Daily Logs

Elisa - blogje 'we zullen doorgaan'

We zullen doorgaan.Zomaar ineens zing ik het lied van Ramses Shaffy “ we zullen doorgaan” Ik ken eigenlijk alleen maar deze ene regel van het lied en vervolg deze regel met tra la la la la la la la en dan zing ik weer “ we zullen doooooorgaan”. Ik moet mezelf beheersen om het niet heel hard te zingen omdat ik dan de bemanning wakker zou maken. Het is 02.15 uur en de Elisa vaart met 8,4 knoop door het water en ze gaat maar door en door en door. Wat dat betreft is het lied van Ramses heel toepasselijk en omdat de Elisa zo heerlijk vaart, de hemel vol sterren staat, het toilet vandaag is gerepareerd, de zeilen zijn gecontroleerd, er nog genoeg proviand is en de stemming buitengewoon goed heb ik de neiging om heel hard te zingen “we zullen door gaan”. Het. read more...

Malaika - Log Day 8

Monday, 28.11.20011, 19.30 UTCNot so many changes in our sea life.Watch after watch, cooking, books,tacking downwind.Still not enough wind to sail at least 9-10 kts.Checking rigging and boat stuff twice a day, everything ok.Sometimes at horizon we see lights at the night, or sails at the day.Today nothing around. At the deck each morning we have few flying fishes. Pawel. read more...

Engelen - Day 8

Big news from Engelen! Yesterday at around 7pm we reached our first way point marking the completion of about a third of the journey. Just before nightfall, and under full spinnaker, we crossed the 20 degree longitude mark. In many ways this is the start of the actual crossing. So we had a cold beer, took down the spinnaker, jibed and changed course for St. Lucia.In doing so, we acted in accordance with a naval saying to "head south until the butter melts, then turn to starboard". While this phrase has been around for centuries, many things in sailing have changed. This might be the space to draw out some of them relating to food aboard.So, first of all, our butter is not actually melting. We do have a fridge on board. Even though the smell it produces when opened is numbing, it allows. read more...

Lone Star - 28 Nov - Day 9 - Just Another Day In Paradise

Just another day in paradise. Beautiful clear skies, gently rolling seas and great shipmates. What more could you ask for? Well have no fear because here comes Captain Ron; woops I meant Captain Craig. I, a lowly deck hand, had no idea what wonderful opportunities awaited on this most anticipated of voyages. Let’s see, bed making 101. I’m doing pretty well with that one. Or how about the fine art of sail mending. Sail mending is what happens when the pooch decides to get intimate with the head sail. Any more about the pooch and the censors would have a problem. The sail mending however was successful and we are proudly flying our double headsail. Then there’s cooking. I have a long way to go on that one but I’m trying. Finally no relaxing Atlantic crossing would. read more...

Kantara - Strange events at sea 18.37.31N 34.22.11W

Hi all,   We had a series of strange events today. First of all Jasons bedroom was ransacked overnight-pants towels shirts and bedding was everywhere but then we realized that ever since I was thrown out of his boudoir things had not been the same in that part of the boat. The reason for my ejection was based on a false accusation that I had been stealing his sweets that he had been hiding in the cupboard. Jason then went on to dress like a pole dancer for the day-which of course has alarmed his shipmates. We have kept him on the helm for most of the day so that we could see his hands! Another strange phenenon is that everytime Andy sleeps the battery charge plummets.Either he has electronic instruments in his bedroom that require lots of power or all of his shipmates rush to. read more...

Nix -

Why do things always happen at night!   It all started with some great spinnaker sailing in 18-20 knots of wind and a good angle towards St Lucia.  James enjoyed the 'best sailing of his life so far' as winds picked up and, on watch with Nico, clocked nearly 14 kts in the pitch dark.  Down below the noise was intense as the water roared by and every sinew of the boat sceached and groaned.  Could it continue?  Chris, in anticipation of a call for hands on deck, tried unsuccessfully to sleep in his lifejacket.  But first, George was rudely awakened as a wave broke over the bow and water poured through the hatch.  Only partially closing it, and after changing his wet bedclothes, he got a second dousing.  Lesson in there somewhere.   But then. read more...

