Had a very good night crossing over the top of St Martins and started our long trek south east to Guadaloupe at around dawn on Wed. Guy and Jules had a very wet and windy watch between 0500 and 0800 this morning with several meaty squalls to keep them fully occupied. Tim and I came on for the sunshine and champagne sailing between 0800 and 1100 and now Mike and Colin are continuing to steer us down towards Nevis.
The 3 on 6 off watch system we are using is working very well. We have lost the generator with what we think is a blocked fuel filter so we are down to one tank of water (having used the first tank within 24 hours!). Showers have been banned although certain criminals amongst the crew have sneaked a quick shower this morning - they shall remain nameless. Other than that we are in fine fettle, cruising down the coast of St Kitts in the sunshine, 17 knots of wind and plenty of Atlantic swell.
The sat phone just will not connect so I am shooting this off via my iPhone hotspot courtesy of St Kitts telecoms. More will follow as soon as I can get another connection. ]]>
On Saturday, we started (and completed) a fairly long list of jobs. Checked in with the RORC, spent an age at Nelson’s dockyard completing customs and immigration. Did more shopping for supplies, another run to the chandlers, found ourselves a berth at Falmouth Marina, bumped into Mike (nephew) quite by chance at the Dockyard and finally came back to the trusty, Rusty Pelican for a late lunch. We found Guy Evans (our 6th and final crew member) on board when we returned to the boat and set off shortly afterwards for the skippers’ briefing and the RORC welcome party at 1830 at the yacht club. The briefing was brief and the party was without dancing so we ended up (much to Holland’s disgust) with a fairly early night. I have to say that I felt it was needed, at least in my case.
Sunday was also an early start as we wanted to get out and do some practice downwind. Only problem was that we needed to go upwind first! We ended up doing the whole of the first beat and round the corner of Antigua in order to get the sea room for the downwind practice and we had over 30 knots over the deck for a lot of the time. We got the downwind rig sorted out just about in time to turn in to Falmouth Harbour at 1600. Judy and the girls came down to the berth to have a look at Kingfisher. However, Judy had the presence of mind a) to remind me that the “Owners” drinks party was scheduled between 1600 and 1800 at the Inn at English Harbour (I had not looked at the invitation properly!) and b) to have arranged for 3 extra invitations from the RORC CEO, Eddy. Jules and I showered in record time and the 5 of us taxied over to the rather stylish and genteel drinks reception on the beach while the motley crew were dragged off the Sunday night “jump up” at Shirley Heights. Prior to their departure, the shower pump in the master cabin stopped working (not great) and the washing machine broke down. I came back to the boat to investigate and the crew also returned before getting totally Tonto’d. We managed to fix the shower pump, create the sail number banner that is required for the start and finish but did not fix the washing machine. A job for later…..
Monday morning duly arrived (after another good night) and all of us were up by 0630 with an air of expectation and excitement. We had breakfast ashore, got the dinghy tied up in the marina dinghy dock and gave Mike some fenders and cushions to store for us in his most handy container (by great good fortune it was located in the car park of our marina awaiting his yacht’s arrival from the BVI on Tuesday). Holland did some last minute shopping for fresh food and we were ready to go.
Left the dock as planned at 0930 and motored out past the “gate boat” who wanted to see all crew members on deck with lifejackets and harnesses on and the sail number on the rail. We passed muster and continued out of Falmouth harbour with Leopard right on our tail. We got the distance mark (and line) onto the chart plotter in case we finish in the dark and prepared out start sequence. The multi-hulls went first with an 11.00 start and we went next at 1110. We got a good start (putting two competitors about on the line) and sailed a reasonable first beat but Kingfisher is deeply uncompetitive against this fleet and we were gradually run down by pretty much the whole fleet. We made the first waypoint right on our plan (2 hours) but just about in last place. As we bore away down the coast of Antigua and were able to set the genoa we caught a couple of boats and had the most beautiful afternoon on a broad reach down to Barbuda. Saw a whale en route…..
