Chula - Log3 - a day in the life of.. 24hrs at sea

When does a sailors day begin? Typically midnight to midnight but that
doesn't seem quite right at sea, at midnight I'm already one watch in
and trying to grab a few hours sleep. 0900? Mornings are slow onboard
while crew catch up on sleep (and kids are wide awake!). I think a
sailors day begins at dusk, we all gather together in the cockpit for
our evening meal then set the sails for the night, say goodnight to the
kids and our watch pattern begins. So here it is, day 5 (or maybe 6,
it's merged a little!), at sea on passage between Las Palmas and Mindelo
with 8-18 knots of NE wind.

1800 dinner in the cockpit. Pork in pitta bread with fresh coleslaw and
salad. I'm pretty chuffed to be able to eat a full dinner, let alone be
able to prepare it in the galley! Even the kids wanted seconds! Normally
at least one of us is feeling queasy but I'm grateful we've had a good
trip so far.

1820 sunset. We drop the cruising chute and rig the main boom as a pole
for the jib, our sail configuration for the night. We don't want to risk
damaging the lighter sail.

1900 kids get ready for bed, crew wash up after dinner & general tidy up
before it gets too dark. Put on night watch clothes but quickly realise
its got so much warmer and I can ditch one of my fleeces!

1930 everyone asleep, peaceful evening. Listening to a book and watching
the waves go by.

1950 hailed on VHF by Big Bubble, it's lovely being in contact with
another ARC boat who we got to know well in Las Palmas. Discussed a boat
which isn't appearing in AIS.

2015 Lowenna joins me on watch, so much for the kids being asleep! She
would like to see the stars so I promise to wake her for my 0200 watch.

2018 I can see and hear the unknown vessel it's engine makes it sound
like a fairly small boat.

2030 the boat passed without incident. It's a clear night, we have a
'waxing gibbous' moon according to my app - a half moon which is due to
set at 0058. There is 10knots of warm wind blowing, just managing to
fill our sails pushing us along at 4.5knots, not fast but not worth
starting the engine yet.

With the warm night air in November (?!) comes the realisation of how
far we have actually come. We are off the coast of Mauitania, below
Eastern Sahara, wow!! Over 3000nm from home. It still doesn't quite seem
real. I've listened to podcasts and watched YouTube but nothing quite
prepares you for the first hand experience of being somewhere totally
and utally new and far away from land. Having got this far with grit and
determination, getting the boat ready plus the sea miles already
covered, is special. Sometimes you close your eyes and, with just sea
all round, we could be anywhere; between Pembroke and Padstow perhaps,
or Scilly and Lands End. But we are off Africa (!) sailing calmy and in
control towards Cape Verde.

2050 joined by the next watch - Tim, we'll share the next hour, then
I'll get some sleep. Lowenna is still up and very chatty!

2146 distance to waypoint at Mindelo 300nm exactly.

2200 my watch ends. Get ready for bed. I've found that I sleep better if
I get changed but I make sure the essentials are close by in case I'm
called on deck early. Jam myself into my 'at sea' bunk in the saloon and
set my alarm: 3hrs and 45mins.

0147 I wake up just before my alarm, feeling a little groggy but partly
rested. From the forecabin it sounds like we are doing great speed but
we've only done 15nm in 4 hours... The stars are out and we've picked up
speed for my watch. I try and wake Lowie so she can see the stars but
she's sleeping too deeply to wake, I'll try again another night.

0230 start tweaking the Hydrovane, the wind has shifted 40degrees and is
now due north. The Hydrovane was installed in Las Palmas so we're still
playing with it, sometimes it works, sometimes not, but we're doing well
tonight.

0240 get a second fleece, I like sitting at the back of the sprayhood
where I can feel the wind. No need for salopettes tonight though!

0400 Tim joins me in the cockpit for the start of his watch. Our watch
schedule includes an hour overlap before an hour on his own. Peaceful
company on a beautiful starlit night.

0505 last tweak of the Hydrovane and my watch has finished. Very tired
and looking forward to 3hrs 40mins sleep...

0830 woken up to help furl the Genoa and hoist the cruising chute. Our
conservative overnight sail configuration means we are now behind our
mini fleet. It's a beautiful morning with a good fresh breeze which is
flying the cruising chute well, maybe we'll catch up?!

0930 made myself a 'proper' coffee (a gift from Tim) I can't remember
the last time I felt well enough to have coffee on passage! The
conditions are great. Lowie is listening to an audio book (the Amber
Spyglass) Rowan is watching a movie (Lego Star Wars), Joe has used some
fresh water for a wash and is looking relaxed and Tim is asleep after
his watch.

1022 two flying fish spotted! They look like little fairies ending their
flight with a little splash back into the water.

1115 wind increased to 18knots so we decided to drop the cruising chute
and unfurl the genoa using the main boom as a pole. By the time we do
all this the wind has dropped again, argh! We reverse everything and are
now flying the cruising chute again... Annoying but all good practice I
guess. We are nervous about flying the kite in stronger winds so
practicing snuffing it in higher winds will give us more confidence later.

1130 I'm tweaking the cruising chute trying to balance the sails. Our
day watches are more relaxed as we're normally all up anyway. I enjoy
being out in the cockpit monitoring conditions and our course. Lowenna
is keeping me company doing a very complicated dot to dot (595 dots!).

1248 the music goes on (Jack Johnson) and the smell of bacon and egg is
coming from the galley. All crew are up and rested, perhaps this is the
start of the sailing day?

1308 I'm in the galley washing up when a shout comes from the cockpit
"all hands on deck". The chute is making an awful sound but luckily it's
just a sheet pulled free. We snuff the sail and sort the sheets. It's
back flying in under 5mins, great team work!

1353 Joe turns on the sat comms to get the daily update from Rally
Control. The weather forecast looks good, hopefully we won't have to use
the engine at all this passage! I also glance at the fleet positions, we
are about 8 from the back, we know we're one of the slowest boats so
that's fine. 3 boats have already finished, that surprises me as this is
probably our fastest passage yet, I just hope we get in before the
finish line closes - 1700 on Sunday, that'll be a good result :-)

1400 the kids are getting into the swing of life at sea, Rowan doing
some colouring in the saloon, normally out of the question on passage!
Both Lowie and Rowan are currently playing robot wars with their remote
control battle bots in the saloon - our nervous (of sea-sickness)
daughter is definitely gaining confidence of longer passages :-)

1530 I head to the forecabin to get some more sleep ahead of the night
watch schedule. Chula is sailing nicely and I can hear the water rushing
by on either side of me.

1700 I wake up naturally, the kids would like to watch a film with me
(The Golden Compass), Joe is making fajitas, Tim is on watch. And the
routine starts again... Although tonight we plan on doing it slightly
differently, the winds are so light that we want to keep up the cruising
chute. We all agree on a 2 on watch rota, with one able to snooze
enabling us to react quickly in case of a problem with the sail.

That's it, that's 24 hours onboard Chula. We just have one full day
left, we expect to reach Cape Verde on Sunday afternoon, fingers crossed
before the finish line closes at 1700. It's been a great day sailing but
I'm also looking forward to seeing land and exploring Mindelo in a few
days time :-)

Written by Jo