Elisa - Dag 7 & 8: Weekend der spijsvertering..

Allereerst mijn excuses voor het feit dat ik het me permitteerde om een dagje over te slaan met het blog. De frustratie over de falende SSB deed mijn inspiratie verdampen. Gelukkig lukte het vandaag om een hele berg oude mail te verzenden en te ontvangen, zodat frisse moed mijn deel is. Vandaar dus hierbij een verslag van 2 dagen. Frappant daarbij is dat we het logboek van Jeroen moesten raadplegen om ons te herinneren wat we gisteren überhaupt gedaan hebben. Dat geeft wel aan hoezeer het leven aan boord uit het hier en nu bestaat en hoe snel de dagen voorbijvliegen zonder dat er echt veel gebeurt. De dag van gisteren laat zich dan ook samenvatten in slechts drie kernwoorden: rustig, vers voedsel en flessenpost.Rustig was het de hele dag wat betreft het weer. Het beperkte beetje. read more...

Clearlake II - Day 9 - Injury

Current position "19:16.1N 34:57.5W”. We had a reasonable wind last night and good sailing this am, with the spinnaker up from 6:30 am, we’ve made good progress. We continue to have problems receiving emails so don’t really know how we’re doing but we’re happy with our progress and our trajectory directly towards St Lucia. By our estimate we’ll be half way at lunch-time tomorrow. We saw some small threads coming from the spinnaker at lunchtime so took it down to inspect. In practice nothing was wrong so we re-launched it. In the process of launching James got rope burns and lost the spinnaker sock rope. In seeking to retrieve this we noticed some new damage to the spinnaker which we suspect came from the sock somehow that needs to be taped up.. read more...

Brizo - WCC Log Day 9 – Monday 28th Nov: Am loving this journey (Pat):

Sun - have had several overcast cloudy days and one squall when we went down into the saloon to avoid the rain, and looked at each others photograph albums – but has certainly been getting warmer and warmer as we head further south. No longer need fleeces on watch at night or duvets. During the day it can get very hot but because we are sailing we are able to stay cool by catching the breeze or sit in a shady spot. Sea – am getting very used to the continual rocking and rolling and just love the sound of the breaking waves rushing by or soft lapping against the hull. The big Atlantic rollers either pick us up and sweep us along or if we change direction and catch them side on – send us reeling hard from side to side. Its also full of fish – but to date we have. read more...

Ensemble - Log Day 9: 28 November 2011: More Fish!

The weather's warming up so Magali's decided to spend some time on the sun bed!Sailing has been good with a following sea and winds of between 12 and 18 knots.Ensemble has been a cooking frenzy today - with home made potato truffle pizza, carrot cake and salt crusted dorado all on the menu.Speaking of fish - we landed five dorado (mahi mahi) today. Two have found their way whole into the oven for the salt crusted dinner and the other two filleted (we threw the fifth one back and decided to take in the rods for a while). Garry has been flat out filleting and needs a rest!Magali is working through 'Desperate Housewives' in between writing her cookbook - while Louise, Gary and I slowly work our way through the library.CheersDave. read more...

Great Escape of Southampton - Day 9 and all at sea again.

Did anything did happen? Since the log shows only 138 miles between 8am on the 27th and 8am today not enough did happen, sorry to all you Great Escape cheerleaders dancing in front of your computers urging us on every morning. The spinnaker was up most of the day but not the wind to match, still the cloud of blue and yellow looks very pretty and professional.After yesterday passing through the Atlantic cross roads seeing 3 boats all at the same time, Carrot just metres (not too close Phil) behind us we had the ocean to ourselves again leaving everyone to get on with reading, sleeping, playing with ipads and of course eating. Eating is such a useful activity apart from sustenance and enjoyment it gives us lots to talk about, what to eat, who’s going to prepare it and of course how. read more...

