Oldies On Tour

Position @ 1200 UTC

36⁰ 57.23 N 35⁰ 56.62 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 120

What a “Quiet” night, had to engine all night and travelling between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 knots, still batteries fully charged and warm engine room to dry out clothes!

I went up for 0600 hrs watch and still on the engine but there was some wind building from the North, North East. At about 0700 hrs and to get her moving I let out the jib. Speed went up but we had to move more south than we wanted as the wind had veered a bit. So all looking good we increased the jib and put out the staysaill, 7 1/2 knots great, engine off and we were on our way, well we thought we were. Wnd increased to up to 25 knots so reefed the jib and reefed the main. speed dropped and boat back upright again. So far so good untill wind increased again, we slackend off the main and reefed some more jib. One would have thought we were now set but no in came the jib, now just sailing under staysail and reefed in main. So what else, easy, for good measure rain. It poured heavely all morning. 2 minutes in the cockpit and one is soaked. Thank goodness for heavy oilys, the spray hood and bimini give no protection and will need replacing in the summer, more expense!!! still we were thinking we may have to do this sometime.

Paddy came up trumps this morning and cooked a tin of small cocktail sausages we had with our last tin of baked beans and a tin of mushrooms, very good and warming. Unfortunatly we didn’t have any bread, so we know what my job is today, bake a couple of loaves. This task is usually a pleasure but today, everything semed to be against me. On our boat receipe the start process is to mix a certain amount of sugar with a given amount of tepid water and when mixed add the yeast. Unfortunatly I had run out of our normal yeast and had to use some we bought in the USVI’s. After 10 minutes this mix should froth and bubble up. It didn’t so went through the process again, no, did’t work so thought 3rd time lucky. Same thing happened, a little froth on top but nothing like the old yeast did. Anyway I had the flour ready so I chucked it in and mixed it as normal wondering at what point I would be throwing this mix away. When mixed, I divided it into two and let it settle and hopefully rise. To my surprise it did rise, wow! We also had a number of over ripe bananas so made 1 conventional loaf and mixed the bananas with most of the other bread mix. The balance I made into rolls. Lighting the oven was the next hurdle; we were on a port tack and the oven kept gong out, I couldn’t see this bread now getting cooked. All this time, Andrew was fighting with the boat in 28 knott winds gusting to 35 and rain pouring down. It took 4 attempts to get the oven to keep going;.I would light it and 5 mins later it was out; played havoc with my bread! well so I thought. The normal loaf was what shall we say,”normal” the dozen rolls were good though there sizes were interesting, and as for the banana cake/loaf, well what a gooey mess, still I have no doubt that with custard it will lbe fine. I then iced the second half of the carrot cake I had made a few days ago. What a day to choose to make bread etc./,

Cleared up,washed up and put things away and guess what; the rain stopped,the winds died so fast it was un canny, the seas flattend and the sun came out, all in th spaceof about half an hour and yes you have guessed we were back to motoring, would you believe that!!!! We took the time to refill the main diesel tank, we have about 15 gallons left in green containers and 3/4 of a tank, unfortunatly not enough fuel to motor all the way to Horta (Azores) so we must have this south westerly that has been talked about all week,

Because of the dreadful day we had experienced weather wise we we had planned a Chilli Con Carn from tins with rice and bread rolls! so that is what Paddy expertly prepared but it was such a nice evening we enjoyed our dinner outside in the cockpit.

Clearing after dinner, we couldn’t set any sails as there was ninimal wind, 2-4 knots, so pointed Anam Cara straight at Horta and motored.hopeing for wind during the night, I wonder if it will come! It was 2300 hrs as I went injto my final hour on watch and, what’s that I feel and hear, wind? by heck it is, and its blowing in the right direction and at 7 – 9 knots so as I was on watch, out came the jib and an altertation to the staysail setting and we were off, albeit amotor sailing; but at least we were doing 6 knots. Andrew took over at midnight but still had to keep the engine on, lets hope th night air brings forth something!

Position @ 1200 UTC

36⁰ 36.39 N 38⁰ 04.40 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 114

What a “Quiet” night, had to engine all night and outof the 114 nautical miles, we only covered 99 miles over the ground! We did break the 500 miles to go at midnight , so thats a god stake in the ground.

Sunday today, so after shipping thepole and re setting sails, considering weather forecast and setting course (no change!) it was wash, shave, change for sherry followed by sunday lunch. French Onion soup was the starter created by Paddy, first class I have to say. This was followed by Roast beef, enhance with fresh pepper, chillies and garlic accompanied by fresh (still!) cabbage, mixed veg and fresh mashed potatoes washed down with a bottle of red. We were going to have pancakes for desert but we were all too full.

Then the clear up, ugh!

For todays matanee and next Bond in the sequence was “Octopussy” so after a good and filling lunch our BBC today consisted of Bond, Brandy Coffee.

