Atlantic 4

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

Around 2100 I am sailing under mainsail again and the wind pipes up as I’m hit by a small squall. In the dark I get into a right state reefing down and just as I am tightening the reefing lines I hear a horrible ripping noise. My first reaction is to peer over the boom into the lazy bag and somehow, the leech line has ripped its way about 4ft up the sail! I drop the sail immediately to prevent any further damage. Luckily, I’m clipped in (they came tight twice) as my feet are skating around all over the place as I try and wrestle the sail down in the 25kn winds and pitching sea. I’ll wait until light to ascertain the full extent of the damage. In the middle of the Atlantic with 1000nm to go, I go and screw my main sail, good work me!

Day 10 – The worst day of the trip!

Day 11 – 06.01.09 Tuesday. GPS 119nm. N16 28.83 W44 29.59

Basically I said ‘bollox’ to it and went to bed last night after the sail ripped. I did get up a few times, more out of habit but certainly never set a timer!

I really need to optimize mydirection of travel so each mile counts but for some weird reason that direction will not sail well. The Hydrovane refuses to hold the course and the boat just keeps rounding up and being thrown all over the place. The other tack (gybe) sails perfectly holding course without a fault, but in the wrong direction obviously. A current perhaps? – weird!

Looking at the mainsail in the light, the 1st reef clew eye has pulled out of the sail and the reefing line must have pulled the leech line causing it to rip up the sail. I hope its fixable and not too expensive!

I reckon I can use the mainsail with the 2nd reef in (and third obviously), so all is not lost but I will be slower (if that’s possible) if the winds die off.

No sooner said its now late afternoon and I’m struggling goosewinged in about 7kn of wind – typical!

Early eve, I am finally going in the right direction. Probably because the swell has dropped right off due to the lack of wind I guess and the hydrovane is coping lovely – deep joy at last!

The highlight of the afternoon, I finally had a shave and damn it feels good! Don’t worry I took some ‘before’ pics, scary!

Day 12 – 07.01.09 Wednesday. GPS 120nm. N16 10.10 W46 26.20

Slept well again due to the calm weather. The time zone change is starting to become more and more apparent the further west we go. Its now getting dark until after 2100 and also getting light around 0930. I have no clue what the ‘local’ time should be as I haven’t bothered working it out. I live in UTC (boat time) where I eat when hungry and sleep when I’m tired – well try to.

Today was shave the head day and ‘shower’ in the cockpit. The water is around 29C and I’d love to go for a swim. Maybe, if I’m completely becalmed I’ll tie myself to the boat and jump in.

Shaving my head was really difficult because I don’t have an extension lead and the shaver only just reaches the cockpit. Also, the boat (as always) was all over the place. Lastly, I only have one small mirror onboard and nobody to tell me that I’ve missed bits. I’m sure I’ll find out in St Lucia soon enough (if it hasn’t grown back by then!).

The time is now 2130 and its just got dark. This is the flattest I’ve seen the ocean since I started out and the boat is ghosting along lovely. I thought I saw my first plane (none so far) until the flash of light appeared again five minutes later in the same place. In the distance there is an electrical storm that seems to be running parallel to me and is slightly down wind so I should be ok.

I call my parents to let them know I’m still alive and by the time I come back on deck the storm seems a lot closer. Watching closely I can see it is veering towards me despite there being no obvious change in wind direction in the wind or upper layers. The thick cloud seems to reach sea level and inside is constantly flashing, it looks like a night club in there! Evasive action! The hand held GPS, VHF and Sat phone go straight into the oven. Its on with the waterproofs as I bring the boat about, get down the poled genoa (at least I don’t have to reef the mainsail) and ‘Hove To’, choosing a tack that looks the least threatening. I should avoid the worst of it. I haven’t heard any thunder and this makes me even more worried as they are supposed to be more dangerous I think. I hate electrical storms, especially after it was either Aliisa or Quartermoon that told me about stopcocks on ‘plastic’ boats exploding straight out of the hull if struck by lightening and sinking in seconds!

