Transatlantic Antigua to the UK  -  2nd May to 5th June 2004

Northern Child complete daily log

Saturday 1^st May 2004

It's 1700 hours and we are at the rendezvous outside customs in Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua . We (Julian, Matthew and Jill) are here to meet our four fellow crew members for the Transatlantic to the UK . Ed, English, had managed to meet up with us the night before, and had been invited along to the final party of Antigua Race Week. Robin was the first to arrive, an Englishman living in Australia , closely followed by John from London and ten minutes later we met up with our Australian crewman, Andrew. A full compliment!

Northern Child was at anchor off Galleon Beach , a beautiful location just outside the dockyard. After a run back out to the boat to stow gear, we had an evening run ashore followed by an earlish night. Peter, crew from Race Week, left us at 4.30am for his flight back to the States and we had a reasonably early start, cleared customs and left for St Martin. The first leg to St Martin was downwind in about 15 - 20 knots of breeze, so we made good time and the run of some 100 miles was completed by midnight , as we dropped anchor off Simpson Bay .

The next morning, having cleared customs, we moved through the bridge and made our way into a shallow corner of the lagoon to a rigging workshop, where we were to spend a couple of days working on the boat. The next three days were spent in a flurry of activity as, amongst other things, we had a technician fly in and change the generator, changed our forestay, packed away all the boat equipment from our store, serviced the main engine, and took on as much food, gas, diesel and water as we thought we would need for the journey.

By the morning of Thursday, 6th of May, all was ready and we motored Northern Child out of the Lagoon and dropped anchor outside the bridge again. A quick check of email by most of the crew, we stored our dinghy for the last time ashore, cleared customs and weighed anchor for the Azores , approximately 2,500 nautical miles away!

6th and 7th of May 2004 - 1500 hours

'Anchor aweigh!' the cry from Matthew on the foredeck echoed aft as the skipper, Julian, moved the gear lever into forward and we slowly eased our way out of the anchorage in St Martin for the last time this season. We rounded up into the wind shortly afterwards, hoisted the main and pointed our bows towards the western end of St Martin and the open ocean. By mid afternoon we were sailing on a moderate sea at 7 knots (1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour, or 1.12 statute 'land' miles per hour) past the Island of Anguilla towards our destination Horta, in the Azores Islands , some 2,500 nm away.

The early part of the afternoon was spent in briefings and watching the scenery go past, with a bonus swim past by a pod of dolphins just as the sun was setting! Jill, our still enthusiastic chef (we'll update you on that later!), had prepared the evening meal in the morning, and home made beef stew was washed down with a glass of red, by those with the stomach for it.

In order to sail the boat across to England , we need to run Northern Child 24 hours a day, and to this end we split the crew into watches. Julian and Jill are out of the watch system, with the other five coming on at two hourly intervals, resulting in being 'on watch' for 4 hours and 'off' for 6. This is a great system that results in lots of rest for the crew and a minimum of two people on deck at all times. The order of watches was set as Matthew, Ed, Andrew, John and Robin.

The first night at sea is always a little difficult as the crew settle down and try to rest on a moving yacht; in fact our first night on this passage was very hard to beat with moderate winds and seas, a full moon and loads of stars. Friday lunchtime found us alone on a very blue sea, almost becalmed in light breezes. The first 24hrs run turned out to be a very respectable 169 miles made good, but we now found ourselves becalmed, so elected to go for the engine.

We have some great sources of weather data on board which indicated that we would have light northerlies about 100 miles from our current position, so we settled down to slowly motoring our way through the calm. As the evening of the second day passed, so the sea became glassy calm and by dawn this morning the sea reflected the clouds like a mirror. By 8 in the morning it is already hot, and by 10 it is time to get into the shade under the bimini, a canvas 'hood' that covers the steering position from direct sunlight. At 1156 this morning the wind came whispering in at us from the north and we turned off the engine, set our biggest lightweight genoa and headed off under sail once more. 6 knots on a flat blue sea - life's tough out here!

9^th May 2004

The last 24 hours have passed quickly on board Northern Child . The wind filled in at midday yesterday and we sailed overnight in a building breeze from the north. During the afternoon watches, games on deck went from 'who wants to be a millionaire' (we always get stuck on £250,000) to 'I spy', not quite so intellectually challenging.

After a massive dinner of Lasagne, with added spinach (Jill had bought 16 cans in St Martin !), we were called on the VHF radio by two vessels we had been in touch with over the last few days, seeking weather information. Rubicon is French 43 footer out of La Trinite heading for Horta, and lost Horizons, a British Rival 41, also heading for Horta. We promised to keep in touch.

By midnight we had a reef in the mainsail and were heeled over about 30 degrees going hard to windward, and this really set the pattern for the night. Dawn came up cloudy and a bit chilly, but the wind was down and it was back to a full mainsail. During the course of the morning, the wind continued to come down, and by 1030, it was time for the engine once again.

By Midday, we worked out we were 400 miles from St Martin, so at least we can see we are making progress. As I write this, John is steering and Andrew asleep and snoring in the pilot berth in the saloon! It's still hot, a very blue sea, with quite a confused swell running. More on our progress tomorrow.

Northern Child - Daily log - 9/ 10th May 2004

The weather continues to test our patience - for a number of hours there is enough wind to set off sailing at 6 or 7 knots roughly in the right direction, whilst at other times the wind drops and we end up having to motor our way out of a calm patch. Unusually for this time of year the winds remain out of the north-east, exactly where we want to go! 

We are continually looking at last years log of the same trip and each entry in the logbook is showing easterlies or southerlies - exactly what we want and should have! That's sailing! Morale on board still continues to be good - it's hard to not enjoy blue seas and skies. Two major events punctuated Sunday afternoon for us: the first was the appearance of a ship about five miles away from us and the other was the sighting of a bird, a skua to be precise! As you can see from this, life on Northern Child has settled down to a routine of watchkeeping, eating, sleeping and sunbathing!  