So after an un eventfull but very enjoyable day of bobing along with no wind endulging in a good Sunday Lunch with the trimmings listening to 60’s music and followed by a relaxing afternoon and a DVD,we; Oh no, we don’t need to “batten down” How things have turned around from the 3 days and nights we had being bounced around in up to gale force winds, high seas and nasty rain and now nothing but “cold” Chris has his heavy snow boots on whilst he is on watch tonight! I came on at 2100 hrs to a calm sea with no wind amnd engine still running. Perhapsthe wind will start up on Andrew’s watch, know more tomorrow!

Position @ 1200 UTC

36⁰ 10.95 N 40⁰ 02.96 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 144

It was a good job we were set up correctly for the night because under the circumstances we actually had a reasonably comfortable one. We were charging along around 6 – 61/2 knots under furled staysail and a reefed main. Each of us on watch caught a number of waves as they broke over the side and on one occasiuon we must have shipped about 3 inches in the cockpit, still with good clear cockpit drains, no problem. At one stage we were overtaken by a huge tanker, in fact the tanker changed course to give us more room, very kind of him, thank you captain.

Wet and miserable morning so cheered ourselves up with a cooked breakfast, Sausage, beans and scrambled eggs. I tried to persuade everybody to have kippers for breakfast but I was the only one who wanted them, can’t think why! In spite of this contin4ed rocking and rolling, rain and water over the side, not to mention dampness within the boat as we cannot open any hatches to get fresh air in, we are all in good spirits with plenty of humour. 557 miles still to go, hopefully we will get a respite from this weather before we arrive.

Being tthe weekend we were going to have our cocktail party but I think that will be put on the back boiler for now though Bond will be in order.

1430hrs and the wind suddenly changed direction from being a southerly to a westerly; “just like that”! The forecasters had been promising us a westerly for a few day and here itwas at last. So wemoved the pole accrosst the starboard, poledout the jiband hey presto, Where had the wind gone to.It just stopped, unbelievable! so thyere we ware having fought most of th uncomfortable elements one minute to bobing about the next.On went the engine!

Anyway we managed to enjoy Bond, “For Your Eyes Only” onlythe “C” in BBC stood for Canapes. By the time we eat them, it was neither lunch or evening meal, but it satisfied everybodys hunger!

After Bond nothing mujch happened, Andrew and I went for 40 winks, Paddy cleared up and Chris was on Watch. I took over at 2100 hrs again zero wind and running on engine. Andrew came upfor his waqtch at Midnight just as we went under the 500 milke mark; all down hill now!!!!

Position @ 1200 UTC

35⁰ 24.53 N 42⁰ 52.13 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 137

The night quitened down, still 25 gusting to 35 knots of wind so went through with only Staysail and a very reefed main, kept the Radar on all night but nothing happened to us I am pleased to say. Not so for another competetor, “Setanti”,apparently they hit something below the water line around 0300 hrs this morning and which broke their rudder and sent it up into their transom. They put out a “May Day” and contacted ARC Control and of course Falmouth who coordianted the rescue. She obviously lost all her steering and was bobbing about in the north atlantic. We were 300 miles plus away from her so we were of no use but “Gilly of London” started to go to her rescue. The up shot of it all this was that there was the freighter in the area. It went and picked up the 4 aboard but unfortunatly the boat had to be abandoned, In fact they couldn’t just leave her as a hazzard, no doubt they scuttled her. What a shame, still no one hurt, thats the main thing. No one knows what they hit below the water but I suspect it would have been a container that had fallen of some cargo ship! That is the one fear I have, especially travelling at night. You have little chance of spotting them during the day but zero chance at night.

As things were quiter this morning we took the opportunity to have a look at the broken bit on the end of the Jib pole, the good news is that nothing was broken, the up haul had a quick release shackle and it had got twisted by the out haul in the wind which caught the lever that released the jib sheet. Tieing a bowling around the end of the out haul and attaching the down haul’s quick release shackle cured the problem. We are now back poling out the jib and up to 7 knots. Our “Red Ensign” and our cockpit “hood” have both suffered over the last coupleof days, so replacements will be needed in those departments!

This mornings forecast isn’t much better, we are still being chased by the “lows” but are hoping they die out before we have to finally cut north. We have co nsidered leaving out the Azores and carrying straight on to Lagos but we can’t. Manly because this may be the last opportunity I get to go to the Azores, after all it’s not on any hoiday routes!!! and secondly we have a change in crew, Andrew leaves us and Vince joins us

We also filled the Generator tanl and the three1 gallon containers with diesel which we now use as it is easier to fill the generator from the1 gall container than the 5 gallon containers.