We made the turn towards Nevis just before sunset and poled our both headsails for the night stretch downwind. Had a wonderful meal (pre-prepared brilliantly by Jules) and have now settled down for the first full night at sea. My watch is coming up now with Tim. More later…….. ]]>
Up this morning at 0600 and away on the last run North to Antigua. Another 100nm today so we should arrive at around 1800 tonight. Not sure we have a berth yet but we will see what happens when we get there. KF is in good shape but we have done no downwind sailing at all yet. Will have to go out for practice on Sat and Sun to fix this. Otherwise, all is on track and looking good so far. ]]>
The next morning we motored around to Sandy Isle, swam, had breakfast by 9.00 and then set off for Tobago Cays. We arrived in time for a swim with a couple of turtles, had lunch and got underway again. Made Bequia just before nightfall, ate on board and went ashore for a quick beer. 5 rum punches later we were on the dance floor in a local dive….
Slightly impaired the next morning we set off for Marigot Bay on St Lucia at around 9.00. Spent one hour doing man over board drills and then had good sailing in strong winds all the way there. Slight problems finding an anchorage as dusk turned into night but we eventually edged right into the inner mooring area and picked up a buoy. Dinner in the Rainforest restaurant (Christmas dinner in 2007) and away very early again this morning. Motored to Rodney Bay, getting in by 9.30 and then spent the morning on repairs - water maker leaking, two bilge pumps needing attention, new gas hose, picked up the life raft which had been serviced in Rodney Bay. Did some washing and water taxied around to Spinnaker for a late lunch on the beach. Lazy afternoon getting organised, dinner on board and early night. ]]>
Not the biggest Tuna you have ever seen but….if it wins that bet it will have to be referred to as a "hundred pounder"?
We made landfall at 1742 (ship time) yesterday and had an absolutely idyllic arrival: ahead of schedule, in time for dinner, sunset, spices blowing off the land, favourite tracks blasting over the stereo, a couple of drinks (modest intake - Tash has a good memory) and a good breeze as we hardened up to sail upwind into Port Louis to find - no-one there to meet us! One voicemail to Mrs Ceptin (not picked up due to not having the password for international messaging), every communication mode known to man in use by the teenagers (snap chat, text, facebook) BUT no-one actually communicated anything!!!! What is that about?
We docked, made the call and found the welcome party about to dine at their hotel whilst expecting us at midnight. No problem. The crew downed a bottle waiting for the rest to arrive and we then had a most warm and emotional reunion. Drinks on board (we hadn't managed to drink all the champagne) and dinner ashore in the marina. The skipper faded fast but the crew celebrated in style into the small hours. Strangely, I did not hear them come back to the boat. The lights were out for quite a while.
The port is enchanting and the marina is the best we have found since leaving the UK....I am so relieved to have a great place to leave KF now. She has seen us safely over a long voyage and needs a good resting place for the season. Grenada appears to be the Caribbean of all our imaginations. Slightly undiscovered, slightly understated, but unmistakenly a tropical island paradise.
We are very pleased to have arrived safely - and all a bit sad that the crew is going to split up now. It has been very special in many, many dimensions and none of us will ever forget the experiences we have had together.
There will be more adventures to come. This one has its place. And it is a good one.
]]>First of all, there is the "odd one out". Following my complaints in the last Atlantic report they finally got a girl on board to replace the endless stream of oldies and fatties that I usually have to put up with as crew. But the idiots only went and got the wrong sort - she is certainly not a cow, doesn't even have the right number of legs and her hair falls out….everywhere! But, on the other hand, it could have been worse. She is cheerful and keeps the wild lanky ones under control (when she's sober) and generally brightens up the scenery. I suspect she has secretly taken a shine to me as the figure of authority and handsomeness on board and I certainly don't have any competition from the two lanky, skinny deckhands. They keep trying to impress her with their fitness exercises but, honestly…..whenever they try to stand up on 4 legs the front two always collapse and have to be pushed up again. When they get tired from that (only takes about 40 tries) they lie down and try to sit up but can't do that either and lie down again. It is a bit sad to watch but they keep doing it all the time. She pretends not to notice but, like me probably feels a bit sorry for them.