Hunny Pot - Day 8

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Elphin II - Update day 8

Hi everybody,By special request for more regular updates here we go. As you will see we are moving steadily up through the field of boats, as I write this at the navigation table I can see seawater SWOOOSHING past the port hole as we exceed 12knts, we are creaming along with our spinnaker and main sail up. Couple of incidents during the night requiring attention but all dealt with effeciently by the crew. We only get one update per day as regards our position so sometimes we are out of date quickly. This morning though we had climbed to 95th overall but more importantly 7th in our class so TEAM ELPHIN are feeling good. But as always when things are going well things also go wrong so alarm this morning when we tried to start the generator to charge the batteries but it wouldn't. read more...

Island Wanderer - Day 9 - 18:26N, 34:32W

Well into day 9 now  and dashing along at 7-8 knots and almost in the right direction! Gennaker up during the day and poled out genoa at night is working well. Scurvy crew have been oversleeping  from time to time and delaying the  morning hoist! Keelhauling and Cat-a-nine tales have been threatened for tomorrow. Last night we celebrated 1000 miles from the start with a sunset G and T . Not sure if this had anything to do with spotting unidentified  late night flashes in the southern skies? Consensus is  there is life out there . Derek and Peter have been doing the daily rounds of graunch monitoring, sheet inspecting and keeping us all ship shape and well maintained with 3 in 1 and a rubber mallet!Avril is knitting loo roll holders out of Lesley’s wool.. read more...

Butterfly -

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Emilija - Day 8

.hmmessage P { PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } BODY.hmmessage { FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; FONT-SIZE: 10pt }  Not a lot happening today. Boat is a lot happier with twin head sails poled out than main and headsail. Less wind so we think we should have gone more south. Its good getting the position reports every day so we can compare how others are doing.Its a bit disapointing not having the parasailor and having been up the mast twice to try and reattach the block for the halyard we have given up until some of the bruises go away. Gerry the rigger should buy a lotto ticket as he was up on it in Las Palmas. Mind you flying it on 25 tons in 33 knots of breeze might not have helped the bracket on the mast that broke.We are presently. read more...

Cochise - 28/11/11

day 9. goodbye spinnaker Ok, OK your blogger wasn't thinking, and we had a minor translation issue, but we did enjoy the Swedish celebration of ADVENT yesterday evening! It was nice for the guys to take a few minutes out and think of their friends and families back home as well. Conditions last night and this morning have been marginal between using the spin, or poled out genoa. Overnight we went with the genoa, and hoisted the spin at first light with the position reports showing our rival had taken 15 miles out of our lead so the pressure was on. At midday there was a loud bang and the sail blew out leaving just the luff and foot tape on two sides, so now we are back to the genoa. (we do have 2 more spi's, but will preserve them for a bit). Tonight we will cross the point where there. read more...

Grateful Red - day eight

been a great day of sailing - wing on wing all the way. sunny and warm. boat is cruising at 7 to 8.5 knots. starting to sail a great circle route to st lucia. hard to imagine how the columbus crew felt sailing five to ten knots to the edge of earth. waiting for the big fall off over the edge with no way to go upwind and return to the canaries. all we are waiting for is our next cold beer. refrig can cool about eight beers a day - two per crew. electrical management is crucial to this key operation. an obvious management responsibility.looking forward to seeing the moon arisin' in the east tonight. be a fortnight of moons to sail by. Might keep us on the straight and narrow instead of darkness and no horizon as we wander a bit in our driving. hoping for another night of winds 15 to 20. read more...