Home made bread, tosted was for breakfast and we have now finished the first loaf. Looks as if I will have to bake again tomorrow! Coffee and a biscut for lunch and into BBC, the film being “The Spy Who Loved Me” Half way through we had to take in the Jib and set the staysail and reef in some of the main as the wind was getting back up again. Naturally as soon as we had done that it dropped! Anywaywe wereset for the night and a little over 600 miles to run along the rhum line.

Tonight for the second time we are going to try and finish the lasagne, but we did have some of the fish soup to finish. Unfortunatly for some perculiar reason the oven wouldn’t stay alight so we finished having the fish soup at about 1830 hrs an Lasagne about 2000hrs: so for the fist time we didn’t all sit down together to enjoy a meal. Chris was in the cockpit, I was a the chart table and Andrew was fiddling with something. Anyway dinner over, we were already battened downfor the night and I did the 2100 hrs to midnight.

Apart from very high seas, wind around 28 to 34 knots and gusting around 36 knots a pleasent, but cold and verynwet night!! Oh yes I did reef in the Staysail a bit before handing over to Andrew!

Position @ 1200 UTC

35⁰ 05.42 N 45⁰ 25.86 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 152

A bit of a hectic night, the pin at the end of the pole keeping the jib sheet came detached/broke so the sheet jumped out so had to haul the jib in and put out the staysail. The main was also pulled out but with the equivelent of 3 reefs in. Naturally our speed fel from 6 ish to 4 nish knots but at that time noon new what to expect weather wise.

I came up at 0600 hrs as usual and left the rig as it was even though the speed was well down. A good decision as with the passing of the day the seas became more confused and the wind grew stronger so our rig was exactly what was called for; in fact we didn’t change it once during the day and went into night with it.

The issue is simple. We have a stationary very high pressure to East of us, which is South West of the Azores and we have a number of low pressure fronts from the North West of us and coming our way. We are trying to navigate ourselves in the middle but erring on the High Pressure front side. The “Gun Ho” boats are keeping nearer to the low pressure, goodluck to them. The highest wind speed we recorded during the day wa 38 knots, Anam Cara didn’t “bat an eye lid” just took it in her stride. As I have said before Anam Cara can take much more than we mere mortals can take!For exapmle, today we were hit side on by a rouge wave, several tons of water smack into her mid drif with the brunt of it being taken by the small window above the fridge: How the window glass didn’t break I don’t know but all 4 of us were in the saloon at the time and we all ducked expecting water to flow in, but it didn’t, good old girl.

Early afternoon we watched “Mutuny on the Bounty” and I made two loaves of bread, not the most sensible thing to do in this sort of weather but we are out of bread now!

Apart from the high seas and the wind we are now having specially when the rouge wave comes in and slams water right over the boat! Visibility is also poor so we have beenrunning our radarall day and no doubt will dosomright through the night.. Wonderfull thing radar but the down side is the amount of power it consumes. We ran the generator untill the batteries were fully charged and no doubt we will have to do a boost during the night as well.

Paddy cooked a superb fish soup/stew and to follow we were going to have the rest of the Lasagne.The bread came out of the oven at the same time and I have to say both loaves were a succss; in fact we only had the fish soup and bread, the lasagne didn’t get eaten.

Battening down everything followed dinner, ready for a night to remember or will it????

Position @ 1200 UTC

35⁰ 07.43 N 48⁰ 16.07 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 143

Another quiet night though we did reef in the poled out Jib a little at 0300hrs as it looked as if the wind may just strengthen, but it didn’t, so when I came on at 0600hrs the first thing I did was let the jib right out again. Anam Cara can take 25 knot winds from the stern when poled out quite comfortably

Morning uneventfull other than pouring over the various weather reports we have received, one has to wonder how much “Hype” there is going on over the prospect of poor weather. A late breakfast of omletes became lunch and at midday today the ship’s clocks changed one hour forward.

Not having had to run the main engine for the past 24 hrs plus, we had to put the geneator on, hence the eggs for breakfast. I am pleased to say (with fingers crossed) it starts well, does its job of chargiing the batteries and provides power for th mains kettle, toaster etc as it should, good girl!

A lazy afternooncatching up with slep and running stillwith poled out Jib and staysail though the wind did veer so had to takein the staysail during this period. This was he first time we furled it in since we greased the roller bearing at the top of the foil, so it was fingers crossed it worked OK, I amk pleased to say it went inj as if new, thank goodness!

The afternoon film today was back to Boind in “The Man With The Golden Gun”;only “QB” today not “BBC” Pady wascooking Salmon burgers.

At 1830 hrs, we opened our bottle of Chilean Champers to celabrate and toast Anam Cara as we crossed the mid point, we are now nearer to the Azores than Bermuda, always a nice momentg in time, the half way mark.

The weather for tonight could be anybodies guess so have reefed the Jib, though kept it poled out and see what happens.

When I finished my watch at Midnight, we had had an un-eventfull night, see what happens during the rest of the night!