We started the morning this morning with the motor going, but by mid morning the wind had filled back in again and we have been having a lovely sail to windward in about 10 knots of breeze. We still have over 1600 miles to go to the Azores so anything could happen...

Log of Northern Child , 11th May Midday 24.00N and 54.10W

Each day at midday we complete a 24 hour run and plot the position on the electronic chart, as well as recording it in the traditional logbook. This enables us to keep a running total of 24 hour distances covered and is normally the subject of much speculation! Today we covered 130nm, which is about the equivalent of 5 knots, pretty similar to the previous 2 by 24 hour runs. We are still sailing in light North Easterly winds, and prefer to sail slowly than using our diesel at such an early stage of the voyage. Although we are hoping that the winds fill in as the days progress, there is no guarantee and so the preservation of our diesel supply becomes increasingly important.

We are still beating on port tack - in other words the boat is trying to sail as close to the wind as possible, and we are leaning over on our right hand side, at about a 30 degree angle - it makes living interesting, especially normal activities like cooking and going to the toilet! Andrew is waiting for us to tack onto the other side, as his bunk is continually trying to tip him out!

We are continually fishing, and are trailing two lines behind the boat during daylight, although we are convinced that this is the best way to catch fish, at the moment the score is fish caught, 0! In desperation we got some Kingfish out of the freezer that Matthew had caught off Nevis a couple of weeks ago and ate that - it was delicious. Let's just hope that we do not run short of food!

A highpoint of every day is dinner, and Jill is doing an absolutely fantastic job in the galley for us. Everyone has been told that they can join in and cook if they wish to, there just do not seem to be that many takers! As the routine settles down and one day starts to follow another in pretty similar fashion, the main off watch activity seems to be reading and waiting for the next text message for Robin on the Iridium - it has a rather loud ringing tone!

We are probably 650 nautical miles from our starting point in St Martin , so we are now seeing some progress across the chart towards the Azores . It is a long way and we will be out here for between another 10-14 days depending on wind, so we will keep you posted on our progress!

Log 11/12 May 2004 1200UTC 25.12N and 52.34W

What a difference a day can make. Yesterday morning was blue, sunny and essentially flat water sailing; Today the sky is almost completely cloudy, the temperature down, wind up and we are beating hard into northerly seas, with nearly every other wave breaking over the front of the boat and working its way aft! The wind is probably only blowing 20 knots true, 25 knots apparent, but the sea is up and we are beating at roughly 35 degrees to the wind, so it is quite hard going. Ed was seen on deck at first light with his camera trying to capture some of the waves coming over the bow of the boat!

In conversation yesterday he was telling us how, when we dock in England at the beginning of June, he hopes that there is a huge welcoming committee for him on the pontoon, so if you can meet our arrival, please do!

At 1am this morning we decided to tack the boat (put the nose through the wind) so we are now beating North or North-easterly on the starboard tack (wind coming over the right hand bow). By dawn we had settled down to the new side and those below who had had the upwind bunks so far on this trip, now have the luxury of being on the downside, less likely to fall out and more comfortable! This is particularly welcome to Aussie Andrew who no longer has to climb up into his old bunk; he can now execute a more modest body roll and find himself snugly set in his bunk on the down side of the boat.

Today should really be christened Fish day, or the one that got away, or so we thought! At about 6am this morning the wind was gusting up to about 25 knots and we decided to change from the big headsail to the number 3, a process which takes about 30 minutes and most of the crew to accomplish. At exactly this moment the generator tank decided to run out of fuel and the line on the fishing rod decided to scream out with a strike! Whatever it was took most of the line and we knew he was big enough not to be able to bring in without slowing the boat.

We therefore decided to drop the headsail and deal with the fish. Over a period of about ten minutes we managed to get him to the back of the boat, to discover that we had hooked a decent sized blue Marlin! As Matthew leant over the back for us to gaff the fish, he gave a magnificent last wriggle, dropped the hook and swam away! Oh well, we felt pretty good about it really, as he was a beautiful looking fish.

We then proceeded to get the smaller headsail up, sort out the generator and proceed on our way. We all thought that was it and retired to our former activities, sleeping, reading or whatever. An hour later the second fishing reel starts screaming out! This time the line was a little lighter and the fish was bought up to the back of the boat a little quicker. We identified it as a 10kg wahoo, managed to get it aboard, where it is now being chopped up in the galley for tonights meal, and any excess, probably half, will be frozen for later in the trip. We will let you know tomorrow how it tasted!   

Log of Northern Child 12/ 13th May 2004

We spent a beautiful afternoon beating north in moderate seas and winds. It has become our immediate focus to work out what the wind has in store for us for the next few days, as we are still beating to windward and not able to point at our destination! Supper last night turned out to be fantastic - Matthew claimed the honour of cooking the wahoo as he caught it; filleted and dusted with flour, straight into the frying pan and served with potatoes - yummy! Out here in the ocean the fish we catch are mostly very clean meat with no bones once they are filleted, so very easy to eat on a heaving ocean. Just before dinner most of the crew had a taste of sushi, raw wahoo! Hmmmm.

As night time came on, it became apparent that although the nights are shortening as we go north, the moon is waning, so night sailing is now becoming very dark. Dawn found us still beating northwards and no real change in the wind that we have had for the last week. By midday we had covered another 138 miles, making a total of about 960 for the week – we really are now in the middle of nowhere - the nearest point of land is Bermuda, which is some 750 nautical miles to the northwest of us. 