Diamonds Are Forever - Blog 28/11/11

Diamonds Blog - Day 8 - 28/11/11 - Getting hot hot hot!Hi all, So its day 8 in the big brother boat...it is 10 in the morning and Marie is on the helm dancing to rod steward; Harriet, Beatrix and Bev are sleeping peacefully and Kirsty is making a cheese sandwich in the galley for our helmswoman...Last night we put in a course change to head more south to avoid an area of lighter winds to the north along our route, we will straighten back up for St Lucia soon though. Our daily run is still good but the change in course will not have taken much from our distant to the finish stats, currently 1866 nm. We are all looking forward to our party named "2030" for when we cross 30 degrees west and 20 degrees north. Having ducked south of 20 degrees north last night we are just waiting on our. read more...

Lancelot II - Day 8

'Lancelot 2' at sea, 16'46.0N 37'41.8W28th November 2011  1618 UTC Speed ? 7.5 - 9.5 knotsWind ? E15-22 Hello again! Life aboard has not changed too much in the last 24 hours, we have been surfing are way along on a fantastic 15-20 knot Easterly trade wind, big rolling seas catching us up and propelling us into double figure boat speeds. The crew have all been getting on really well, they are a great bunch of guys, lots of different personalities, there is always something to talk about. The sailing abilities aboard are very good as well, the helming from everyone has come on leaps and bounds, at times the confused swell is not that easy to steer in but everyone seems to be taking it in their stride and we are barreling a nice course towards St Lucia!That said,. read more...

Ninfea - Ninfea Log November 28

.hmmessage P { PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } BODY.hmmessage { FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; FONT-SIZE: 10pt } Ninfea daily log – November 28 Eight days at sea Yesterday, Sunday November 27, has been a very special day. We finally passed the fateful 20°N into the 19°N and the breeze we have been looking for has finally materialized. We maintain a very respectable 7 kn speed with 12-15 kn wind, often even venturing in the 8 kn speed. Life on board is like wine, it gets better with time. We continue to enjoy our card games and discovered that Roberto Jr. likes to cheat. Olli, our finnish guest delights us with impossible card tricks, and lunch was a  delicious “coniglio alla cacciatora” (rabbit in tomato. read more...

Peat Smoke - Day Eight Curry Night

Delicious curry, Chicken Dopiaza, with rice, homemade chapatis and raita cooked by Paul Graham! Best meal so far!   From crew of Peat Smoke Peat Smoke8898. read more...

Hanami II - Day 9: Gastronomy amd Watches

Last night we had fresh (very!) Mahi Mahi lightly sautéed in butter on a bed of peppers, onions and courgettes, followed by the skippers specialty, banana flambe (in rum)! Previous recipes have had the Mahi Mahi slowly baked/steamed in white wine on a bed of thinly sliced potatoes, onions and tomatoes, with a touch of ginger.Today we baked fresh bread, and are currently working on tonight's menu.I'll try to remember to mention the various menus as we progress.One point of correction to yesterday's blog, sailing at 130 degrees will add about 40% to the distance, not 'nearly half', but broadly the message is the same. If a boat was able to sail on a reach at 150 degrees (difficult with the swell), then it will add 20%, and require between 1 and 2 knots extra speed to equal a. read more...

Mojomo - Offshore Jenga Tournament

21:17N 30:56W speed 7ish knots wind 15knots, about 1762nm to St Lucia.Hurrah! Nick fixed the Yellowbrick using parts from an old Ipod, or so he says, and we’re back on-line. Look, that’s us just there, near the red line with arrows on it.Actually Nick didn’t take the Ybrick to bits at all. I just put that in. Sorry. And especially sorry to the yellowbrick peeps who must’ve gone bonkers at the thought of Chainsaw Nick randomly dismantling the thing. It just randomly started working again (says a pal by text) as boaty things tend to do.Beautiful sunny day, so we made fresh bread for lunch and then had a Jenga tournament in the afternoon. Yes really, proper Jenga with the wooden brick towers. The crew didn’t really believe that I’d have Jenga on board,. read more...

Aniara II - Nov. 28

28 November (15.00 local time) Today it´s really hot, it must be far above 30 degrees. Water temperature exceeds 25 degrees, so guess if we are longing for the Caribbean beaches. The final countdown is on for our fresh meat . We believe the best-before-date for our remaining meat soon is over us. Yesterday we checked every single piece of our tomatoes, carrots, potatoes and all fruits. Some of them contained more small and strange animals than vitamins. We got our second mackerel today (a GIANT one) and we have plenty of lemons left so we are not worried at all for our future menus.  . read more...