The Ceptin is not bothering with the 4 leg thing - although he would probably be better off on 4 legs for all the staggering around he does, When he is not staggering he is either making something that doesn't need fixing worse than it was before or in his bunk complaining that he cannot sleep. I know why he can't sleep - he's got the snacks locker under his bed so between him and lanky vacuum cleaner for a son who is in there with him they can't hear themselves for the crackling of crisps and chocolate biscuits and nuts. The other lanky one in the bow (who is rooming with a strange person who turned up late and has the same name as him and seems to actually know something about boating) has all the beers and booze in their cabin; the girl has all the crisps…and I have to put up with just a few oranges and the spare water to pick at in my cabin. You would think they wouldn't get hungry after getting their snouts in those troughs all day long but you be jolly surprised. They all eat like hogs at meal times (every 2 hours or so). Where the lanky ones put all that food I have no idea although it is pretty obvious where the Ceptin puts it - alongside all those beers in the special belly he has developed for the purpose.
I must now report on some mysterious goings on. I have not got to the bottom of all of this but, for example, there have been some disappearance attempts centred around the girl. I am not sure that the Ceptin even knew that she was coming with us - he tried to hide her up the mast when Mrs Ceptin was coming on a visit. Up the mast is a good place to be when Mrs Ceptin is around (as anyone knows) but everybody could see her up there and a whole crowd of people gathered on the quay so they had to let her down again. Idiots! Then there was the time when the whole crew got a bit suspicious that she might be an albatross thingy when we didn't get any wind for 2 whole weeks. They all tried to dump her over the side - in the marina! I mean, if you want to throw an albatross thingy in the sea, you wouldn't do it right next to the boat in a marina would you? The strange person clearly wasn't in on the plot as he helped get her out and then she was strangely quiet the next day, poor thing and kept apologising…although I thought it was the Ceptin who should have been sorry about it. Then the crew attempted a mutiny and couldn't even organise that properly. They managed to get Ceptin in the locker half full with sea water but then someone let him out again. Incompetent doesn't begin to describe this uprising. He was up and about making a fuss almost immediately.
The Ceptin is a nuisance all the time - limping around bossing people around as if he owned the ship. I am sure I have had him on one of my previous adventures (soon to be published and made into a film starring me) but he wasn't any use then either. For instance, he thinks he has found some new fangled device to tell him where he is but has no idea how to use it. He was busy claiming he had found his position within 12 miles the other day when any fool could see that he was only 5 yards away from my bunk swaying around on the aft deck. Pointless tomfoolery. I have taken a look at it myself (see photo) and I can tell you it is clearly broken.
There is only half a mirror for a start which makes it impossible to groom both ears at the same time and the sun glasses don't fit whichever way you wear it. I think they call it a Sex Tint but I don't even want to think about how that works. He also keeps moaning about sea water getting on the leather seats but it is always him leaving the hatches open and flooding everything. Just wait until Mtrs Ceptin finds out about that wave that landed on her hay stall in the back….I can't wait to see that. He and lanky vacuum cleaner tried to clear up but she will not fall for that. And then there is the confrontation over the other lanky one taking Miss Ceptin's cabin instead of the other one. She already knows about it but I am looking forward to the revenge plot - better than a good horror movie that will be. (Talking of movies - what is wrong with these people. If i have had to watch Master and Commander once I have watched it a hundred times. They never watch my favourites - cowboys and indians for instance.)
The Ceptin is also obsessed with fishing and has press-ganged the lanky ones into pretending to help out. A land-locked herd of Herefordshires would have more chance of catching fish than those clowns. First they forgot to buy most of the right kit; then Ceptin got his knots wrong and lost all the lures. Then they forgot the spinner and tangled up the line and finally they managed to let all the fish actually stupid enough to jump on the line get off again. Luckily, I had made alternative plans for my sushi dinners.
