mode, mind you so are Dave and Paul when on watch at night. Nick has
been off watch all morning and I asked if he had had a good sleep. 'No', the
reply came back. 'But I have been watching a movie since 0800!' Dave's been
doing his laundry, Andrew has become expert at making tea, and we have now
finished repairing the mainsail. Kate's had her first shower since leaving St
Maarten, yes, she did need it... Skipper nearly lost it when the weather files
kept on saying we were in 20 knots of breeze. So everyone's fine, and we will
let you know tomorrow how little distance we have covered in the next 24 hours!
Daily Log Northern Child
1600UTC 130505 Posn: 31.01N 46.07W (Written
by Julian with Additional
comments provided by Kate within brackets) It has been at times frustrating, but
also at times the most beautiful
sailing
you can imagine. Our 24 hour run beats our passage record low – at
least
we are beating some records! We have sailed, or slowly motored, 110
miles in the last 24 hours, bringing
our voyage total so far to 1301, with
973
miles in a straight line to go. Our daily run on the chart plotter has
been quite a squiggly line, as the
wind has clocked completely around us 2
or
3 times during the last 24 hours, with the wind indicator spinning in
circles.
So we have had to head off in different directions to compensate,
and our skipper has been reduced to
watching movies to alleviate the boredom
and
is now a Lord of the Rings junkie (thanks to Kate).
We have another masterplan
(we're clearly inspired by happenings
in Middle Earth) up our
sleeve
to get to Horta really quickly...! Magic moments do happen on these
trips and in the last twelve hours there
are
two that must be right up there. Remember we had lost the beers, well we
found them (Julian had lost them by
not looking in the obvious place!)
-
no, that's not the magic bit! Following a
really excellent dinner of Kate's Chicken Rice Surprise, (not sure what it
started out as) the whole crew were
still
on deck sipping a cold beer in light airs, Northern Child moving along nicely on
a calm sea under a sky brim full of
twinkling stars, the new moon shining down
brightly
on us and sinking down on the western horizon - ahhhh! You
heartless readers, it really was one
of those moments where you can see the
splendour
of nature and feel really, really tiny. Then again at 0600 this morning the
wind had shifted round to the
north-north-east
and we are beating our way up to the north east. There is
8-10 knots of breeze, a really flat
blue sea and the sun starting to warm us
up.
Northern Child is gliding along at 6.5 knots over the ground, again this isn't
going to beat any records, but how lucky
are we? Alone in the absolute middle of
the
Atlantic Ocean, flat blue seas and sunshine, light airs - anyone want to
swap? (Julian's clearly forgotten the
last two days of pissing rain) . As I sit here at the chart table
typing this log I hear snippets of
conversation
from the watch on deck - Steve, Andrew and Nick. It sounds like
after a week on board they might
actually be able to trim a sail; I go on
deck
and make some suitable comment. I am sure that Peewee and Jim can guess
the sort of thing I said! (Old
Northern Child buddies of Julian's) Steve replies
something
like 'we have had a good teacher', (hoping he will get extras at
lunch
(!?))
- Nick, way off course comes in and says, 'I still can't steer a
straight line though!' Not true, Nick
has turned out to be an absolute gem
of
a crew member. Having just written that, I went on deck to find him
sailing due south when we were meant
to be going due north; on being asked
why,
he muttered something about the wind changing! No way are we going to
let him get away with that, we will
bring it up time and time again! One of the ongoing tasks for the
watch on deck is sail trimming - as the
wind
changes the whole time, so we have to alter the angle of the sails to
the wind to keep the boat driving at
maximum efficiency -'trimming'. This is
easier
to do when the sea is calm like today, harder on the previous few
days where there has been a very
confused sea running and the mast is
whipping
around the sky so much that the sails are collapsing the whole
time. Did I say alone in the middle of the
ocean? Wrong, a huge cargo vessel, the
Atlantic
Clipper suddenly looms up ahead of us on our starboard side,
travelling at least at 20 knots. A
very nice Indian gentleman comes on the
VHF
radio and I have a long chat with him. It is obvious that they have just
come out of the depression to the
north, yes, the one we failed to reach,
and
is hoping for better weather ahead - in fact he was asking us for
weather information! They are
en-route from I am glad that we are not relying on
Dave and Nick's fishing skills to feed
us.
(We haven't even had any weed for breakfast for the last 3 days!) I
will
have to eat my words when they catch something - maybe I can say if! Finishing up this log, we have just
tacked, put the head of the boat through
the
wind, onto starboard tack, we are making 6 knots over the ground heading
North and I am starting to guess when
we will arrive in Horta - I know what
I
think, but I will ask all the crew what their ETA is and we will let you
know tomorrow. In fact, in the last
10 minutes we have had to put the engine
on,
roll away the headsail.... Daily log Our daily run for the past 24 hours
has slightly improved and we managed, mostly under sail, 125 nautical miles, for
a voyage total so far of 1426 miles, with 852 miles still to go to Horta. Not
fast, but as you can imagine we are not suffering and we are ticking away the
miles to our destination. The weather has remained gorgeous and
we are currently sailing at 6.8 knots on a flat bit of blue ocean under a blue
blue sky with some fluffly white cumulus clouds on the horizon. I am still
looking to find us some more wind, and consequently we are heading slightly
north of our direct course to Horta. Over
the last hour I have collected ETA's from the whole crew as follows: Let's see how we get on - The prize
is whoever is closest gets everything paid for on the first night out... could
be a long night. Looking at Nick's ETA being the latest, we now understand that
his little helming-off-course expedition of yesterday in fact is all part of his
masterplan to win the ETA competition. Yesterday afternoon Jo and Kate
spotted a UFO - unidentified floating object - so kate decided to go closer and
investigate, narrowly - in her view skilfully, avoiding getting the fishing line
wrapped around what proved to be the world's deepest lobster pot! Jo would also like me to explain beer
o'clock. Having found our secret stash of Heineken we now have a happy hour
consisting of either Heineken or rum or whatever we find under the saloon table,
and nibbles on deck in the late afternoon. An occasion when the whole crew is on
deck, pretty chilled out and waiting for dinner; exact beer o'clock timing
according to Kate is just when she has started cooking and someone has to get in
her way to get to the fridge! The port log impellor, the little
paddle wheel that tells us our speed located under the hull forward, decided to
stop working yesterday so Nick and myself jumped in for a quick look-see. Very
cold, very clear and blue - you could imagine Jaws arrowing up from the deep
blue at max knots to take a quick nibble. Anyway, found the port impellor is
slightly damaged so switched over to starboard and all is up and running again.
