26/2/09 00.10 Enough!! Not enough wind to motorsail with aries and I can't face a night hand steering so hove to in tiny breeze and bedtime. Just noticed though, if you shine a torch on the water, for about 3 seconds afterwards the is a small universe of glowing planets where the torch was pointed. Really is quite beautiful. But enough, I'm tired, time for to go some sleep.
10.30 More motorsailing. 150 deg at 5/6 kts. The course I want is more like 220deg but at least on 150 I get help from the litle wind that there is to the tune of about 1 1/2 or 2 kts. Should be OK to gain back westing when (if??) the winds revert to their usual north east. Just didn't catch a fish! Felt lijke a biggun but line broke so no sushi for me tonight. Oh well. Plenty fresh stuff left, been living mostly on salads so far with enough left for another couple of days. Serrano ham is a big hit in the galley, glad I bought a load of that in Canaries and the 2 gallons of extra virgin olive oil should last for a while yet. Dolphins been playing around the boat on and off all morning. I shall never tire of my friends, the dolphins.
13.30 AT LAST. Engine off. around 5.5/6ks just shy of south. Great to be sailing again, the boat feels completely different. Now I can go anywhere! Sunny (of course) but actually almost chilly if out of the sun, I had thick jumper and jacket on last night. So where shall we go? Well, since I've lost any westing Cape Verdes seem to be a prime favorite, would be nice to stock up on more fruit & veg anyway. Maybe I'll call in at Sal, the most NE of the Cape Verdes and take it from there.

27/2/09 09.00 Slow night but peaceful. Wind died again to light SSW. Engine back on to charge batteries & point a bit higher, getting a bit too close to Africa, quite a lot of shipping around. Hope wind will go round to north today. 29 miles south and I'm officially in the tropics! 23degN is tropic of cancer. Wonder if I'll notice any difference. Hoping for palm trees, rum punch and dancing girls around the boat, might be a little disappointed though. Bit cloudy this morning, 19 deg outside, sea temp - 18.5 C. Anyone who reads this (or doesn'tfor that matter) feel free to txt me - it's free. Adios
14.00 Oh please may this ne a sign that the winds are finally returning to their more traditional direction in these parts - from the north! Sort of westerly F3ish at mo, boat heading 210deg just under 6kts. At last if not heading away from Africa then not goping towards it either, more sort of parallel. Look to see if there are any ports worth visiting round these parts but mo, just a mining port in Morocco and Mauratania doesn't seem interested in us yachtie typse so let's not bother. Spent morning sewing a leather patch onto sprayhood where mainsheet chaffs sometimes. feel I've earned a salady type lunch after that. 5 miles to the tropics! Yippee!
19.00 Wind, fickle as ever died for a while but now feels like proper lets go sailing wind. NW, 12 - 15kts apparent and we're sitting at a happy 6+kts. Literally sailing into the sunset as I write with dolphins (my friends) playing around the boat and some type of gulls I don't recognise circling the boat; Mike Oldfield playing in cockpit speakers. Not bad this tropics sailing really. One though did occur this afternoon - if the weather is so insistant in pushing me to Africa then why not give in, Dakar is same distance from here as Cape Verdes & I've got west Africa pilot onboard? Shall sleep on that & see how things feel tomorrow.
19.50 Wind picked up a bit so put precautionary reef in main just before dark.
21.15 This is what we want! Wind and wing dead downwind due south at about 6kts. Every few minutes she'll have a little roll but pretty stable really. Ooops, spoke too soon, ovveerrr one way, back the other and same again a couple of times and back upright again. Just put a reef in the main as she was getting a bit overpowered. Easy peasy, didn't have to round up at all. Just pull the main down on a roll to starboard, clip in the grommit into the gooseneck and tension up on another roll to starboard. Wonder how long the wind will last like this. Forecast is good for couple of days then up to 25kts. Might be in Dakar by midweek. Won't get too excited just yet, but looking good.

