Oldies On Tour

Position @ 1200 UTC

35⁰ 16.73 N 51⁰ 05.03 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 140

Very quiet night and still motor sailing and heading east, south east. The only problem was that during the night Chris tried to bring in the Staysail and it jammed so not being that important he left it. When I came up with Paddy it was daylght and as the sea was calm went up to the bow to see what had happened. The ball bearing race that attached the top of the staysail to the furlinhg foil had become tangled and twisted around the foil. This happened back in February whilst in Antigua. I had a rigger look at it and though there were several ball bearings missing he said he had seen worse and that it only wantd lubricating. This we did and it has been fine, until now! When Andrew was up he and I dropped the staysail on the deck and gave the ball bearing race a good grease and sent it back up the foil. It worked again and we were able to furl the staysail away again. Unfortunatly there are now more ball bearings missing so must get a new one as soon as possible.

After listening to the net again and seing the weather forecast we dcided to turn due East, we think we have gone as far South as we need to to avoid the worst of the weather, time will tell if we made the right call or not! Anyway by heading around 090 degrees, we had what wind there was available right up our backside, so we rigged for down wind sailing. Out came the big pole and we poled out the Jib and out came the whisker pole and we poled out the staysail and there we were travelling between 5 and 6 knots, no engine; great!

During lunch we had a chat about watches and duties etc., and we all agreed that Paddy (Grainne) was not ready yet to manage a night watch on her own and would not be able to change sail settings if needed so the thre of us will continue with the 3 man watch system we have and is working very well: Paddy would undertake mother watch and do the cooking. I explained that the whole point of having 4 on board was to share the watches etc but if she undertook the cookinmg duties that would also be a great help. There is no reason why she can’t help with other watches and learn if she feels so disposed, I hope she does.

I made a Lasagne tonight and that saw off the last of our fresh meat and chocolate brownies were also made as the oven was already on. We are still on bread we bought in Bermuda but this is coming to an end so willhave to bake bread in the next day or so!!!

Afternoon matanee was differewnt, no BBC today, it was the film “Notting Hill”,a change so no beer and no crisps!

Looking at the weather and seting night sails, we decided to continue with the poled out jib and stay sail, it was working welkl and the winds were just about right,soseetomorrow what happened, hopefully nothing!!

Position @1200 UTC

35⁰ 31.08 N 53⁰ 26.22 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 111

Our mileage is well down and we had to run the engine all night due to a total lack of wind but the up shot of this was we all enjoyed a good night’s sleep, no tossing or falling out of bed due to heeling over or big waves. We did hear that a number of boats are running about 120 miles north of us and were experiencing 40 knot winds, we are happy to be where we are!

For the first time all 4 of us were about this morning, which was nice, so Andrew did one of his famous fried breakfasts, though I don’t know if Paddy (Grainne) could quite get her head around an english breakfast!

With the engine being on for so long and as the sea was calm we decided to re-fill the main fuel tank, easy to do in these conditions, murder to do under sail with winds! We put in 20 gallons which filled them to the top so we are ready for anyhing. Naturally the generator is also full of fuel but as we ran the engine for so long yesterday and again over night, we havn’t had to run the generator, yet!

Today, being 5 days out of Bermuda, it was time to consider our overall position and stratagy and know how far we had come in actual fact and how much further to go. With the strong currents we are experiencing we were not too sure so here are the figures:-

Total Mileage through the water in 5 days: 734 Nautical Miles.
Total Mileage great circle route in 5 days: 615 Nautical miles

……………….you will notice the difference of 119 nautical miles that in fact we have sailed but actually stayed still!!!!! The good news is thgt most of the fleet are in the same positiuon.

The Bond film in todays BBC was “Live & Let Die” the first Roger Moore made and following this Paddy (Grainne) cooked dinner.Sheused the salted fish we bought as an experimemnt in Bermuda. A little salty but this was due to the fact we hadn’t soaked it long enough in water to clear the salt. Anyway werenjoyed ot with Garlic Rice and Spinach. It went down a treat and for future refrence, I willl buy salted fish again when we provision for a long passage. It had never occured to me before but it keeps so well.

