Atlantic 3

Day 7 – 02.01.09 Friday. Log 107nm GPS 123nm. N16 45.75 W36 09.98

So one week at sea, a little slow but getting there. Both fuel and water tanks are still reading full and that doesn’t include the spare cans of each I’m carrying. Food however is running low. Ok that’s a lie, all the nice snacky things are running out meaning I will have to start cooking real food and yes I even have 2 spare gaz bottles. My main concern is the tea bags, if they run out it may be the make or break of the passage!

Had a really lazy day mostly reading and playing the guitar. I sent ‘The Ground Crew’ (Crutey) my second blog update for you good people and called Quartermoon on the Sat phone. They are 70nm in front of me which isn’t as bad as I thought. They are fine and eating well.

I am still running under just the genoa, the seas are getting less lumpy so tomorrow its back out with the mainsail maybe goosewinged.

Around midday I saw a pretty white bird (a bit exotic looking - yellow bill and long ‘stringy’ tail) circling the boat. He kept flying off and returning for about 30 minutes and looked like he wanted to land and rest – he didn’t.

It’s now 2000 and starting to get dark. There is a sunset and some fluffy cumulus clouds about so it looks like it might be a nice night. If it weren’t for this damn lumpy swell!

Time, 0800 and it should be light in about 30 minutes. I have been up most of the night reducing sail as the winds rose to 25kn and the wave faces seemed to get bigger and steeper. Once again, the conundrum of reducing speed by reducing sail and have the mast wave around from side to side, or, keep the sail up to dampen the mast movement but risk broaching as we surf more down the waves. I could solve the problem by going in a different direction, but that would be the wrong direction! I almost gave the drogue a try but felt it may be a bit excessive just to get some sleep!

Either way, I’m awake and therefore decided to run the engine as I haven’t done it for 48 hours.

Day 8 – 03.01.09 Saturday. Log 109nm GPS 126nm. N16 40.49 W38 18.55

As the light comes up I can see that once again the sea is black and lumpy. Its still blowing to 25kn. Around 0900, after removing the dead fish from the cockpit I notice something on the horizon behind off of the rear port quarter. Its appearing briefly and then vanishing again in the swell. With the binoculars I can make it out as a mast and looks to be flying a mainsail and spinnaker! I try without success to raise them on the VHF. Cheeky bastards seem to be gaining pretty quickly, so I let out a little more sail. I’m doing around 7kn and surfing to 9kn on the waves and still they are visibly getting closer each second! Then ‘I notice the square cut mainsail and its full sponsor decals (Concise 42), it’s an open 60 or 40 going like stink! Probably 15 -20kn I’m guessing. Within the hour he has passed me and vanished from sight over the horizon and is probably sipping rum in the Caribbean as you read this! 1100, time for breakfast.

Today has been a bit stressful, with Doris all over the place almost out of control at speeds of 10kn before getting ‘Bitch Slapped’ (technical term) by the swell from the north. I have now finished ‘The Logical Route’, superb! Makes me want to go all native and live on an atoll in the Pacific. I will probably start the other one ‘The Long Way’ tonight.

Time is now 2030 and its just getting dark, so I’m preparing myself for the ‘monsters’. Doris has looked after herself for the last few hours and it looks like the northern swell has dropped off making for a smoother ride – slightly! Hopefully, it will be a nice night and also brighter as we are now at half moon with barely a few fluffy clouds about. Fingers crossed for no rain. Wind is around 20kn so progress is good if not smooth.

One of those nights where you don’t worry about the weather because you just ‘know’ its all settled. Made good progress and got loads of sleep. At 0600 I gybed to make good the 10nm off course and then back again at 0900 back on the rhumb line – perfect.

As the sea is lower I am flying the full genoa without her rounding up every few minutes in about 20kn of wind. I started reading ‘The Long Way’ last night and can’t put it down this morning.