At least it was quite a relaxing trip for me until the last 3 days. I managed to change my straw only once all the way from the start but I had to change it 4 times in one night when they were messing around pretending to be sailors. I was woken up by a very loud bang the other night and then kept awake by Ceptin, strange one and the lanky deckhands running around like headless Tuna. It was obvious from the start that one of them had simply burst a trouser button after yet another humungous evening meal but they insisted that a block had parted. Their blocks had parted company with the rest of their bodies, that is for sure. No sooner was that mess sorted out when the lanky vacuum cleaner started shouting about passing 16 (he looks older than that to me but who cares if someone happens to have a birthday in the middle of the night - you don't wake an Admiral and scare him into soiling his hay just for that). Then the wind went to 45 - not at all surprising when you think about what they had consumed a few hours earlier. All in all a most trying night. But that is not the worst of it. The strange one has a habit of lighting up a fag on deck and pretending that he is behind the cow sheds. He most certainly is not behind the sheds as I can clearly see him through my (well appointed) cabin portholes. What does he think he is doing smoking over the diesel tanks? My nerves are shredded by worrying about this and then, on top of everything else, the fire alarm keeps going off every 20 minutes - and they all sit around looking at the horizon as though we are not all in imminent danger of exploding!!!!!! The only sane member of the crew turns out to be the girl who just sleeps through every "crisis". Clever ploy! If only I had her cabin.
I really miss the old deck hands. There was that very nice man who shared his bottled of vodka with me before the start of the last Atlantic trip (copyright Admiral Coew enterprises). Come to think of it, even he wasn't that generous with the actual vodka. This mob keep pretending to make things "dark and stormy" and then sitting around just having a drink instead of preparing for the worst…it's a wonder I am steady enough to still get to the fridge for my evening drink.
I am certainly going to have to file more complaints to Mrs and Miss Ceptin when they arrive. For the moment, I am going to lie down in the air conditioning - at least they have finally realised how to work that. On the last day….!]]>
A little later though, he was less pleased to get hit by a squall that did not show up on the radar and took the wind speed up from 27 to 45 knots (with sheet rain of course) over a period of about 30 seconds. "All hands on deck" he cried and all hands turned up - except for Tash who slept through the whole night without stirring!!! The rest of us had a cup of tea and waited to see if another one was coming. The next drama was not a squall but a sustained force 7-8 that stayed with us until dawn and is still with us to a certain extent (28-32 knots). We have furled away the genoa for now and are broad reaching under a reefed main and jib heading directly for Grenada and passing Tobago to port . We have about 270nm to run and still expect to be in just before midnight on the 16th. We did make the 210nm run to noon yesterday and we have just logged another 200nm (by the skin of our teeth) at noon today. We had been travelling a bit more slowly in the stronger winds but expect normal service to be resumed shortly. I am expecting it to die down a little this afternoon and allow us to get the genoa out again for a speedy romp home.
All good on board, despite having to close all hatches in the tropical heat to avoid getting swamped by waves which makes it alarmingly hot and sticky down below. Dozing in the cockpit has therefore increased in popularity over the last few hours. I have shed about 5 kilos in sweat making breakfast and bread in the galley (including getting swamped when I foolishly opened a hatch in order to breath!). Looking forward to doing lunch and dinner……. ]]>
Everyone is a little tired now and some of us are very tired! This is pretty normal but I am now actively trying to catch up a bit on all the lost hours as it is starting to impact my effectiveness. Also need to be in good shape for partying when we arrive!
Tash is in the galley baking away - rolls, cake, her frozen lasagne de-frosting in the dump sink - so I think we are in for a treat today. This makes it a tough act for me and Alex s to follow tomorrow and Monday. As is usual we have a lot of some things left (pasta) and none of the ingredients you actually need to make anything you decide you would fancy (salad). Anything with colour is off the menu except for oranges and, as a main course at dinner, they do not seem to be very popular for some reason. I think I will head for the frozen prawns and make them spicy enough for people to mistake beer for veg.
Looks flat, feels lumpy….