Glass Slipper - Blog

 Sunday, Nov 13 – Our crew begins to arrive – Tom Carbaugh (owner and skipper) from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania USA, Ben Jackson (first mate) an up and coming professional seaman from Gibraltar, Tarryn Cross (Ben’s girl friend and our chef) from Durban, Republic of South Africa, Guy Duncombe (old friend and sailing companion of Tom’s) from Leicestershire, UK and Bruce Mulvey (an old friend of Tom’s) from Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania USA. Glass Slipper is an Oyster 53, cutter rig.   Tuesday, Nov 15 – After getting acquainted – actually everyone knew each other except for Bruce we begin attending the ARC classes. They were all very informative and helpful. Tom had recently completed a circumnavigation of which Guy and Ben had helped on a. read more...

Glass Slipper - FW: Saturday, November 26, 2011

 Well we just finished a wonderful spaghetti dinner cooked by our chef Tarryn Cross. She a very good cook, very pleasing to look at (Ben you’re a lucky man) and very helpful. Tonight approximately 1500 hours we will have our daily cocktail hour – the skipper enjoys a Heineken so we’ll all sacrifice and join in one with him. Today is the last football game of the season for Penn State (they’re playing Wisconsin) where Tom graduated from. Feels funny not being home and watching the game with close friends, but I must admit we are having a lot more fun.  We are very lucky in having a very compatible crew. Everyone looks for things to do – and we quite good at helping each other no matter the task.One thing that has sort of struck me is the names of. read more...

Glass Slipper - FW: Sunday, Nov 27, 2011

 Well it’s Sunday, a gorgeous day – we’ve cleaned the boat inside and out thanks to Tom and Tarryn. We are making good time despite our delayed start due to engine trouble – so far we’ve traveled 503 nm. Since it’s Sunday we are dressing up a bit for a wonderful meal thanks to Tarryn. We having a wonderful chicken and brocolli casserole.   Guy and Bruce have been enjoying afternoon tea on Bruce’s 1500 to 1800 watch. They even have some proper English biscuits. Ben usually is asleep at that point and isn’t as much interested in the tea as he is the biscuits. Bruce has tagged him as the boat’s “cookie monster.”  Tom continues to be a competent skipper and gracious host.   I have a brain teaser for you. read more...

Glass Slipper - Monday, Nov 28, 2011

First here’s the answer to yesterdays brain teaser. The giraffe – you open the door, let him in, close the door. The elephant – you open the door let the giraffe out, put the elephant in and close the door. The animal kingdom conference – well of course the elephant was missing – you forgot to let him out of the refrigerator. The crocodiles you jump in and swim across – we already told you that all the animals were busy attending the conference. Don’t feel bad according to Anderson Consulting only most 6 to 8 year olds get these questions right.  Today is a commonwealth holiday in Pennsylvania (there are only four commonwealths in the US – Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia – one republic – Texas –. read more...

Spindrift of Jersey - ARC Log - Day 9

18:26.92N 30:14.70W The fish we caught yesterday was delicious. Nothing caught today so far but we still have time before dinner. During the night the rope that holds the headsail broke. It had worn through where it passes through the pole that is holding the sail in position so it doesn't flap when the waves roll the boat and knock the wind out of it. We need to be more vigilant in looking for signs of chafe on the ropes. This meant that a metal pole over 3 metres long is waving around the foredeck threatening anything in its way. Neil was on watch on his own and quickly rolled up the genoa so it was safe and was then joined by Chris A and then Ken who had heard the parting of the rope and subsequent activity. When the pole was tamed we decided to leave repairs till daylight and sailed. read more...