We managed to download lots of weather information this morning; the conclusion is that we will be left with very little wind over the next few days as a ridge of high pressure builds to the north of us, and we will be primarily occupied with getting across this ridge to try and find more favourable winds north of 30 degrees north.  John was heard remarking this afternoon that 'it is perfect sailing – very relaxing'! I'll let you know how he feels in a week’s time!

Log of Northern Child 1200 14th May 2004 - Position: 29N 51W

At noon on the 13th we had covered 138 miles - pretty average for the wind/sea conditions we are having at the moment. We are still heading north, beating and have decided to tack east or north-east at the earliest opportunity, as the wind seems to be going round a bit more to the north.

Just before dark, about 1800 hours, the fishing line screamed out again and everyone off watch was on deck in a very short time! As we reeled in the fish this time, we caught sight of a bright yellow body, and sure enough it proved to be a dorado. Now the dorado is also known by many other names, for those of you reading this in Australia it is called a mahi-mahi, as well as being known in some parts of the world as a dolphin fish, although not having any relation to a dolphin at all! The great thing about the dorado is that it is the skippers favourite fish! The dorado weighed in at a little over 12kg, about 15lbs, and was soon filleted and resting in our freezer. We should get at least 3 meals out of this - again a white, meaty fish with no bones and little smell! Yummy!

By 2am this morning the wind had headed us and it was time to tack (to put the nose of the boat through the wind). This might not sound big news to you, but as it is only our second tack in 8 days, it is big news to us! On our new course we are now finally heading for Horta, the Azores , still about 1300 nautical miles away! As we were tacking the moon came out dead ahead of us, an old half crescent moon on the wane, the mast and sails standing out beautifully in the moon and starlight.

Dawn came early to us this morning and by 4am it was light. Huge excitement: a yacht on the horizon ahead and to windward of us, the first vessel we have seen for five days - it's a big empty ocean out here! Ed was driving and decided that he would overtake the other boat and over the next hour proceeded to do exactly that, with Northern Child eating up to windward of the other vessel and ahead. As I write this in the early morning the other sail boat is now below and behind us, and despite repeated calls on the VHF radio has failed to get in touch with us.

Still of great interest to us is the weather and a great deal of time is spent studying all the various weather charts that we get. There seems to be a ridge of high pressure forming to the north of us, which would leave us very little wind, and we have to work our way through this in the next 24/48 hours before finding new wind on the route to Horta.

Ed says to all his friends (if he actually has any?!) or his mother 'Why doesn't anyone want to contact me?' he did actually seem quite sad....! If you want to contact any of us on board you can email us on guest@northernchild.com and the message will be relayed to the boat immediately. John says hi to anyone reading these logs.

That's it from a happy crew on board and we will be back with an update tomorrow!

Daily log Northern Child – 15^th May 2004 - 29.52N 48.50W

One of the interesting things about sailing is that no two days are exactly the same! Friday afternoon was absolutely beautiful - flat sea, no clouds, 10 knots of breeze and with the light no.1 genoa up, we were making 6 knots towards Horta (For Ed's friends, that is in the Azores , look it up in an Atlas index under A - that's Ed talking, not me!).

The evening meal was just perfect - fresh dorado, beautiful. We all agreed that it was the best so far. As the night wore on the wind came aft and we were just congratulating ourselves, smugly, on having done the worst and only(!) 1100 miles to go, when wham, 4am and the wind was back up to 30 knots and on the nose!

As you probably guessed, it is still like that now, the boat on its' ear and every other wave coming over the bow - there's always something good though - the sun is out again and things looking a little bluer. It is very difficult to type, leaning over and smashing up and down, so more tomorrow.

Log Northern Child - 15/16th May - 30.28N: 46 .16W

Guess what? Yes, we are still beating! The last 24 hours have been interesting - quite heavy winds and seas mostly on the nose. The sea started getting up during the night, and by this morning was quite impressive - large swell interspersed with smaller breaking waves, and through this we have to thread our way! It seems that every other wave breaks over us, but in fact it's not that bad. Winds are probably averaging 25-30 knots, although the sea state is much higher than that, due to the low pressure cell that went over to the north of us.

This morning was quite bizarre; having seen virtually no shipping for the last 1,000 miles, we were treated to 4 cargo ships on our starboard side within 2 hours. During the morning the sea and sky have gone from grey and threatening to nice and blue; although the sea and wind conditions haven't changed much, psychologically it is much easier and fun!

Life on board becomes much more straightforward. Watches on deck are taken in harnesses, and immediately on completion of the four hour duty, the crewman is back down into the relative comfort of the saloon. Eating takes a very high priority, and most of us seem hungry most of the time. We are all relieved when Jill cooks us another excellent meal, despite the conditions making it as difficult as possible for her! If not eating or reading, we are usually to be found in our bunks asleep! Even that is not easy, as the boat is crashing off waves, so there is not only the angle, but the motion and noise as well. Despite all this, morale is high, we are through the 1,000 mile to go to Horta barrier and we all look forward to seeing what the weather can throw at us next - surely we won't have to beat all the way to Horta? We'll let you know!

Daily log Northern Child - 17/ 18th May 2004 - 30N 40W

It has been a fast, rough 24 hours! As you may have read yesterday, our weather forecasts had a low pressure system sitting directly on our track for Horta, so yesterday we eased off our course and went a little bit south of east. During the afternoon and early evening the wind steadily increased until we had 30-35 knots of apparent wind on the beam. Although not comfortable, the boat was going fast and in fact we eased the boat out another 20 degrees at midnight as the wind and sea were up again. No moon now, and so the nights are very dark, although getting shorter as we go north. Dawn came up, the wind and sea were down and we were able to start pointing a bit more up to the east.