After a rather later than planned lunch, I had to go and lie down for a bit! We clocked 13.2 knots on the speedo while I was below - a new trip record. We are at another level now - wind at 25-30 knots - I am going to call it the top gear just to be conservative. I don't think we want too much more than this for the moment. It is an exhilarating ride - all the time! So we are loving it - but it makes doing anything at all (except sitting in the cockpit saying "this is cool" ) quite a challenge. Sleep in the aft cabin last night was in scarce supply. The deck hands in the front of the boat are getting their own back on Ben and me for all of the bouncing around they had to suffer when we had the wind against us. I have contemplated ordering a re-shuffle in the sleeping arrangements but Ben thinks this might be pushing things a little too far. What does he know?
I am just about to get a new weather forecast which will tell us if we are going to have this wind all the way in. Hope so. EvenTash is now claiming that hitting 10 knots is so yesterday's news.
A bit of a wave passing us on port…..
Well some of the crew do appear to need sleep. In fact they are all slumbering now as far as I can tell. But no-one has been even slightly late for a watch (at any point in the whole of the last 6 weeks) which is a big tribute to them all. They are making increasingly good decisions whilst in the cockpit, handling the sail changes well and all delivering exceptionally good food all day long on their mother watches. In short parents, you are allowed to be proud of your children although they are now, of course, ocean mariners and not children any more (sorry about that - it can't be helped).
Tash - the baker
We celebrated the halfway (from Cape Verdes) mark this evening with a little champagne and Alex S's superb meatballs with couscous. In the aftermath prior to being able to move again we listened to some Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketches in honour of Radley (Peter Cook is an alumnus) and let the darkness gradually enfold us. Unfortunately, this also meant that I forgot to reel in Sammy Senior who was out on the rod for most of the day idling his time away doing nothing for his keep. Ben and Tash were therefore taken by surprise at around 2300 when some monster fish got hold of his tail and started trying to run off with the goods making the reel scream and the rod bend almost in half. However, as you all know, Sammy is made of sterner stuff than that and they managed to get me up on deck, slow the boat down, prepare the gaff, the bucket, the vodka and the knife before we had the misfortune to lose him about 20 m from the stern. He took the octopus and our only free lead weight but the rest of Sammy held on and we got the head, hooks, hose and swivel back on board. So close but no sushi. We know that Tommy Tuna is out there……we will catch him tomorrow!
Kingfisher showing off her Atlantic downwind rig
Just seen 27 knots flash up on the plotter - better go and enjoy that up on deck.
0440 - slight interlude there for some squalls. A quick word about Atlantic squalls for those of you not familiar with the genre. In the daytime, they look like cartoon caricatures of a thunder storm - anvil shaped clouds with black rain underneath showing all the way down to the water. At night you cannot really see them but they obliterate the horizon and the rain generally shows up on the radar as a big purple splurge. They usually arrive from the starboard quarter (on the left, looking backwards for some of you) and track across our path on a diagonal that takes them off to port (on the left, looking forwards; see why we use port and starboard?). Their track is not, however, all that easy to predict. Sometimes they move quickly, sometimes they appear to stop moving; sometimes they move sideways relative to the boat. The net result, at night anyway, is a bit like an arcade game on the chart plotter, in which you are being attacked by alien purple blobs and have to avoid them - except that there is nothing you can do to avoid them. You just prepare to get hit anyway….because when they strike you (as opposed to missing you) the wind backs 20-30 degrees and jumps up one or two forces (+10-20 knots above what you had before) in the space of about 20 seconds. You get sheet rain for about half an hour after which the wind veers and drops and life continues. Jolly amusing for those off watch - quite exciting for those on deck. In the time it had taken me to write the 3 paragraphs above, 3-4 large squalls had shown up for the party. They then tracked right behind us and then proceeded to move past us on port but close enough for us to get some rain and a little touch of wind. Fortunately, those ones have all missed us but others are arriving as I write this with one eye on the radar. To add to the overall effect, as I was getting rained on, a medium sized flying fish decided to commit suicide in our cockpit and was making a pretty big fuss over it. Normally, I would have thrown it back over the side immediately because they are smelly things and make a mess of my teak whilst they flap about. But, I was occupied reefing headsails and also wanted to keep this one for bait tomorrow. So now I have one dead flying fish in the fishing bucket (good) and a really fishy cockpit until we get the hose out tomorrow and wash it down (lovely). All in a day's work. Back to my iPod now.]]>
The good news is that is exactly what is forecast- for the next 3 days. We are going to come in fast. We have blue skies, it is cool on deck and we are looking forward to a bottle of bubbly to celebrate the halfway mark tonight. As I write this we have roughly 5nm to go before we are down to the last 1000nm. Milestones matter!