This afternoon we made contact with another sailing boat(not part of the ARC) and they can download GRIB files on their Sat Phone: this musteither cost them a fortuneor they have found a supplierwho camsend compressedfiles;I wil try and find out tomorrow. Anyway they shared their GRIB file info with us, the bottom line is the earlier winds to the North of us are now gusting 50 Knots and are headed our way! We are now heading East/ still close to the rhum line, but are hoping the winds veer so we can take a course East,South East and get below 34 degrees by tomorrow night to avoid much of that bad weather coming through. By Friday it should have passed and no doubt we will be too far south for any other winds! So climbing back North East could be a struggle, so here we are “between a rock and a hard place”, dammed which ever waywe go: Exciting times though! More on this tomorrow no doubt but we are gearing up for a bad night tomorrw.

Position @1200 UTC

34? 42 .20 N 54? 33.76 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 144

Aftera B awful night ofchanging wind patterns, rain, squalls, and high seas I came on watch at 0600 hrs expecting more of the same but no, rain stopped, seas calmed down and wind vanished, oh dear what’shappened!!! Ah yes, itis Sunday today, roast Chicken,Roast Potatoes and fresh veg, preceeded by Sherry on the upper terrace (cockpit!) andf ollowed by BBC, only this time Bondr Brandy & Coffee, so, this calmw was sent to help us do the cooking and enjoy ourselves; after all we were not going anywhere even with the engine as we were going against a1/2 to 1 1/2 knot curremntand what little windtherewas,wasright on the nose!

To accompany us we had the i Pod blaring out 6o’s music and the party was in ful swing. Poor Grainne, she must think she has joined a Lunatic institution what with Chris bopping and Andrew Gyratingn, and me, oh I was too busy holding on from falling over with laughing so much!!

Anyway, a very enjoyable day was had by all and the Bond film was “Diamonds are for Ever”. Following the clear up,we settled downback into watches, sails set for the night ready, just in case there is any wind and engine set. No one is expecting to go very far in terms of “distance over the ground” what with this current to contend with and what wind there is, is on the nose. “distance through the water” which the log produces is missleading under these circumstances.

So clear sky, no rain and night is upon us.

Position @1200 UTC

34⁰ 55.56 N 56⁰ 46.76 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 135

As you can see we have dropped our daily tally of nautical miles thanks to last night not producing any wind! In fact my watch with Grainne, was very eventfull. We took over at 2100, by 2130 it was raining and then the wind had died whch made the sails flapand and all I could see was £ notes going up before my eyes! We brought in the Main, later we tightend up the genoa ut to no avail and eventually had to furl the genoa and turn on the engine.

The rest of the night was a noisy tripwith a lot of wallowing, very uncomfortable!

Morning dawned, no wind, but whilst Grainne and I were on watch, we were visited by a pod of dolphins. They were all around us playing in the bough wave, circleing the boat, diving underneath etc. This went on for at least half an hour then just as suddenly as they came, they went!

With the winds not knowing where they wanted to come from or at what strength, the boat was verycomfortable, albiet travelling very slowly, but an ideal situation to bake a cake. So out came the “Carrot Cake” mix andhey presto an hour later we had 2 cakes, actualy 1 cake mix split into 2 baking tins. Our oven cannot get hot enough to bake a deep traditional cake. Anyway after cooling I icedone and we allenjoyed a slice. I also cooked the lastof the fresh chicken. This will be browned offfor Sunday Roast, Lunch tomorrow!

By midday we had the winds setlingvin from the north, north east around 12 to 16 knots so at least wewere sailing,nbot quite the exact way wBe want to go but at least we are on olur way.But, and there is always a but; they are cold winds, heading down from the Artic I think.