I asked this morning what it was people missed on board that they would be able to do or get in Horta and here are the answers: Julian:  a fresh pain au chocolat; Robin: grass, green variety I presume, to walk on; John: An English newspaper and a table at a café drinking coffee overlooking the harbour; Andrew:  a beer and the internet; Jill - liquorice and a Sunday meal cooked by someone else! Matt - a beer at Peter's Bar; Ed - a blonde, and later qualified to a female blonde, later qualified to 'I'm not too picky'! So there you go, twelve days out and that's what we came up with.

As I type this Andrew (no worries, mate) is driving with Ed on watch, Jill is cooking, John and Robin are reading in the saloon, so life goes on. I have heard the comment that it is nice to have the time to read! The wind has just started to come down again so I'm just going on deck to help Ed taking out some reefs in the main and genoa.

In the last 24 hours we have had our best day's run of 186 miles, although not all of them in the right direction! Sun's out, waves are down, Ed's driving and we're cruising! Another 737 miles to go to Horta.

Daily Log - Northern Child - 18/ 19th May 2004 - 31.51N 37.26W

The sailing and weather for the last 24 hours have been absolutely perfect! We have been able to point directly at Horta again and have maintained good speed overnight averaging about 7 knots through the water. The sea has progressively calmed down over the last 24 hours and we are now slicing upwind through the waves at 6.9 knots, with no slamming, no big waves and no rolling - luxury. It makes life down below slightly easier, and sleeping is definitely better as we are no longer being thrown around in our bunks.  At dawn this morning we sighted a freighter off our port quarter (behind us to our left) and Julian and Matt bet it would go behind us, and Ed said it would go ahead - finally it went behind and now Ed owes a hamburger each!

Shortly afterwards we picked up a call from another yacht on the VHF radio - it turned out to be John Pierce on a new Jeanneau. I have known John for quite a few years and will be delighted to meet up with him again in Horta. They left two days ahead of us and so we are pretty pleased. He later contacted another yacht ahead of us, who also was looking for weather information, so Northern Child is now operating informal radio weather net for the next couple of days - we seem to have some pretty good information. 

More fishy stories! During the night, Andrew and Ed were on watch in very calm seas, Andrew driving, when out of nowhere came a flying fish straight into Andrew! Ed was left in fits of laughter, whilst Andrew was removing fish scales...

The weather is doing exactly what we thought and the wind at 1100 our time has just died completely. So, it's engine on and noisy progress across a flat blue sea. The bimini (sun shade) is back out and the suntan cream is going on!

At Midday we were 588 nautical miles from Horta, and had completed a run of 149 miles towards our destination.    

Log of Northern Child - 19/20 May 2004 - 33.28N 35.26W Sailing NE @ 6kts

All yesterday afternoon we happily motored along at 6 knots with the autopilot on and pointing exactly towards Horta. Although we weren't sailing, the weather was beautiful and the crew managed to have a pretty relaxing and enjoyable afternoon. No fish, though...

Andrew has decided to go for a full beard and at the moment is just going through the grungy phase, but he assures us all that it will look okay when we get to Horta! Jill has tried making us a custard desert, with no luck. After all night in the fridge it still hasn't set and she tells us that it is special Dutch custard - I think it will end up over the side. On asking if she had any comment about the non-setting custard she replied 'No, get out of my galley!'

As the evening wore on a layer of cloud reached out to us from the north- west and brought rainy though not windy conditions all night - engine on, autopilot on and a few drenched watchkeepers!. At 0300 we were able to sail for a couple of hours although the wind then faded out again.

Our friends on the Jeanneau 'Bardot' came back to us again this morning and we went through the weather with them for the next two days. We have managed to overtake them during the night so we are feeling pretty pleased!

By 0915 the wind was back again from the South - East this time at about 10 knots. We have hoisted our asymmetric spinnaker and are sailing in flat seas at between 6 and 6.5 knots towards Horta. Great sailing! We have managed to cover 140 miles towards our destination and there now remain 448 miles to go.

Immediately we downloaded the crew ETA's yesterday, there were mutterings from various people about changing theirs - too late. Robin claims he had forgotten to take into account the time difference with Horta.....

Daily Log Northern Child - 20/21st May - 35.01N 33.20W - Heading towards Horta!

We managed to keep the asymmetric spinnaker (large light sail, blue and white in colour) up for the whole afternoon - absolutely beautiful sailing and all in the right direction! By 1800 hours the wind was back down again. Lots of rain storms, clouds and lightning all over the horizon to the west of us, and we decided to take the spinnaker down and motor through the night. Although this is boring, it is efficient and we managed to keep up 6 knots towards Horta all night. Dawn found us under a clearing blue sky and building winds and by 0930 we were able to set sail and head for Horta again.

I am sure that you are interested in the fate of the custard pudding – Jill is determined that she is going to make us all ill by eating it and the current plan is to keep it refrigerated until Horta, buy a magic secret ingredient that will make it set properly and then feed it to us - she is a determined woman! I do have to report however, that she made us 2 loaves of bread in the oven the other day - 1 normal white and 1 fruit loaf and they both turned out excellently! She is still cooking great meals for us; we have a freezer full of fresh meats, as well as the fish that we have caught en route, so we are eating extremely well - certainly no one will be losing weight on this trip.

Whilst out here the weather is extremely important to us and on passage we have so far primarily been using two sources of information. The first is some weather data files that we download on request via email; these files are then unzipped into a weather viewing programme and give us some very good indications on what wind we should be expecting. The second source is my wife, Magali, who sources mainly French forecast information for us on the internet and then relays it to us on board. Incidentally, all the logs that you have been reading get emailed back to Magali who then publishes it on the web for us. 

During our last 24 hour run we have covered 140 nautical miles towards our destination at an average speed of a fraction under 6 knots. This speed has become known as the get-us-to-the-bar-on-time speed for Sunday - our goal is to try and reach Horta on Sunday before last light and to visit Peter's Bar to celebrate! As I finish this log the wind is currently down a little bit again - patience!

