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26th May 2010.
Left Rodney bay about 1pm ish. Not quite the dawn as planned. Wind little south
of east. Choices were to tack out of the channel between St Lucia and Martinique
in the dark against wind and current, or spend the night a little anchorage
in the south of martinique. Anchorage won. Won´t bother to go ashore,
don´think. Very pretty, though. French island, even the trees look well
dressed. Will good nights sleep tonight and try again tomorrow.
Probably.
27th May 17.44.
Finally underway. Sailed halfway to St Lucia this morning and back to Martinique
gaining all of about 3 miles to windward. The current, seas and wind all deny
any eastward travel. Finally motorsailed tacking quite close inshore to Martinique
and now heading about 10deg leaving Martinique to dissapper into the haze. Bye
bye Caribbean.
Wet boat. Not nice. Bilges half full from bow living under water too much and sea coming in hawse pipe for anchor chain. Leaky porthole in forepeak so that´s getting soaked now as well. Enough. Antigua under 100 miles away, I´m off there to make a dry boat!
29Th May 07.00.
Anchored in English Harbour, Antigua. Open to the south and very rare south
winds at the moment so bit rolly. Never mind. Will try to fix all leaks and
some other bits which need fixing here then try again.
7th June 2010. 14.30.
Time to go. Last few EC dollars spent, dinghy onboard, everything tied down.
I hope. Up anchor and lets go!!
18.52. Perfect. Sun just set. Lovely sail along the bottom of Antigua then up the west side. Sea slight and wind about F3. Lovely sailing. Now getting into night mode which involves taking sunglasses off and hanging head torch round neck instead. Will pass Barbuda overnight then open ocean. Hope the wind stays like this. You never know!
8th June 2010 12.30.
Wind still good. pressure rising a little, 1020mB now, up a few mB from last
night. May well mean we´re sailing into some high pressure which was on
the last forecast. Less wind if that happens but so what. Not exactly in too
much of a rush. Hot hot hot. Sea is 30.5degC, air 30deg outside and 33deg inside.
Might have a day off today then! A few clouds around but mainly blue sky, deep
blue sea and nothing else. Haven´t seen any traffic since last night when
there were a couple of fishing boats on the horizon and a freighter way behind.
An empty ocean. Nice.
9th June 2010 00.30
Wind up a bit so reefed foresail. Boat bit calmer but still a little like a
slow motion tumble dryer. Back to bed.
12.00. Position 20deg 33´N, 61deg 29´W. Days run=118Nm. Not
too bad for light wind. Wind still holding up, little bit south of east. Course
north with a little touch of east. Not much going on, saw pod of Minke whales
yesterday and some dolphins. Little dark tern landed on the radar last night
and hitched a lift until dawn. A few shearwaters around showing some interest
in the fishing lures. Which is more than can be said of the fish. Though I did
loose a lure this morning so something is out there. Some seaweed floating around
which is odd, nearest land to windward is Africa and sea is well over 1000m
deep here. Wonder where the sargasso sea is? No idea, where´s Mr Google
when you need him. I´m slowly slipping back into offshore frame of mind.
Hours slip by, eat when hungry, sleep a lot. Nice that there is no traffic or
fishing boats or land to get in the way. Boat very well behaved though rolling
a bit in a 6 to 8´swell from the east. I could point a bit higher but
after the sailmaker in St Lucia said "Ain´t no way dat sail gonna
git a europe" I´m treating the foresail with kid gloves. There is
a smaller spare in the forepeak but would be nice to get another couple thousand
miles out of this one. We´ll see.
10th June 2010. 09.24
Uneventful night. Ship passed a few miles ahead around 4am heading south west.
Another about an hour ago behind going north east. We´ve just crossed
the rhum line between Straits of Gibraltar and the mono passage (between Puetro
Rica and Dominican Republic) so maybe they´ve either come from or are
going to the med. Quicker than me wherever it is. Wind has a touch more north
in it, course around 350deg which is not in the exact right direction but no
too badly wrong either. And the good news is I caught almost 2 fish. At the
same time! Hand line went then seconds later the rod. There´s a nice size
tuna in the fridge now from the hand line, the rod had a big Mahi Mahi which
was close to the boat after about 15 minutes but one final leap and wriggle
dislodged the hook so he lives to fight another day. It was too big for me anyway,
even in the fridge it would have gone off so is good that he got away, beautiful
neon blue and green leaping through the air. But sushi for lunch and tuna stew
for dinner tonight. Excellent. Yum yum with wasabi.