Crew is now happy to be sailing faster than 0.00 knots again. We moved our watches on an hour
yesterday to compensate for the fact that Horta is on UTC time and we would like
to arrive in the right time zone. This normally confuses the crew and the
skipper is the only one who understands the logic, but this time around it seems
that everyone else understands....... hmmmm Paul is really enjoying the whole
experience - I just saw him on deck helming in bright sunshine at 7 knots with a
big smile on his face listening to his stereo. His diabetes has given him/us
absolutely no problems so far, and although when he first contacted us to
enquire about the trip I had to check into the implications of his diabetes on a
trip like this, I am now very glad that he is with us. He is also in Kate's good
books because he is great at washing up leftover breakfast dishes! He went a bit
wobbly yesterday afternoon, nearly fell over the side and blamed it on a wave! This morning's main activity has been
dolphin spotting - you can pay a lot for that in some places. Just before the That's it for now; Steve has just
turned the helm over to Nick doing 7 knots in the rightish direction, whilst
singing Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing, lovely, and Andrew is chilled out in the
aft cockpit reading in the sunshine. We have bronzed bikini clad goddesses
soaking up the sun on the bridge deck whilst pizzas are starting to smell good
in the oven. A bientot, Julian
Daily Log Our daily run for the last 24 hours
has been a much more encouraging 162 nautical miles giving us a total mileage
sailed to date of 1588, with 707 miles left to go to Horta. I know that raw data
like this sounds a bit dry day after day, but to us it is important, our
indicator of how well we are doing. It's no race - we have no opponents, but it
is a balance of passage time against resources, the fuel and food we have left
to cover the rest of this leg. Although being on passage is an
amazing experience there is still the ever present desire to arrive at our next
destination, and you may find it surprising but there is a desire amongst some
crew members to sample the local ales! On deck 10 minutes ago I was looking
around the horizon with Nick, Andrew and Steve and we could see absolutely...
nothing all the way round the horizon. That doesn't happen often in the We will remember some events on
passage more than others and Kate's Death by Chocolate Mousse will be remembered
for a while to come. To set the scene, we had good wind on deck with a roly sea
and good boat speed - an interesting environment in which to cook; Gordon Ramsey
has it easy. To coincide nicely with the boat rolling heavily Kate gets creative
and decides tonight is the night where we will not only have sweet and sour pork
noodles, but also her secret recipe chocolate dessert. All was going fine with
the noodles until a large flying plastic bottle of ketchup landed in her
specially prepared sweet and sour sauce - she needed 5 minutes on deck to get
over that one. Despite the heavy rolling and everything crashing around in the
galley, she managed to prepare the dessert until finally it was safe in the
fridge. Great pork noodles went down well and
desert was served. A mousse made of 70% cocoa content chocolate, coffee, loads
of whipped cream, sugar galore and rum and raisins topped off with more
sprinkled chocolate! After a few spoonfuls the crew gradually appreciated the
enormity of the challenge Kate had laid down for them. Surprisingly enough the
first to finish with a round of applause was our diabetic Paul! He then
overcompensated with insulin and in fact has been pleasantly surprised by how
well his body took the shock. Half the crew didn't finish, including our
resident chocaholic Jo, who it was designed for, and we have tucked the remains
in the fridge for later. Meanwhile the black market in insulin shots has
rocketed up... As the night wore on we could see big
clouds setting in from the west and sensed the possibility of rain. Possibility?
I shot up out of the hatch just before 0200 with a torrent of rain pouring down
the hatch, the crew on deck looking very wet in their oilskins. Andrew was on
the helm as boat speed crept up and the surf started breaking alongside the boat
as the wind hit 30 knots; with Andrew driving, all remained cool and it soon
passed. The next watch came on deck, and as
Paul was pulling on his oilskins he managed to sit down in a pool of water on
deck, lovely, wet arse for the next four hours! A solitary porpoise greeted
Paul, Dave and Jo in the rain at 0400 this morning - didn't linger for photos,
he had better things to do. The wind is coming out of the west
now at a steadyish 13/15 knots - nice direction and we are heading towards Horta
at roughly seven knots under grey skies, with the hint of a breakthrough in the
clouds out to the west. Our diesel consumption is down as we are sailing and
using the generator to charge our batteries, so we are in an optimistic frame of
mind. A bientot from all the crew on Daily Log Our daily run has been 175 nautical
miles, giving us a total of 1763 miles sailed to date on this passage, with 539
remaining to Horta. We have had a |