Daily Log Northern Child - 21/22 May - 36.20N 31.28W Wind - on the nose.

Our most frustrating 24 hours of the trip so far! We feel as if we are getting closer, but the wind really is not being helpful at all. By mid - afternoon the wind had pushed us around to a northerly course and so we decided that we had to get the engine on and start pointing towards Horta again.

It was just starting to get dark as we experimented with our course/engine revs and realised that the wind was completely on the nose - it could not be coming more directly from Horta if it tried! The sea was getting up and the waves were square, so we were being stopped the whole time.

The most frustrating thing is that you see every hour our ETA slipping away - we really could do with arriving and not spending Sunday night out here beating away!

By dawn it was evident that despite our weather information to the contrary, the wind was not going to let up and shift round, so we decided to keep motoring. We do have only a limited amount of diesel so it is difficult to judge what speed to push the boat along at, as we are now not convinced that the wind will come round in the next 24hours and we may need to economise with our consumption.

Our midday 24 hour run was a very frustrating 118 nautical miles made good. Our friends on Bardot have been in touch a couple of times and they are experiencing exactly the same as us! Ed has decided to push the engine revs up - his new strategy - we'll let you know how we get on!

Daily log Northern Child - 22/23 May - 37.55N 30.05W  -  No wind

We have basically come to a halt - not quite, but almost! The wind has really disappeared on us; the barometer has risen and the sea has flattened out.

We have alternately been using the little diesel we have left and sailing on any possible whisper of wind. Our diesel is now down to 50 litres and with 80 miles left to run, we still have to sail about 30 miles, even if we motor the rest. The problem is that we are currently sailing at 2 knots and our ETA keeps on slipping - in fact, it is impossible to give an ETA, but the consensus is Monday morning!

It is really quite frustrating because the wind occasionally picks ups, fire us with enthusiasm, we all then alter our ETA's, only for the wind to die again 10 minutes later! Having said that it is very beautiful - hot, sunny and calm with an oily swell coming in from the north. We all spend anxious minutes searching the horizon for signs of land, or in fact anything, but nothing has appeared yet.

Morale is still good, but Ed has decided it would be even better if we were in Peter's Bar! At midday day today we had achieved our shortest 24 hour run of 109 miles towards Horta - Oh well, it wasn't meant to be easy. By the time we arrive, we will have covered nearly 2,500 miles so we feel pretty good. The forecast is more of the same and so we are destined to a last slow run in to Horta, but at least this will be our last night at sea on this leg. More news from Northern Child tomorrow.

Daily Log of Northern Child - 24th May 2004 - Horta!

We're in! After 17 and 1/2 days at sea and at 1030hours local, the same as GMT, Northern Child arrived in Horta and we are now safely tucked up inside Horta Marina.

We managed to sail most of yesterday afternoon in about 6 knots of breeze, making only about 3 knots, but in the right direction towards Horta. The sea gradually flattened out and the wind dropped again, so that by the time the sun set we were unable to sail and turned the engine on.

We had worked out that with the two jerricans of fuel we had left, we would be able to just make Horta. By the time the first can was finished we knew that we could definitely make Horta and we were able to increase our revolutions so that as we approached Horta we were motoring along at 7.5 knots through a totally flat sea.

As the dawn lifted out of the east the islands of Faial and the massive volcano on Pico revealed themselves to us on the port bow, just where we hoped they would be. Everything looks really green and the buildings are white or pink with red tiled roofs - very Portuguese!

As we closed in on the land we found we were converging with 3 other boats; the first turned out to be King's Legend - they had left the anchorage in St Martin exactly the same time as we did, and after all this time and distance we arrived at exactly the same time! One of the others was Bardot, the yacht we have been in regular contact with for the last week.

The island slipped past on our port beam, we rounded the last headland which was an extinct volcano and there it was - our destination of Horta.

After about 2,400 nautical miles and 17 days we were pleased to arrive! On the quay to welcome us in was our new crew member, Virginie, who I hope will have a civilising influence on this lot!

Our immediate plan is to sort the boat out, and go ashore for lunch to Peter's Bar! We aim to leave Horta Wednesday lunchtime.

Daily Log Northern Child - 24/25th May - Horta, Azores

We have now been in 24 hours and feel like we have been here for an eternity! For Monday lunchtime we managed to get to Peter's Bar and everyone had a few beers and something-and-chips; really unhealthy, but also really good! It was agreed by all that Peter's Bar is an amazing place, full of sailors, all heading in different directions, a real crossroads of the oceans. In order to get here you have already had to cross an ocean and consequently there are more real sailors here and less BS!

In the afternoon the crew disbursed and were occupied in phone calls, shopping, internet and showers. Northern Child crew of Julian, Matt and Jill worked on the decks - our current project is refurbishing the teak decks forward of the mast area, a very long, hard and messy job! The weather has changed and the wind come up from the south as a gale system heads north of us, making for the UK , so stand by!

In the evening we joined up with the remaining crew from Bardot, and went out to a Portuguese restaurant together. They give you a superheated volcanic stone to cook on, and then you get a plate of fish or meat to cook yourself, so washed down with some Vinho Verde it makes a great occasion.

Tuesday, our day off, started windy and cloudy, but dry. The crew split into different parties, with Andrew, Robin and John hiring one car and Matthew and Jill another.  They all headed off round the island to take in the local sights; There are two volcanoes here - one dormant and looking a bit like the Lost World, and the other ash and lava, which last erupted in 1957. Ed didn't manage to get himself organised to do anything (oh, the joys of youth), whilst Virginie and Julian continued working on the teak decks, getting completely covered in black, very sticky gunk! At the time of writing this, Virginie is in the marina showers trying to scrub it all off! 