18.00 It is completely utterly peaceful out here tonight. Sun just going
down. Fish in the fridge for tomorrow and belly full of sushi with cous cous
for late lunch. I have 4 friends. Great shearwaters. They´ve been following
since yesterday, think they´re the same ones but who knows. They will
fly ahead of the boat about 100´ and land, paddle out of the way as the
boat goes past then when about couple hundred feet behind repeat the procedure.
As the boat goes past they duck they´re heads underwater looking for something.
All day they do this apart from when I threw some sushi leftovers overboard.
Such a squabble over that! But so peaceful tonight. Straus playing on mp3 player.
In my mind I can see the shearwaters waltzing on the water dancing around the
boat. They look like they´re wearing dinner jackets already. Waltz away
friendly shearwaters. Hope they stay for a while. It´s nice to have friends
round for tea.
11th June 2010. 09.30
Sea temp 29 degC, air temp 27degC. 23deg 35´ N 61deg 59´W.
My friends the Shearwaters have left me. Saw one at dawn then nothing. But that´s
OK, maybe they´ll come back, maybe not. Either way it´s fine. Just
the way it is. Nothing now but the boat, almost cloudless sky above and empty
dark blue sea below. Two things of note will happen today. 1. We will officially
leave the tropics at 23deg 26´N. Actually, that´s happened already,
we´re at 23deg 35´ north so have just passed the tropic of cancer.
This is as far north as the sun makes it in the northern summer on June 21st
before heading south again. The other thing has happen already as well, we are
north of the sun again. But only just and no more. At noon the declination of
the sun will be 23deg 05´north. Which means at local noon it will almost
directly overhead. Hot hot hot.
Wind has died a little more. Boat speed around 3Kn. Sea calm. The boat rolls
gently on a long low swell from the east. I´m used to the boat now so
don´t notice the motion but can see the rolling from movement of the shadows
from the (soon to be overhead )sun. Seems to be a long slight swell from northeast
as well. Hard to see but something is there from a far off wind.
12th June 2010. 08.30.
Fish for breakfast. Up with the sun a 05.30 and the boat is barely moving.
2Kn but in the right direction for now so I´ll put up with the slatting
sails and leave them up for the moment. Caught 2 trigger fish. Saw them swimming
around the boat so used some of the last of the tuna as bait and hey presto,
couple more fish for me. One in the fridge and 1 in the tummy! Just a pity it
isn´t possible to catch some fresh fruit and veg as well, but then who
would ever leave offshore? Shearwaters back and squabbling once more over the
scraps. Children, please. Behave.
I wonder if anyone actually reads this? Txt now whoever you are!! Just scroll
up to the top of the page, click on the iridium link, put in the number and
write something warm and witty. Do it now! Or not. I´m feeling very content
out here either way.
11.30 Now that was increadable. Flat calm now, not a breath of wind.
Boat not moving at all so I went for a swim off the back and a bit of a scrub.
Water is over 4Km deep here. Still some shearwaters paddling around, one came
over to me and let me stroke its´ back! Then I swam over to another one
and it let me pick it up, just for a moment. It squirmed a bit so I let it go
straight away but how amazing!!!!! When you are in the water it´s impossible
to describe the deep blue colour. Almost painful it´s so blue. And my
friends the shearwaters swimming with me. A memory for ever.
18.00 Still flat calm. Wired up short wave radio reciever to use normal
radio/casette aerial, much better reception. Picked up Herb (atlantic short
wave weather router) but all the boats he was talking to were much further north
so no weather gems from him. Gribs show little wind here for tomorrow at least,
maybe longer. Think I´ll stay here then! Haven´t even considered
motoring. It´s nice here. No rush. Caught another triggerfish and still
have tiny bit tuna left, fresh fish for tea tonight and lunch tomorrow. Oh happy
days.