Paraty - TAG 8 - 1207 sm

Seit 48 Stunden steht der Spinnaker, es läuft gut. Das Boot rollt ziemlich, aber der Speed ist gut (7-8 Knoten, surfend bis 10 Knoten). Trotzdem besteht wenig Aussicht auf eine nennenswerte Klassementverbesserung. Wir haben jedoch ohnehin andere Problemgebiete mit denen wir uns beschäftigen: Gasversorgung, Süsswasservorrat und diverse Probleme mit der Elektronik...   Gestern gab es noch Tunfisch-Makis die vorzüglich schmeckten. Die Fischabteilung hatte darüber hinaus einen grossen Fisch an der Angel, der sich jedoch noch rechtzeitig losreissen konnte, schön für ihn. Die Vorräte werden schon deutlich weniger, die frischen Lebensmittel sind aufgebraucht, aber Peter unser 3-Haubenkoch hat alles im Griff, da spielt es auch wenig Rolle, dass der. read more...

Emilija - day 6&7

Sat 26 Nov. Sunny 25c . Using Twin Head Sails - Spinakar Pole to port Boom to Starboard to stabilise -speed about 6 knots. Distance to St Lucia 1972 Distance sailed 911. Boat has a permanant gentle roll. Fresh Fruit and Veg almost all used up . Crew all well. Sun 27 Nov Sunny 25c speed 5 knots we would like to have more wind. After 7 days run 1062nm covered thats about 150 a day . No other boats sightedJimmy, Noel, Brenda, Martin ,Clare & Jenny . read more...

Minaxi - So... How does this sail work?

That's what three Danish boys in the Cape Verde's asked us when they saw our rigging. We told them it was a Square sail for going sideways, and yes they did believe us for a second :-)But in fact, it's our Roller furling & Genoa sail strapped to the side of the boat after our forestay broke on day 5, 585nm out of Las Palmas. After a 2 hour Chinese Fire Drill we got the mast re-rigged with several halyards and the roller furling strapped to the life lines. Under motor for 3 days saw us safely into Sao Vincente, Cape Verde's.We now hope repairs to be complete and we can get back under way by the end of this week. Hopefully we will re-join the Arc in St. Lucia before the parties end!Crew of MinaxiDSC_0477-1. read more...

Skyelark of London - Letter to the Managing Director. Customer Appreciation 3.0

Dear Andrew,Too many days have passed since our last communiqué; I do hope that you have not given up on our correspondence, and our faithful yellow-brick transponder helps to bridge the gap that often seems to be growing with each passing hour.First off, hearty congratulations to your weather team Stateside, and naturally, to World Cruising Club for a particularly astute piece of outsourcing. The Skyelark Charters Onboard Navigation Division continues tobe astounded that Weather Routing Inc are able to generate a patch of reliable trade winds that moves steadily westward with the fleet across the Atlantic. It is truly a remarkable feat that even as far back as a week ago many within SCOND would have deemed impossible. Good old American know-how.Back on-board, with 'the trades'. read more...

EH01 - LOG DAY 8 - We (almost) got our knot back...

Yesterday (day) saw some pretty fine sailing. We finally managed to free ourseves of the pesky prop wrap (confirmed with use of camera strapped to boat hook over the side, got some awesome footage too) and we found that lost knot of speed we had been missing for nearly a week. What a differance it makes to be cruising at 8-9 kts and easily touching 10 and 11 with a little surf without trying compared to the previous few days with speed around 7 - 8 sometimes 9! Its a bummer as this 'lost knot' equals something like 24 miles a day or a 125 miles over race so far; coincidentally near what we trail behind the leaders....yes I am going to claim this one!!Yesterday night was a toughy though. winds averaged around 22 kts and regularly gusted up to 24/25 with a few peaks around 27 so hard work. read more...