28/2/09 10.00 Well, bit of stressful night with more traffic than one would ideally want. AIS is great though, this little black box will pick up a signal from ships about 6 - 8 miles away and tell you their name (usually), distance away and their speed and heading. Invaluable and uses very little precious power. I called up a couple of ships which looked like getting close to check they had me on radar ("yes, since you were 14 miles away" ). Both had and passed at least 2 miles away. Winds died off again but at least it's from the more traditional direction, though hardly any of it. Maybe 6kts from north and boat's doing about 2 - 2.5kts south. Main was banging and jib was slatting away earlier horrifically so I've ended up goosewinged with 2 reefs in main with a preventer (please stop slatting!!!) and jib poled out on other side. Staysail sheeted in hard to try and damp the rolling a little. Slow, slow, slow but in right direction. Much quieter but boat rolls a lot in the NE swell, not all the time but she'll roll like a bitch then calm down for a little while. All part of the fun. Anyway, I've worked it out, these NE trade wind things are actually a big joke,they don't exist & it's all a big con. Ha, Ha, very funny. And next on the blog agenda another possible con. No txts have been recieved on the satellite phone
(Either txt to +881631671059 or click here http://messaging.iridium.com/ adding 31671059 to the number). Now I can think of 2 possible reasons for this a/ Iridium is a big expensive con. doesn't work and right now there's a 2 headed alien on planet zork looking at his communicator trying to work out what a trade wind is and how he's going to find out if they don't exist or b/ I'm really boring and have no mates and no one wants to say hello. Bish, it's B isn't it. Oh well, better to know these things, never mind. I've still got the dolphins (my friends). Actually, haven't seen them for a while..... Where to?? AFRICA!! I think, probably. Dakar. Picked up some radio funky west africa earlier and I've got
to go check out a place which produces music as happy as that. And right now, rolling a bit?, hardly any wind? Who cares, I FEEL GREAT! Now what shall I have for lunch today? Chiao

01/03/09 15.30 145 miles days run, that's better. Blue skies, blue sea, 20kts wind from NNE and all is good. Sailed a bit further away from the coast, about 60 miles off Cap Blanc, no traffic for a while so think I'll go due south from here then turn left into Dakar further down. Might get more sleep that way :) Back onto a broad reach again after running wind and wing overnight, heading just shy of south, about 175 deg so will stay on this for a while. Wind forecast to veer a bit tonight which would take us back to south. 21.00 What a perfect evening. Wind dropped a little and we're heading dead downwind due south @ 19deg 34' north 18 deg 24' west. Wind must be about 12kts and seas gone right down so you would think the boat was at anchor now it's so peaceful. Very uneventful day, gone a little furher offshore haven't seen another ship all day so looks like all the traffic of the past few days is further inshore. Winds due to pipe up a bit tomorrow evening but that was from a forecast 2 days ago so anything could happen. As long as they stay from the north I'm not too bothered. Gales are very rare around here so the pilot atlas says. Nice to be eating up the miles.

2/03/09 15.50 More of the same, wind got up a fraction last night so put a reef in the main about 2am, shook it out again this morning but till blowing maybe 20kts. 150Nm days run which is cheery enough. Currently at 17deg 49 north, about 200 miles to go to Dakar. Tried making bread today, think I might need just a touch more practice but it smells nice! Maybe it will stop being soggy after long enough cooking, maybe not.
18.45 Bread wasn't that bad actually for a first attempt. Gone a week now without touching any long term provisions, still have weeks worth of tins of tuna and tomatoes left for atlantic crossing if I ever get round to that. That kind of stuff sounds expensive in Senegal. Just put reef in main, force 6 and rough seas forecast overnight so best be ready. easy to roll up a bit more genoa and single reef should be enough for 25kts of wind. We'll see. WOnder what rough seas are like? Can't be worse than a lot of the stuff round Canaries with 30+ knots of wind. Again, we'll see! Just found a this on the back of the north atlantic passage chart talking about a similar route to the one I've just taken --- "Taking this route you are almost guaranteed to carry wind down the African coast..." Almost guaranteed!!

3/3/09 12.00 Sailin fast, fast, fast! Must be a good f6 gusting 7 behind us now, Just took in second reef in main. Ramshorns have broken off gooseneck, that's where the mainsail attaches to the joint between the boom and the mast. No big deal, just tie in the cringles in the main instead but no doubt will be a several day runaround in Dakar to get it sorted out. Nice to have something to do. Bigger seas must be 20' by now but aries windvane behaving very well, occasionally a big sea will kick her stern over but the aries will gently put her back on course. Well done you! Will stay on this course for another 15 miles then turn to port, tacking the foresail, and head towards Dakar. About 90 odd miles away now. Would prefer not to go in at night but looks easy enough, big port so most if not all the lights should be working. Looks like big anchorage as well, anyway will have a look and if it doesn't feel right I'll head back out to sea for a few hours and wait for the sun to arrive.

5/3/09 Hello Africa! Got in 5am yesterday morning, navigation easy enough entry at night but trafiic wasn't! Interestingly individual interretation they have on navlights down here. Got freaked out for a seond as a flashing red (normally port hand bouy) overtook me, and pirouges will flash a torch in your general direction to let you know they are there. Bit stressy but not great problems. Anchored off Hann Plage with it's friendly relaxed CVD yacht club. A few people & boats I know from Canaries down here. Already the boat is covered with fine red desert dust. Went into Dakar for a look yesterday, yep, this definitely Africa!