13th June 2010. 12.30
Not a massive days run yesterday. 20 miles on gps, 4 on log and I´m
about 6 miles away from where I was this time yesterday. Mostly current though
occasionally a tiniest hint of breeze will push the boat a little. Most of the
movement is from the current though. Thankfully pushing us north at about 1Kn.
Finally gave up about 3am this morning and put the 3rd reef in the main to stop
it slatting. Just have triple reefed main and staysail up now, as much for some
shade on deck as for any forward motion. Total silence. In between the very
quiet now slatting on the main of staysail and slight click wires in the mast
the silence is total. Or would be if I didn´t have Anouska Shankar cranked
up on the stereo. Caught another trigger fish this morning. Almost too easy.
Little hook ( for a little mouth), piece of cheese as bait and 2 minutes later
another fishey. That´s 2 in the fridge, one for lunch today and tomorrow.
Rice today methinks. Still got plenty onions, some spuds, sweet spuds and tomatoes
left. 1 banana to go which better go today before it melts. Had a coffee famine
scare yesterday but found another packet, phew!
Recieved a whole 2 txts (ta Matt & big sis!) so the sat phone does seem
to work. Hurrah. Civilisation still exists. Out here you never quite know if
someone, somewhere maybe pushed the "End civilisation, don´t push
unless you really mean it!!" button.
Just made another batch of yoghurt. Easy. 1 and a bit cups powdered milk with
3 cups water, heat to 80degC and let cool to about 40degC. Add couple of tablespoons
of live yoghurt, leave in a dark warm place. Easy where I am. Come back half
a day later and start eating. Some soya beans soaking for beansprouts as well.
My, what a busy morning.
Looks like will be becalmed for another day anyway according to the grib files,
will download another in a minute, see if it´s any different. But no matter,
might get more wind in a week or 2 than I want so I´ll enjoy this while
it lasts. Feels a bit like being on holiday. No need to do anything.
16.30 At last some wind. From the wrong direction but at least the boat
is moving. Though possible short lived. Looks like a squall way up ahead so
might be just from that. Wind from northish, I´m sailing east. We´ll
see what happens.
Ha, that was short lived. 10 minutes then nothing again. So it goes.
14th June 2010. 05.30. Day 8
Moving again, even if only slowly. Little breeze from south set in, sailing
040deg about 3Kn. Hope it stays for a while.
12.00 25deg 4´N, 62deg 11´W. Still moving, racing along at
2.3kn. 35 Nm days run, 20 of that from the current but at least we´re
moving. Wind 3.5kn apparent from SSW, boat heading 075deg. Which is probably
about 5 or 6knots of wind. Better than no wind. Got weatherfax working with
shortwave radio and laptop, clean image from Boston of current surface analysis,
looks like a weak trough over us at the moment, a few clouds about but that´s
it. Will get 24h and 48h forecasts later when they are broadcast and try New
Orleans as well. Might give up on downloading grib files with satphone, uses
up too much expensive airtime minutes and I find weatherfaxes give a better
big picture of what´s going on anyway. The gribs seem not very accurate
when the winds are as light as this. probably a lot of it´s local anyway.
Is it lunchtime yet? What shall we have, mmm, lets see, what about trigger fish!
Again. Last one and doubt if i could catch any with the boat moving. Though
might try some triggerfish skin on a lure. I´ve watched dorado come and
look at a lure then swim away before, maybe with some bait on there they could
be persuaded to come to dinner. And triggerfish skin is really tough, like leather
so should stay on the hook. Dream on,eh :)
15.00 Just got couple of weatherfax forecasts. Not much wind anytime
soon. Good job I´m not in a hurry!
15th June 2010. 03.00. Day 9. Just woke to slight chuckle of wavelets
on the hull. Little breeze from the south. Shook out reefs, heading north at
2.5kn and heading back to bed.