We have a morning ahead of us of preparations to leave and aim to try and get off at 1400 local, Wednesday. With the weather systems stacking up the way they are looking like at the moment, we should have a fast, bumpy start to the next leg!

Daily Log Northern Child - 25/26th May 2004

Everyone arrived back on board during yesterday afternoon having visited the Island and declared it well worth seeing. In the evening the majority of us met up at Peter's Bar and went out to dinner together, followed by an early night in preparation for Wednesday.

We had decided that we would leave today; this morning the weather was beautiful with little wind and hot sunshine. We divided up the tasks still to be done and by lunchtime Northern Child was ready for departure. A quick final trip to Peter's Bar and last phone calls home and we were off.

We cleared the harbour at 1400hours local (boat-time is now GMT) with almost total cloud cover, drizzle and moderate winds from the south. Our initial course took us west of the island of Sao Jorge and we are now heading higher on the wind, to try and pass to the east and windward of our last Azorean Island, Graciosa. We should pass this about 2200 this evening and then be able to settle down onto our proper course for the English Channel .

Although yachting plans are always evolving (or change as the crew might say) our initial objective is to try and go direct to Cherbourg where we intend to go out for Dinner with Magali and Pierre (my family) and offload a lot of the cruising gear before heading for the Hamble. We are hoping to reach the Hamble on Saturday the 5th of June. It is approximately 1400 miles away, and the winds tend to be very variable on this route, so we probably will not be able to update this ETA for another 7 days or so.  

As I write this we are averaging 8 knots over the ground in the right direction, Andrew's driving, Virginie has just come off the wheel and Jill has a great smelling dinner on the stove. The wind has freshened up a little to about 18 knots and a little further forward so that it is now coming over our Starboard beam( off our right hand side). We have travelled 31 miles in 4 1/2 hours so are all quite happy. The wind won't, but we are all hoping that it stays the same for tonight!

Daily Log Northern Child - 26/27th May 2004 - 39.45N 24.58W

The sun set as we took our departure from the last of the Azorean Islands; it quickly faded into a low bank of cloud and mist, and we pulled away into the broad reaches of the North Atlantic Ocean once again. Definitely the North Atlantic now - the swells are large and grey, occasionally breaking alongside the aft cockpit and the helmsman as we thread our way through large swells and seas.

We demolished a large dinner that Jill had prepared earlier and claimed would last us for two days - no way, all gone! Excellent meal to prepare us for a fast night's sailing. As we ate we sailed past our old friends on Bardot and settled down onto a direct course for the Brest peninsular. We are running at an average speed of 8 knots over the ground and have our mainsail eased right out on one side, and forward we have our largest, heaviest genoa set on a pole on the right hand side and our number 3 goosewinged out the other side; lots of sail area equals lots of power equals lots of miles covered to where we want to go!

By 2 am this morning the wind was up even further and we took a reef in the mainsail (made it smaller) to make the steering a little easier. It is a very dark night, although there is a big moon it is totally covered by clouds, but the temperature is fine as there is a southerly wind blowing.

This morning it was apparent that the wind had stayed in all night for us and we were up for a good day's run. The morning passed quickly and the sky cleared out to a lovely hot sunny morning and spirits soared. All through the morning we were visited by pods of dolphins leaping around, not only around the bows, but all around the boat.

At the end of our first 24hrs run on this leg we had covered 188 miles, and 182 towards our way point, the best of the transatlantic passage yet.

Daily Log of Northern Child - 27/28th May - 41.07N 22.16W

After an excellent first 24 hours run, the wind stayed up sufficiently to have a lovely sail during the afternoon and early evening.

At about 1700 we caught a good sized tuna, which we landed and cut into 8 large steak size bits, which we are going to have this evening. Tuna is a much more bloody fish than the wahoo or dorado and there was quite a lot of mess everywhere!

All during last night the wind alternately died and came up enough for us to sail for a while. All the while we are still making good progress towards the English Channel . By early morning the wind had gone again completely and we ended up motoring through the rest of the night and early morning. We took advantage of the calm morning and Julian fixed a problem with the autopilot whilst Robin and Matthew took the main down and sewed over a chafed patch on the sail. During the morning the skies cleared out and it is now a lovely sunny day.

For those of you who know our new crew member, Virginie, you may like to know she has fitted in well and spends almost all her off watch time sleeping!

Just before our daily 14.30 log, the wind came back again enough for us to sail and we are currently making 6 knots in lightish winds towards our waypoint. Over the last 24 hours, we have progressed 150 miles towards our destination and are happy with that.

Northern Child Log - 28/29th May 42.33N 19.40W

As I am writing this we are 42.33N 19.40W with about 743NM to go to Cherbourg and have just completed a 146NM day.

Yesterday afternoon was spent sailing nicely, going about 7 knots under the main and genoa. The wind died down just after dinner, and we motor-sailed through the night and part of the morning, using the newly repaired autopilot. At around mid-morning, the wind turned from North East to South West (to Ed and the rest of the crew's greatest joy, we had yet more proof that South Westerlies actually exist!) allowing us to let out the main and put out a pole with the jib. The wind has now died down a little and we are sailing slowly. According to the forecast, this should change by tomorrow mid-day and we will try and aim for our first 200NM day!

The highlight of the past 24 hours was last night's dinner - the tuna caught and prepared by Matthew. Nothing beats fresh fish and this one was particularly good.

Aside from that the crew has been sleeping less today and even managed a Saturday at the Movies after lunch, with one of the greatest sea-fearing films (as Julian put it) Deep Calm, staring Nicole Kidman!