Day 9 – 04.01.09 Sunday. Log 112nm GPS 132nm. N16 28.26 W40 26.95

What an amazing day, so relaxed. I think this is my first real day of the type of sailing I was expecting. The wind dropped to around 15kn and the swell lined up nicely astern. Around lunchtime I renewed my love / hate relationship with my mainsail. Determined to raise the mainsail without using the engine to ‘ruin the moment’ all went well until the battens got caught in the lazy jack lines.

After what seemed an eternity I admitted defeat (again) and had to use the engine to hold us exactly head to wind. I really need to get these damn lazy jacks lowered, is there a need to have them almost to the bloody top of the mast? Surely, its just to catch the sail at the bottom or am I missing something? Keeping the boat exactly head to wind on your own, while you hoist the sail over ¾ of the way is hard enough with the engine let alone using the only the head sail. Rant over.

The sailing from then on was a complete joy! She sails downwind as Dave would say ‘Sooo Smooooth!) with no heeling and just the soft gurgle of Heidi keeping us on course. I will admit we are slightly high, sailing around 290 degrees instead of 280 and going slightly north of our rhumb line, but who cares? I’ll gybe tomorrow.

Almost ½ way through ‘The Long Way’ now and I notice that Mr Moitessier and I have a few things in common. Aside from scruffy beards (still haven’t shaved!), he wasn’t exactly fond of cooking ‘real’ food either. Preferring snacky type food such as cans of soup, crackers and cheese and sweet stuff etc. Like him, I only eat well when there is a good women onboard … heh heh!!!

The time is now 2000 and the teak is getting darker indicating the arrival of the slightly damp evening. Barely a cloud in the sky and the sun setting almost directly ahead of us. Looks like its going to be another nice night. I am writing this sitting in the cockpit wearing shorts and a T shirt while pondering what to eat. It’s a hard life.

It’s now midnight, and the wind has got back up to 20kn (from 15kn) and I’m still sat here in shorts. It’s so hot during the day now that I can’t stand on the teak decking barefoot!
Anyway, time to throw in a few reefs and get some sleep.

I have slept very well these last few nights, frustratingly so actually! A night Single Handing is very much like making love to a…. No, it’s very much like watching back to back episodes of ‘LOST’. You know when each episode starts and you are trying to figure out if the scene is before or after the crash. Just as a climatic revelation is about to be revealed, Bang!, the character is back on the island!

My ‘bang’ is usually the egg timer ringing in my ear or in this case the sound of the bow slamming off the wave tops. It’s just gone 0600 and the wind has crept up to 25kn and rounded the boat up to wind (Beam Reach). It’s now quite normal to be snug and warm in bed dreaming away and then standing naked in the cockpit taming a runaway boat as it crashes its way across the waves. Hove To, noce to wind while I get some clothes on and my life jacket as I have to go on deck to attach the 3rd reef. 0615, reefed and back on course, back to bed. Another episode of ‘DORIS’ begins….

Day 10 – 05.01.09 Monday. Log 109nm GPS 127nm. N16 33.09 W42 33.79

It’s not light now until 0900. The waves have got bigger and steeper again over night.
I am also 15kn north of my course. I’ll have a coffee and then figure out a strategic action to maintain speed but more importantly keep a level of comfort in the lumpy swell or life becomes unbearable. Permanently swaying from side to side drives me insane!

Ok, 2 accidental gybes and a lot of screaming later and I am no better off. Firstly the f*cking battens get caught up in the lazy jack lines again while I shook out the 3rd reef and then the gybes. Thank God for preventers!!!!

I can make 270 degrees which would put us nicely back on course and still maintain westerly direction – well its west duh! But the swell makes us yaw so badly about 40 degrees either way, hence the gybes. I clawed back 5nm by hand steering, but that’s not a long term solution, especially as I haven’t had breakfast yet!

So, back to 310 degrees, at least on this gybe the boom stays the safe side of the wind when she rounds up on the waves. After yesterdays amazing sail, today just makes me so pissed off and its only 1130.

As from today I will stop quoting the ships log reading as it under reads by about 84-86% and will use the GPS distances covered as these are bang on the money as checked against the Long / Lats.

Time is now1300, its 1064nm to landfall so by tonight only 3 figures to go!!!