06.00. Beautiful wind. Please stay! Wind from the south 5kn apparent
and boat heading north at 4kn. Jib poled out to port and mainsail to starboard
with preventer on. What that means, nonsailors, is that there is a pole sticking
out to the left of the boat with the rope to the headsail throught the end of
it. This keeps the headsail spread out and stops in flapping around as the boat
rolls. The mainsail is sticking out the right hand side of the boat with a rope
from the back end of the sail to the front of the boat pulling the rear of the
sail forward. This keeps the mainsial behaving it´s self and stops it
shooting across to the other side ot the boat as the boat rolls. When that happens
it´s called a gybe and is noisy, scarey and goes BANG! Work of the devil,
to be avoided at all costs.
But right now sailing beautiful. Please stay like this forever! Or could this
just be yet another teasing nautical lesson on tolerence and acceptance. We´ll
see.
09.00. Squall just went over the boat, nothing like a wash in the rain
to make you feel good.
12.30. Better days run, still only 56 miles but most of that since middle
of the night. Wind veering round to south west so will tack the foresail round
to starboard before long. that should help stop the rolling as well, dead downwind
is always a rolly affair. Wind more on the beam might get a bit more boat speed
aslo. Beansprouts coming on nicely, need to make more yoghurt already. Yoghurt
yummy! I didn´t do too well provisioning, out of soy beans to sprout (mung
are my favorite) so might have to be lentils. Seem to have plenty of everything
else though. Enough tins of tuna and tomato paste to open a small corner shop.
Fruit nearly gone, apple and yoghurt with cumin for mid morning snack, couple
of apples left and one orange. But in fairness, the Caribbean isn´t the
greatest place on earth to provision, most fruit and veg seems to be imported.
Been playing around with sextant this morning, is it cheating to use GPS to
get the time?
15.30. Back on port tack with both sail out to starboard, about 3.5Kn
heading roughly 10deg. So can´t complain really. No rolling now. 15 miles
out with sextant sight, far from exact but close enough to find an island or
at least a continent. Might not throw the gps overboard just yet though...
17.00. Wind died again. Not a breath. Boring.
21.00. Still becalmed. Latest weatherfaxes who a stationary ridge of
high pressure right across atlantic with me in the middle. Time to motor tomorrow
methinks. A few degrees north hopefully will get into the westerlies. That means
handcuffed to the tiller. Electric autopilot stopped working ages ago. Wind
vane, as the name suggests, needs some wind to steer the boat. So it goes.
16th June 2010. 06.45. Day 10Tiny breeze from the south but boat moving
very slowly. Right then, sunblock on, mp3 player on, engine on, baseball cap
and sunglasses on, teeshirt off. Handcuffed to the tiller for the next while.
12.00. Motoring. Pressure 1023mb. That´s up 2 points since this
morning, it´s meant to be going down! But north we go. Slight breeze from
the west, maybe the mythical westerlies do exist and will arrive soon. You never
know.
19.30 Nearly 13 hours at the helm & 70 miles further north. More
than enough for 1 day. Must get that electric autopilot fixed! Still no wind.
Small squalls around which makes for an absolutely stunning sunset. Soup and
sleep now.
17th June 2010. 07.30. Day 11. Looks like another day on the helm.
Weatherfax shows the high pressure ridge moving north as I head north. Tiny
breeze from SE so gained about 15 miles overnight. Starting to consider calling
in at Bermuda for a break. It´s not that many miles out of the way. There´s
49cm diesel in the tank, can´t remember exactly how much that is but must
be 3 or 4 hundred miles anyway. Enough to reach westerlies? Who knows.
Just looked in a mirror! That reflection is, er, interesting. Bad hair day or
what. Right, love to stay and chat but got work to do. :)
12.00 Days run 81 miles. Pressure up a point, suggest´s that high
is overtaking me. Bermuda, hmmm. Might turn left just a little and see what
happens. Certainly haven´t enough diesel to motor another 6 or 700 miles
which is what it´s looking like at the moment. We´ll see.
21.00. Another day motoring but at least now sailing slowly. 42cm diesel
left. That means I haven´t used that much and have a fair bit left. Very
light wind from west which suggests maybe clearing the top of the high pressure
ridge. Oh please let it be so! Right now sailing north at just under 3Kn. Might
give Bermuda a miss. Thought long and hard about pros and cons, timings etc
but in the end won at solitare on the laptop. If I´d lost would have to
go to Bermuda. ....Probably. Tan coming on nicely. Sleepy now. Night night.