On the wildlife front, we spotted some Common Dolphins last night which came and played under the bow, and confirmed our saying of "where there's a bird, there's a fish and there must be a dolphin". We are still hoping to spot our first whale...

This log was written by Virginie, who has now fully recovered from her bout of sleeping. In fact, it was unanimously decided that the award for most sleep by one person had to go to Ed, who really is a master of the sleeping art.

We have just completed 146 miles for the last 24 hours and have 693 to our waypoint off Brest , and then 175 to Cherbourg . Tomorrow I will ask for a roundup of ETA's from the crew and will let you know!

Daily log of Northern Child - 29/30th May 30 2004 - 43.54N 16.31W

The wind stayed light during Saturday afternoon and by the middle of the afternoon watch we were back to mororsailing. Despite this we are still heading in the right direction and the miles are clicking down. The afternoon billing of Dead Calm on DVD went down very well!

Dinner was interesting - Jill had cooked up some mince that smelt divine, but on tasting it we discovered that whoever had minced the meat in Horta had minced a lot of bone in with it - the result being like eating gravel! The evening meal hastily got changed to vegetarian pasta - yummy.

We forgot to mention our evening meal on Friday night. Matthew had pan fried his tuna (caught only a few hours earlier) and Jill had prepared a salad - it was really fantastic. No bones; I think it is the bones that normally put me off fish! We were all really full as the steaks were enormous, and then

Jill pulled out the piece de resistance - home baked (well Northern Child baked at sea!) apple pie and freshly made ice cream. We all agreed this was the best meal of the trip so far.

By two o'clock this morning the wind had come up to about 15 knots from astern and Matthew and John got the genoa out on the pole and shut the engine off, and we were sailing again. In fact, twelve hours later, we are still running beautifully before 20 knots of breeze from behind us, the sun is out, and Virginie has decided to read on deck in her bikini, having had dolphins jumping around the boat again.

As we have good boat speed and a good forecast of winds from behind for the next 48 hours I decided to take a poll of everyone's ETA's for Cherbourg , where we are going to stop for a day and offload the cruising gear before heading out on the last leg of 80 miles to the Hamble. The distance to go to Cherbourg was wrong yesterday, so we now have 710 nautical miles to run and we are averaging 8 knots as I write this log, having covered 160 miles in the last 24 hours.

Daily Log of Northern Child - 30/ 31st May 2004 - 45.47N 13.11W

If I was asked to choose one word that described the last 24 hours on board, it would be easy: Fog. In fact, during the last day we have great winds from a great direction, it's just that we have been sitting under a weather front, and everything in our world is grey; the sea, the skies and the waves. There isn't much else out here, over population of the world hasn't yet reached the outermost limits of Biscay, well nothing has actually. For it is Biscay we are now in, or rather the far west of Biscay. Even without all the modern navigational aids on board, too many satellites to know what to do with kindly provided free of charge by the USA , we know it is Biscay, because it's grey and wet.

Life on board continues to be good. Jill has spent this morning making a chocolate cake for tea and a chocolate tart for dinner - it smelt delicious in the oven, and actually got Ed out of his bunk, which, when he's not on watch is a very rare event. Ed managed to eat half of the crew's chocolate croissants for breakfast, so we are going to have a battle keeping him away from the galley...! He shares half of his four hour watch with Virginie who is always cheerful and adds a certain Je ne sais quoi to the whole atmosphere on board. She has pleaded that I don't tell everyone the story of the Pole Star or Scandanavia and Ed's not telling!

John decided that the only way to rid ourselves of the fog is to start praying, so we have unanimously elected him to the job. He is currently standing at the wheel steering, wearing full oilies and just his beard and glasses poking out form under his hood. He has adapted well to life on board and has to be the most organised crew member. Andrew spends large amounts of time each day reading his instruction manual for his new Suunto watch – this is so complicated that it took two of them 30 minutes to set the time! Matthew has drawn one of the worst watches - midnight to four every morning; however we reckon he has now fully adjusted to the system as he has watched Scarface on DVD at 4am for the last two mornings! Robin continues to answer lots of silly questions posed by the Captain, as he seems to be some sort of electrical and radio genius.

Despite the poor visibility, greyness and occasional rain, we have made good time, had a great 24 hours and managed to sail 181 miles towards our waypoint. We are now some 350 miles from the Brest Peninsular and the shipping lanes of the English Channel , and I am hoping that we arrive there during daylight hours on Wednesday, leaving 175 miles to Cherbourg .

Daily Log of Northern Child - 31st May/01 June - 47.25N 09.27W

It has been another great 24 hours sailing, except it has turned cold - it's meant to be summer in Europe , what's happened?

During the Monday afternoon the wind stayed aft for us and we managed to keep on our rhumb line (straight line between 2 points) at 8 knots average over the ground. Seas started out not too high and with the wind from the south west it meant it was quite warm, although we didn't see the sun.

In the afternoon I managed to rewire the stereo; I had had to use the power supply when I repaired the autopilot earlier in the trip. Virginie was very happy to be steering power reaching at 8 or 9 knots listening to France Gall quite loudly at the same time!

During the early evening the wind continued to clock round to the west and then the North West and when Andrew started driving and hit 11 knots we decided it was time to reduce sail for the night. We had been running during the day with a full mainsail and a large poled out genoa forward, together with a second headsail flying on the other side of the forestay. This we dropped, together with putting a reef in the mainsail, resulted in bringing the boat back under control again. It is great to have our leg crewman up on the bow; it's pretty wild up there when the sea is rough and the boat moving fast through the seas, heeling hard over on its side making even getting around difficult. On the order to reduce sail, it is fantastic that the whole crew was immediately on deck and despite the conditions we managed to hand the smaller genoa, fold it and get a reef in in fairly good order. During the operation, waves were coming across the deck and at one stage I watched John skating sideways across the foredeck at quite a rapid rate, only to be bought up short on the lee side, only a short distance away from the roaring seas; he nonchalantly picks himself up and gets back upwind to continue the task like an old pro! But they were all there in a line pulling down the wet Dacron sail, Ed, Andrew, Virginie (who loves the foredeck) Robin as well as John. Brilliant stuff - a whole group of people who only a month ago had never met each other, working together with humour in poor conditions.