Sibilation - Day 8

Noon to noon run = 161nm.   Rodney was back as a fully functioning crew member last night, which gave us all the welcome few minutes break needed throughout each watch. The watch system on the whole seems to be working well, although everyone dreads the 3-6am shift. Only milkmen should be out of bed at this time of night/morning!   Nick and Jeff have been trying to film below the waterline ‘for safety reasons’ with my waterproof camera. I have warned them that if it goes over the side, so will they! The footage is quite good though to see the keel racing through the water.   Nick has chosen the music for today, and has been blaring out Jerusalem, followed by some other motivational classics. The chess competition has started too, which Jeff is now regretting. read more...

Kealoha 8 - Light winds and trying times

After a very trying day yesterday with winds between 5-10 knots making sailing slow and difficult, we had to deal with the after effects with the ARC results for the day.Thanks to a complex Excel programme designed by Mandy and Tim we are able to analysis everyone’s results in a whole variety of ways. Bottom line is we did badly being the 104th best boat in distance to finish achieved in the day.  Still we have to move on. Daniel and David have been experimenting with the bread maker and each day the quality of the loaf improves, but there is some way to go to match the excellent freshly caught mahi mahi and stir fried vegetables prepared by Kate.Today has been the hottest to date with a sea temperature of 27.5 C and air temperature of 29 C. Most of the day has been spent. read more...

One Hull - Ned's Blog - 26th Nov

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One Hull - DAY 6 The Spinnaker Change - 26th Nov

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One Hull - ARC Blog - 26th Nov

Bob Watson Blog.   The Arc Race started last Sunday and the few days before I was wondering what I had let myself in for, as a 67 year old retired senior citizen with only 5 days sailing beginners course under my belt 7 weeks ago on the Solent.Then I think positive again and get ready for my Atlantic Sailing Adventure where I will be sailing for the first time with my son, Skipper Danny, and experience first-hand why he loves sailing so much. Today is day 6 and I have now come through 5 very hard days of working in watch shifts of 4 hours in the day/3 hours in the night non-stop . My body and mind is settling into the vast changes. I awaited seasickness but I did not suffer like some. Lucky me!I have been the chef, the engineer, the cleaner and the deckhand this week and I will be. read more...

Challenger 4 - Day 9 - 29th November

Day 9 and we have reached the half way point so in celebration Pam has arranged a party for us.As instructed we all brought fancy dress specially for the occasion.Most of us chose the nautical theme of pirates but one or two were inspired to take a less conventional route.Pam dressed as a massive whoopee cushion,Dave as a snow man and Stef as a furry tigger - they must surely have been the hottest, while Skipper and Di chose to go down the minimalist route of Hawaiian girls - one with a bare bottom and the other with coconut shies for top - I'll leave it to your imagination as to which wore which!Steve was a blue centipede and Phil came as old mother Hubbard complete with full make-up and stubble.Sam Lamb was very innovative as a bunch or grapes which caused much chaffing between the. read more...

One Hull - ARC Blog - 26th Nov

Last night we used up our last fresh meat for dinner that we had brought frozen in our cold box. This means the job of making tonight's dinner is much easier for me; the main challenge is opening the tins!We still have fresh fruit and veg left - we are currently in danger of whacking our heads on some apples and oranges suspended above the main table in large nets. Also, some bananas are languishing in a cupboard until they ripen- then they to will be hung up- ready for the picking, so to speak.   We saw more flying fish today (and last night). Something hit Nigel on the shoulder last night. When he shone his torch on the deck, there was a flying fish there! At 25cm long, and with a 25 -30cm wingspan, they are about the size of amackerel. When I looked closer, I saw the secret. read more...

Annie - Log Day 9 by Peter

The Truth about those "mini squalls" and Another Mini Disaster.As anybody knows I'm the last person to contradict Graham, especially on his own boat but you know, just between us, he is prone to understatement. He mention a "few mini squalls" but in fact there was a whole row of these menacing figures in black queuing up across the horizon to give us a pasting and then they came in one after another like a line of happy slappers - bang - bang -bang, while my shipmates scurried off down below out of the pouring rain and even the Hydrovane gave up usual service on the grounds that it was all simply too confusing - one moment absolute calm and ghost like breezes that scuttle around the clock followed explosively by 30-40 knots of raining blows - come on. The 5th big boss squall on the. read more...