18th June 2010. 06.15. 29 05N 61 34W. Day 12. Sea temp 28degC, air temp
27 degC. A little breeze all night long, sailed average 4kn all night. Nicey
nicey! Might have a whole day without being lashed to the tiller and the noisy
engine on. Whatever will I do with the free time?? Might think about making
some bread. Think about it anyway. Tried once before ages ago and seem to remember
it coming out at least edible. Closest I´ve got recently was mixing up
some flour and water (and a little anchovy paste!) to use as bait for fishing
off the dinghy. Not quite the same but can´t be that different. Anyway,
another beautiful day, boat sailing very calmly north at about 4kn. All is well
with the world. I read in one of the pilot books that we have been crossing
close to the eastern edge of the sargasso sea. So that´s what all the
floating seaweed is about. Playing havoc with the fishing, the lures get covered
in seaweed straight away so trolling for fish has been postponed for the time
being. Number of fish being caught seems unaffected by this drastic action.
10.00 Just caught the edge of a squall, lovely shower on deck. Nice feeling
clean. Shame the squall took int wind with it. Engine on again. But the wind
is such that the windvane just keeps course so at least not tied to the tiller.
Pressure back up to 1023. Where exactly did I pick up that high pressure magnet
on the boat. Seems to work though, where the boat goes so does the high.
13.00 Well, 2 good things. Daily run up to 101 Nm which is slow by many
peoples standards but racing along compared to recent progress. Though there
seems to be about 1/2kn current against us instead of with us as it was up until
last night. And caught a fish!! Seaweed seemed to be much scarcer so the line
went back in and just reeled in a lovely grill sized Dorado perfect for dinner
tonight. Yummy! Squabbling shearwaters fighting over the leftovers from gutting.
Children, please! Engine off, sailing slow. 3kn over the ground. But quiet and
peaceful.
20.45 One day at a time. Weatherfax hints at maybe a tiny bit more wind
tomorrow but I´ll wait and see. For those new to weatherfax... It´s
charts broadcast over shortwave which you can pick up with a world band short
wave reciever. Plug the headphone output into the mic socket of the laptop and
you can recieve (slowly) a variety of weather charts from different locations.
New Orleans is the favorite at the moment, good reception (at night anyway)
and does 24h, 48h and 72h forecasts showing expected wind speed and pressure
charts. All very useful if a little frustrating these past few days. But at
least now there is some wind, less than 5kn over the deck but enough to slowly
move the boat in roughly the right direction. And there might be the same tomorrow
or even a tiny bit more. Who knows. Though north isn´t actually the way
to the Azores, but you need to get up near 40degN to pick up the stronger westerlies
to zoom across. Hopefully. Got miles to go yet and already been out for ages,
crossing from Cape Verde to Brazil only took 16 days. I´ll be lucky to
get much past Bermuda in that time at this rate. But hey ho, what can you do.
Eat some sushi and read and play with the sextant. Still at least 10 miles out
every time with the sextant, must be the sun. It´s in the wrong place.
Probably.
19th June 2010. 12.00. 30deg 40n, 61deg 23w. Day 13. Guess what, no wind. Motoring slowly north but passed 30 degrees north. At least some indication of progress. Charts indicated a cold front up ahead, and there is some high level cloud about, bit hazey in front but that´s about it. Some rain might be quite nice. Have a shower and top up with nice fresh rainwater to drink. Ah, dream on, why not. Dug out an old trailing log this morning to check the calibration of the inboard one. Main one was overreading a little, reset now. Good thing is I know for sure that the little bit of current that does exist and has gone round to being setting north again, in my favour. Thanks, current, I need all the help I can get. Days run 74Nm. Not much but some. What I would give right now to check into a holiday inn, order some room service and a bottle of wine and come back when there´s some wind. Pressure up again, now 1024mb. High pressure looks like it stretches from Azores all the way across the atlantic to Florida. With me in the middle. Oh, well, never mind. Dorado for lunch now, yummy.
PLEASE NOTE: Sat phone having problems uploading this so transfered blog to here.... http://conachair.blogspot.com
Will try to keep updated google map pushpins on main page of this site. www.conachair.co.uk