Grainne was up and about a bit today and she seemed to be better, whilst we were onw atch tgetherwe chatted about it and naturally I went on about mind over matter and not giving in to itand today she wasoutof her cabin more than in it,so that is good. I have greatdificulty with he name so tday I christened her “Paddy” so that’sall right!

After lunch we spotted a whale off on our starboard beam, too far away to identyfy but his breathing hole on the back of his neck suggested he was a big un, from where we were it was an almighty spout!

This afternoonsfilm was, naturally James Bond! On her Majesty’s Secret Service, one of the best I think. This was followed by tonight’s dinner, it was a “Buffet” salad, Cornbeef, Sardines, Mackerel and Andrew’s special home made spicy potato wedges, very nice. This log was finished in time for me to start my watch at 2100hrs, oh and yes we are still sailing!

Position @1200 UTC

34⁰ 08.18 N 59⁰ 03.63 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs 186

Another Good day started though the wind had veered so had take in the Staysail early, then fit the preventer and let the main out . We thought the wind would veer round more, se we were then ready to pull in the main, pole out the Genoa one side and pole out the staysail on the other but no, nothing happend as we went in to lunch. With the wind coming in off the rear starboard quarter, the boat is a little more comfortable.

Whilst eating lunch we watched the final 1/2 hour of last nights film, James Bond in Thunderball, now we are up-to-date!

We are also getting concerned about Grainne (4th Member of the crew) she spends all her life in her cabin, not eating anything with us, only comes out to accompany whoever is on the night watch with her and not a peepout of her in the day. I know sickness is misserable and lasts buT I would have thought that as an expreienced sailor, she would have been used to it now. Un fortunatly we think her sailing abilities are fewer than we had expected, we do not feel comfortable about her doing a solo night watch at the moment which rather makes her redundant. What a shame, a nice person; anyway we will do another round of 3 day watch cycle with her again attached to one of us and see what happens after that.

We had a visitor with us to-day. It was a large bird, with two long feathers from the back of his/her head ; what make it was, no one knew. He/She sat on either side rails then finally on the deck below our green spare diesel drums, sheltering from he wind . He/She stayed there much of the day until we chased it off, not wanting bird mess on the deck. Anyway after circling Anam Cara several times, he/she set herself back in the same spot on the starboard side and stayed there. As darkness fell it was still there!

Quiet sail through the afternoon, (No Grainne yet) and we are still making good progress, still following the great circle route, southern and most direct route (for those who don’t know), and long may this continue.

A simple fresh chicken pasta dish this evening after listening to the ARC evening net . There are about 10 boats all around us and most seem to be travelling the same route as we are.

We have been trying to send pictures but un-able to. Because we are on a dial up through the satalite ‘Phone we need to compress the photos very small prior to sending; unfortunmatly I do not have the necessaey software. When we get to the Azores, hopefully we will be able to send and then post them on the web.

Night shift watches have started so will get the log away.

Position @1200 UTC

33⁰ 16.69 N 62⁰ 16.58 W

Nautical Miles travelled since start @ 1230 hrs 143

An un-eventfull night, ploughing on along the great circle route (shortest route) as the wind is holding out very nicely thank you however, we are mentally geared up to go North at some time. We nearly made that decision earlier this morning when we lost the wind for about 10 minutes, but hey, it came backup again so here we are between 7 and 8 knots, goodold Anam Cara and better still not too heeled over.

Grainjne spent all ay in her cabin trying to get herselftogether, she is sharing a watch with Chris tonight so we will see how she is after that.

Had the fishing line out all day but to no avail, nothing, nout, ziltch, where have all the fish gone?

Hot dogs with mixed onion and mushrooms for lunch and Andrew is on cooking duty tonight. We are having gently fried fresh chicken cooked with chopped onions and garlic in red wine jus with potato and carrot mash to accompany it. After dinner comments by all were that this “Jus” was as good as you wouldget in a 5 star hotel,excellentit was.

After dinner a slight change in our proceedings, we just had “B” Bond, “Thunderball” to be exact, we then settled back into the 3 man watch system and hoping the big black cloud just produces good wind and nothing to severe!