Everything on board is working well and the crew are doing brilliantly. Now, if we could just catch that tuna……..]]>
But we are all well. Making excellent progress at around 8 knots on course for our destination. Alex S is on watch; Ben and Tash are already asleep in their bunks; Alex H is waiting for me to send this and download the latest weather charts. Better get on with it and go to bed. ]]>
We had a very relaxed day again today - after our mid-morning swim that is. Everyone was wide awake for that. It was a wonderful temperature and a relatively rare opportunity to go fender surfing 1000nm from land and 4000m off the bottom! You will be relieved to know that we did not just set the cameras on automatic - Alex H was actually on board when this picture was taken….
We are very grateful to Vicky's brother for his valuable advice about tuna fishing. We are following his guidelines within the limitations of the kit we have left and are still fully expecting to catch one shortly….we only put the line out for a short while this evening and were not lucky today. Tomorrow is another day!
We were circled persistently by a flock of migrating birds (species not identified I am ashamed to say) who were very clearly intending to hitch a ride with us to their holiday destination. We used a lot of energy keeping them off the boat (it is a real menace to have a group of birds crapping corrosively all over the place for a week) until we remembered the loud hailer function on our cockpit VHF, after which they received a great deal of verbal abuse. Poor birdies - we managed to persuade them to go and look for someone else's yacht to mess up.
My noon sight today was within 12nm - I am liking the trend here. It is very satisfying and fascinating to learn how to use this very fundamental and historic technique to locate yourself. We will start the classes for the rest of the crew shortly (I just need to be one day ahead of them).
Hoping to report cessation of mechanical propulsion by this time tomorrow. ]]>
We are currently motoring due West on the compass while continuing to drop latitude down to 12 degrees North (you need a globe in front of you to get that one). In around 36 hours we should be on 12 degrees latitude, in prime position for the build up of the new wind and ready to switch on to a single gybe all the way in to Grenada (amazingly, I just saw a sea pig flying past the window). Well it is a plan!
The current weather is a little bizarre to say the least. We are over 1000nm from the nearest land mass and we could honestly have less movement if we were motoring up the Medina. The wind is less than 5 knots. The sea is like glass. Down below (in my rather well appointed master cabin) I have woken up a couple of times believing that we have somehow booked into a cosy marina berth somewhere in mid-Atlantic - or worse, that the crew have drugged me for a week and we have arrived in Grenada. I suspect they may be plotting to do that but I am watching my food very carefully - you just never know. Absolute irrevocable dictatorship can create a little paranoia sometimes...
We are going to have a swim tomorrow - well, how often do you get the chance to play in a swimming pool 4000m deep? My guess is that no-one will be in the water for long - but if we trail someone on a fender for a while I could still win that fishing bet. (See previous para)
It is a slightly strange feeling not knowing who (if anyone) is now reading our blog. Thank you to those who are and apologies for the continuously one-sided conversation. I think I would continue writing it even with no readers because it is quite cathartic to make a note of what is going on even if only to reflect on the day's activities and our situation. Alex and Tash are religiously keeping their own diaries (old school style) which is great and I am sure they will be getting great satisfaction from doing so.
Everyone wants the wind now - it must be good for the soul to be totally focused on something that only nature (or God) can supply. In our busy lives with all of the instant gratification on hand we are not often in this situation of dependency on forces outside our control. I think it is rather splendid.]]>
Most importantly, I made my first noon site today and was delighted to get a result within 25 miles of our GPS position. Now, I realise that a 25 mile error on your satnav heading for Waitrose in Cobham would present a problem, but out here, 25 miles is not so bad! I am really excited about the prospect of refining my technique over the rest of our trip and feel very confident that I will be able to navigate into our berth in Port St Louis using just Polaris and my trusty sextant whilst blindfolded……we might keep the chart plotter on for the sake of form though. Don't want Raymarine's shares tanking just yet.