Great Bear - 28/11-2011 Great Bear - Sol, vind og havsalt

Så blev det den 28 november. Ikke fordi der er noget særligt med den dato, men det er nu engang den dato det er i dag. Vi har været på vandet i 8 dage, men det føles nu mere som 4.   Søkulleren viser sine små tegn ved nogle af besætningsmedlemmerne ind i mellem. Det er dog værst ved Jørgen M. som sidder og snakker om at han vil lærer at binde et pælestik, pæleorm, solstik og myggestik.  Dagens citat kom ligeledes fra Jørgen M. og lyder således: "Jeg har fået mig en skidttæller, men hvor i skridtet skal den sidde?"   Vi har hørt at Tao har fanget en fisk på 23 kg men Henrik fangede til formiddag en fisk på 43 kg!!! Den hoppede desværre af inden. read more...

Arabella - 28/11/11

Arabella (222) pos 12noon 20 06 N 030 25 W. read more...

Lancelot - Day 8 - A Test of Charachter

Well Morning All As the above subject may hint we have had a fairly interesting last 24 hrs. We spent all day yesterday trucking along at good speeds and really putting the miles in, then it got dark! This turned out to be no problem until about 0330am when we had the dreaded kite wrap. Unlike most kite wraps (where the spinnaker wraps around the wire at the front of the boat) where you wrestle with them for a minute or so and it comes out this one was something different all together.  This kite wrapped itself so tight that there was no way of pulling it out,  even when pockets went up the rig in the dark to try and physically unwrap it. After and hour and a half the decision was reached that the only was to clear it and stop it damaging the boat anymore was to cut the. read more...

Matilda - Day 7 - Fair winds, fair weather

For the past two days we have been getting great winds in exactly the direction we need for St Lucia, touch wood that it continues. However, still waiting for the boredom and well rested feeling that was promised - way too much has been happening and there is always a heap of stuff to do. Yesterday morning there was a bit of excitement when the pole was found to have a great gash in it around the beak (where the rivets are) following various ingenious modifications to the Parasailor set up. We had already decided to abandon this particular configuration but not before the damage had occurred. For a while it was feared that we would have to abandon poling out altogether, but fortunately a way was worked out of securing it safely and it now seems stronger than ever - so we are all feeling. read more...

One Hull - Spinnakers and Riddles! - Thu, 24 Nov 2011

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Jacana of Ardmay - 27/11/11

Dear family and friends,   Today started off very well weather once again very hot and sunny (sorry to rub it in!) Fred and I on the 6 am to 10 am shift, so we got our chores done and cleaned up the decks a wee bit, washed hair in sea water which is at a temperature of 26 degrees! Bigger flying fish landing on the decks now, still don’t look good enough to eat. After reading, (thanks again for the book Paul and Linda it was excellent) playing cards we decided we had better check on our fresh supplies, not too bad considering this was our 8th day, some tomatoes, pears, chicken and pork had to be fed to the fish, the rest we cooked off for dinner and will eat over the next couple of days, but that is good news as we can then start fishing!! Just over 300 miles and we will be. read more...

Sapphire II - 27 Nov 2011, Day of Rest?

It was agreed, by acclamation, that on Sundays we would treat ourselves to something: to make the day special, don’t y’u know, and break the routine The day was special in a number of ways:- the sails – running with just the MPS at the start of the day, from 4:30 AM onwards we sailed with the main and Genoa, wing on wing plus the jib;  our course saw us go South by a full one degree from 18deg40 to 17deg40;  we maintained a speed over the ground of between 6 and 8 knots giving us a VMG (Velocity Made Good) towards our next waypoint averaging better than 7 knots; and the temperature: we had to put back up the Bimini to provide some shelter from the hot sunshine that we enjoyed for the entire day. Dinner was extra special. We had barbecued ribeye beef steaks. read more...

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