Dinner was a massive affair - one criticism of Jill is that she feeds us too much and we are sure that the shepherds pie she made us for dinner was in fact for 12 people, but we did our best and managed to finish it all. Having just survived this onslaught on our stomachs, she then produced a really excellent chocolate tart, which again we just had to eat.. There is no way that anyone will get off the boat having lost any weight!

During the night the wind continued to clock around to the north and by two am we were beating again - reminiscent of our first leg to Horta. The northerly wind was cold, and Andrew (an Aussie) was heard to remark this morning as he came off watch that it was the First of June, the beginning of winter in Perth , and probably a nice hot sunny day there! Our one consolation is that we are still able to point straight at our waypoint off Brest at 7 knots or more, even though it is now a little less comfortable.

During the morning we were visited by scores of dolphins again, and Ed reckons that yesterday was the only day that we hadn't been visited by dolphins on this leg. A fish got away from us and Matthew has decided that we had the wrong type of hook out, so has changed to a different one, which of course we now want to see results from!

It is great that so many people are reading this log and my best wishes and thanks for his message go out to one of our regular bowman, Rupert, who is currently working somewhere strange in the Far East . Just before leaving Rupert trained up Peewee who is our current bowman, and for those of you who know Peewee, well, enough said...let's not go there! Unfortunately I have to be a bit kinder to Peewee now, because we did just manage to get a second in class in the BVI Spring Regatta due in no small part to him! That was just an amazing regatta, and if anyone wants a great sail next winter season get in touch with Magali about the BVI's Spring regatta.

During the last 24 hours run we have managed to sail 183 nautical miles towards our Brest waypoint, leaving us with 170 miles to go and a total of 345 miles to Cherbourg . Our waypoint off Brest is just outside the main shipping lane off Il e de Ouessant(Ushant) and when we get closer I will then make a decision based on the wind and shipping movements whether we dip south of the Island and continue up Chenal du Four or whether to go north and outside the heavy traffic, before continuing on to Cherbourg.

Log of Northern Child - 1st/2nd of June - 48.52N 05.29W

Thanks to Virginie who has contributed to this log.

The past 24 hours on board Northern Child have been beautiful, yet chilly, as the sun finally came out yesterday afternoon, with a moderate Northerly wind. Sailing has been lots of fun; we were reaching at a fairly constant 8 - 8.5 Knots on course towards our way point, with Northerly winds of 4 to 5 Beaufort all through the afternoon and night. An amazing sunset gave way to a very clear night, with a nearly full moon (despite Ed's theory – see below). Life on board is as fun as ever, we had some great laughs when Ed tried to convince us that the full moon was always on the 1st of the month and Virginie discovered that the North Star was by far not the brightest star in the sky, a major disappointment... Julian lost a bet that the mast tricolour light was on (the bulb has died) and John and Robin have been mesmerised by the numerous ships passing us by as we negotiate our way through the first of the English Channel shipping lanes.

The wind stayed constant during the night, bringing us closer to land. This enabled Matthew to hear the weather forecast for the Bristol Channel (very useful...) and caused those of us sleeping near the VHF to be woken up by the French "Securite Securite Securite" weather alert at 5am . Going up on deck, we found beautiful green water, a definite sign we were close to the coast of Brittany , and more sunshine. The wind softened a little this afternoon, and we have been motor sailing to recharge our batteries and run the water maker.

Having passed our waypoint off the Ushant shipping lanes an hour ago, we are now heading towards our new way point, Alderney , which is 134 miles away. Currently, ETA for Cherbourg is Thursday early evening. There is a high pressure building up from the Azores which should give us light winds and clear skies for our run into Cherbourg .

During the last 24 hours we have covered 182 nautical miles and we are now 165 miles from Cherbourg . Any of the crew's ETA's into Cherbourg could be correct and we'll know by this time tomorrow!

Daily Log, Northern Child - 2nd/3rd June - 49.52N 02.04W

We have had a very varied but extremely pleasant 24 hours. The high pressure we found ourselves in yesterday has persisted overnight into this morning and we have had some very lovely flat water sailing, interspersed with motorsailing in non-existent breeze.

As we entered the English Channel we have noticed two big changes; the first is the amazing increase in voice traffic on channel 16 on the VHF and we have noticed particularly how well the Channel area is covered by VHF Coast Radio Stations continuously broadcasting weather and safety information. The second big change is the influence of tides. Having come across the Atlantic for the last month, where there has been absolutely no tidal effect to contend with, suddenly we are faced with fast Spring tidal rates, alternately helping or hindering us. More on that later!

During the early part of the night we lost the breeze, but by midnight we were sailing under full mainsail and genoa. The sea was totally flat and there was a full moon, and although cold due to a northerly wind, it was beautiful sailing. As we unwound the genoa, we felt resistance on the furling line and looking up at the mast discovered that the halyard was twisted around the forestay, and as a consequence we would be unable to roll the sail away. During the morning we hoisted Matthew to the masthead and untwisted the halyard. Having let him down again, we realised that we hadn't quite achieved what we needed to, so we hoisted him back up again! Anyway, finally all was sorted and back to normal!

Today it has been extremely hot and Virginie has progressed from 5 layers, including oilskins, all the way to shorts and a suntop!

We spent the rest of this morning motoring in completely calm conditions in a flat sea and we are now mid-way between Alderney and