I regret to report that Sammy Senior has scared off all those cowardly tuna again and no Barracuda have turned up either. However, the good news is that Gary has also lost his lure - we are not beaten yet!
Ben has had another great day on "mother watch" and made excellent bread once again. We are over-dosing on fresh homemade bread on this voyage - bacon buttes for breakfast, smoked salmon and bread for lunch (with a little Cava to celebrate being a quarter of the way across), bread and jam for tea. It is just a bit too tasty - and, of course, does not keep well! I have had to start doing the sit-ups and press-ups nonsense that Ben and Alex have been playing at. It won't be long before I snag a joint/muscle/tendon doing that and return to enjoying the enforced lethargy of a regime based on sitting around in the sun and sleeping a lot. These Atlantic adventures are truly tough experiences.
Meanwhile, it is about time for a sundowner and Ben's imitation of Sal's chicken curry (using only a third of the necessary ingredients, I suspect) before another velvet sunset puts us all in the mood for a movie and bed. ]]>
We have had a very unusual day today. At around 0800 this morning we ran into (nearly!) the 62 ft classic yacht (The Blue Peter) and the Oyster 625 (True Blue) on which our Kiwi, Aussie and US friends from Mindelo are sailing…..500 nm out of the Cape Verdes with departure times separated by at least 4-5 hours and we found ourselves on a collision course after 3 days in the Atlantic without any coordination between us. Because The Blue Peter is low in the water, made of wood and using the minimum electronic gadgetry she was quite hard to pick up on the AIS and radar. I therefore woke up (after 1 hour's sleep since my dog watch last night) to the AIS alarm indicating that she was within half a mile and realised that we were closing rapidly with her. They had the right of way (on starboard) so we gybed fairly quickly (I think I may have had to raise my voice at one point) ……and shortly after that their skipper (who we had not met in Mindelo) hailed us on the radio and very kindly apologised for making us alter course (they were having a problem with their water maker and their watch keepers were all down below trying to sort it out). I pointed out that the responsibility for avoiding them was all ours and we then had a very friendly exchange of pleasantries about the weather and the trip so far etc. At this stage I had a suspicion that we may have found our new friends in the middle of the ocean and sure enough, half an hour later, Tony called us up and we started up a 3 way VHF conversation which has been running all day with increasing levels of great banter. First off, we dealt with the fishing situation. True Blue had caught a massive Mahi Mahi immediately after leaving Mindelo and then lost their lure to some monster catch on the next bite. Gary on The Blue Peter, with whom I have the £100 bet, still has his lure but has not had a bite yet. I confessed to having lost our lure early on but let them know that we are still very much in the hunt with the new, mega lure and that the bet is still on. A fair amount of ribbing has had to be endured over the cricket scores but we have had the benefit of a lot of ammunition courtesy of the last Ashes and the Lions victory. The boys have been loving it. They have very kindly offered to let us join them to make a threesome (they are both heading to Barbados) and Kingfisher has been doing brilliantly to keep up with them both until we launched Sammy Senior this afternoon and slowed ourselves down by 0.5 kt. We have caught up with them again now using a little bit of the Italian jib and are all planning to gybe together to head South again at around midnight tonight. It is really great to be in company and has added a new dimension to the sailing. We will have to see if we can keep up with them but, if we can, we may stay in convoy all the way across.
I should have pointed out that, until sunset when we switched on the engine to catch up, we had been sailing for about 24 hours in glorious conditions. We are now expecting the wind to die again for at least two days during Monday and Tuesday before returning in force to power us across during the last week. I am still very hopeful that we will make it into Grenada by the 17th. It is hard to be sure but that is my best estimate at the moment.