There I was telling my mum how nice and calm it is and the next thing I’m stuffing my last bar of chocolate into the grab bag! The winds picked up to the usual 25kn and the worst of it passed a few miles off – thank god! I think its gonna be squally all night so while I’m at it I drop the mainsail, as the genoa is easier to deal with especially when you have just woken up!

The rest of the night was a complete nightmare with squall after squall and the seas getting lumpy and Doris being thrown around all over the place again. I managed to steal a few hours sleep at most and feel terrible this morning. I have decided I want a big steel boat that doesn’t get battered by every wave, something around 50 tons!

Day 13 – 08.01.09 Thursday. GPS 102nm. N15 41.09 W48 17.04

For some reason I have been craving chips over the last few days and so I thought maybe use my pressure cooker as a deep fat fryer? Just throw stuff in there and no washing up for a while at least. I didn’t have enough vegetable or olive oil so I mixed what I had of each together to get the depth. Then it was up on deck scrubbing and peeling spuds. They have started to sprout but I assume they are fine to eat? Anyway, in they go. After a while its clear that these chips are not going to be crispy, they cooked but like the inside of a chip without the crispy good bit. Is this because they are the wrong type of spuds for chips or am I just rubbish? I still ate them, ‘waste not, want not’ as mum says. A few pieces of salami and some garlic mayo and you have the greasiest nasty mess I’ve eaten in a while! I had to have a hot drink straight after to wash the grease away from inside!

Not much to report throughout the day. I spent the time trying to sleep without success because its way to hot. I also downloaded some fresh gribs and it looks like I’m being treated to a lot of rain followed by some high winds. Lucky me! I could probably use the wind as long as the seas don’t get to big – I hate swell!

The winds died off to about 5-7kn in the late afternoon and the sails drove me insane with the flapping and shaking the mast making a racket. Its almost like the genoa is winding me up because it knows I’m dependant on it to stay moving. And why is it they stop flapping the instant you go up on deck and look all innocent? I need some sleep…

Just before evening I found myself surrounded by squalls, (big scary looking black ones) approaching from behind and the starboard side. I just had time for a coffee and to get the genoa and its pole down before the first one hit. I rode it for a while enjoying speeds in the right direction to 8kn before I was forced to put her nose up into wind and wait until it had passed over. The next one immediately afterwards was not very windy at all but had loads of rain. By this time it was dark, as the last of the squall passed I was left with almost complete calm. There was barely a breeze to give me some lift with the engine on and it also meant I could play some music for a few hours without worrying about the batteries. The solar panels are largely shaded throughout the day as I’m heading east –west, doh!

I was on squall patrol until about 0300 and luckily they had all passed us a few miles either side, the worst we got was some rain. There is a lot of lightening about as well, I guesss due to the heat and rainy squalls mixing.

Finally, just after 0300, the wind filled in at exactly the right angle to sail my direct destination, so off with the engine. However, there was also two swells running at exactly 45 degrees to that which I wanted to sail. My first choice 280 degrees and my second, the opposite tack southward. Every time, I sailed my intended course she would pick up a little speed and then get thrown off the swell onto her beam ends. I dipped the boom and this was enough to tell me when to quit trying. At this stage I was out of my mind with frustration. I could go either north or south and probably beat back east if I wanted. In fact anywhere but west!

All that talk about trade wind sailing and lovely soft swells you can barely feel, all crap – it’s no different to Brighton on a bad day! With no sleep for two days enough was enough, I set the best course I could put up with and went to sleep. After two hours sleep between being bounced all over the place I am now approx 16nm north off course.

Still another day…

Before I sign off and wish you all well for your weekends. A few ‘Big Shoutz’ to friends for sending me SMS messages every now and again. It’s always good to hear from you guys and know who’s ‘tuning in’.

The VBZ crew, Crutey (The Ground Crew) , Kat (Good luck with PADI).
Rod Sue & ‘The Girls’, Jerry from Brighton.
Tweetsister thanks for the hugz – have we met?
Aliisa – Good to hear you are both well and enjoying Antigua. Quartermoon should be with you soon. C all U Guys soon!

Also, I just heard that Mathius of Carma has arrived safely in St. Lucia – see you there in a few days for a beer!

Luna – Where are you these days?