Other news; the streaming out of the back with a weight attached DID do the trick with the tangled line so we have our best line back on the reel and ready for normal fishing again. (Sammy Senior has been launched on the other side of the transom using the main sheet winch but we have yet to try both at the same time!). The general excitement, and exhaustion of the mid-ocean encounter thing prevented the inaugural sextant exercise at noon. We were in a dialogue about trying to exchange beer for cucumbers with True Blue at that time in the day. Same time tomorrow should work though…..Everyone is enjoying the sailing, the weather, the company and it has been, all in all, a most entertaining day. ]]>
It is now officially hot! There is not much activity from the motley crew between around 10.00 and 16.00 beyond a general movement towards the cockpit at lunchtime…..The factor 30 is being used up fast and no-one is showing any anxiety about not getting a tan any more. The breeze is sufficient to cool us down nicely at the beginning and end of the day so most of the (very modest) demands from the skipper are being executed in those periods. Thinking about fishing has so far occupied more time than actually fishing, mainly because we deployed a spinning lure yesterday without putting the spinner on the line. A schoolboy error which, to my shame, was not made by any of those nearest school age. I simply did not realise that the lure was going to turn quite so much and did not think to put the one spinner that we have left on board into the set-up. The result of this is that our best fishing line is strewn around the guard rails in a tangled mess. We have tried a number of methods to resolve this problem but with no success. It is just really hard to untangle a mangled fishing line in a confined space. Tomorrow we are going to attach a weight to it and chuck it back in the water to see if it will un-spin itself behind the boat but I am not hopeful - I fear that 80m of our strongest line is destined for the trash bag. Fortunately, we have two more lines to go but neither of them are as strong as that one. So….our fishing prospects amount to a few more tries with small stuff on the rod and one gigantic throw of the dice with Sammy Senior (see yesterday's blog entry for details). There are plenty of fish in the sea - not so many likely to end up in our freezer.
My next project is to master the use of the sextant so kindly given to me at the start of this trip by the Stintons. I have read all the manuals, calibrated the instrument, nearly blinded myself working out how to use the shades and am now ready to switch off the chart plotters and navigate by the stars…..well, maybe not quite yet ready to do that. I am really excited about the prospect of getting my first noon sight tomorrow although the experts recommend getting someone to note down the time as you take your sights and the chances of finding anybody on this boat ready and willing to do that at midday are slim! They will all be lying on the deck claiming it is too hot…..
….I jest. They are all uniformly perfect and lining up to help. However, do not be surprised if our position reports move us rather too swiftly into the Pacific tomorrow afternoon. There may be some teething problems with the navigator. ]]>
How can we fail to catch the world's largest tuna with a lure such as this? Unfortunately, I can think of quite a few reasons…..but we are all up for the job. The next cunning plan is to attach this lure to the strongest fishing line we can find, tie that to a long piece of bungee cord, tie that to 30m of dyneema line and run that through the stern anchor roller and onto one of the main sheet winches. The rod is not up to it, even with my beautiful new reel. However, getting the beast on to the boat should we catch one will be quite amusing - time to get out the gaff hook, a large knife and the vodka in the gills treatment. At least if it then gets away, we can drown our sorrows without delay.
We have been sailing ever since 0500 today but the wind is still only just strong enough to fill the head sails. The swell has been a bit confused from the massive low North of us so, as soon as it drops below 15+ knots (which is happening quite often at the moment), the roll of the boat knocks the wind out of the sails and creates noisy and expensive sounding cracks as the genoa re-establishes itself. We have done all we can to minimise it; we are heading South to try to catch a few more knots of wind but it remains a constant source of background irritation (for me, at any rate). It is, however, much, much better than motoring! The motion of the boat last night was particularly designed to prevent sleep - every 7th wave picked us up and rolled us just a little bit further than our well programmed brains were expecting. The last few unexpected degrees of the roll cause an involuntary reaction to brace yourself that only extreme tiredness can ignore. The solution is therefore to get more tired - OR….find some wind. We would like to do the latter.
Sunsets just keep on coming though…..we are having a wonderful time.