Daily Logs

Northern Child - Daily log #7 - 27th November 2011

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 154nmDaily Logged Miles - 174nmDistance to Go - 1603nmLunch -Goats Cheese and Crispy Bacon SaladHappy Hour - Rum and Coke with Cheese and Palma Questedeos Dinner - Marinated Lamb with a Mango Salsa and Bombay Potatoes Wind - 8 - 15 knots from the E to ENEToday marks a big day for the crew of Northern Child - seven days atsea, the end of the first week, probably seven days longer at sea thanthe majority of the crew have ever sailed in one go before. All othervessels have now disappeared off the horizon and we are alone in theAtlantic apart from the sun and the stars at night. This is a specialplace as for most people technology rules our busy lives at home. Weworry about who we need to call and what emails we haven't replied to,but out here, you can switch off. read more...

Sapphire II - Sapphire II 26 November Eldorado

The boats in the fleet report their position, wind and sea conditions and noteworthy comments, by radio to the ARC Coordinator on a daily basis. Today was Annabelle’s first time to make the report for Sapphire. For her concluding remark she was noting that sadly, unlike a couple of other boats, we had had no success in catching fish. Right at that moment she became aware of the commotion up on deck and announced to the 50+ boats on the SSB net that we had a fish on the line! And indeed we had. So with Gordon working the rod and the crew getting excited and taking photographs, we “landed” a three and a half pound Dorado. Descaled and cleaned, the fish was seasoned and put aside until evening. At dusk we grilled the fish on the barbecue and had freshly baked bread as part. read more...

Lone Star - 27 Nov - Day 8 - Ballooner Repaired and Back up

We raised our repaired Ballooner sail this morning and are now heading directly toward St. Lucia with two head sails supported by two poles. Hope to be able to run it for the rest of the voyage.Craig. read more...

Diamonds Are Forever - 27/11/11 Day 7

Diamonds Blog - 27/11/11 - Day 7 - teabags, toilet paper and team spirit!Hi all, Another good day of progress with a daily run of 142 nautical miles under our belt and an important milestone of now being less than 2000nm to St Lucia! Don't grab your calculators just yet though as there is another 2 weeks of sailing and winds to get through first before we plan our arrival time!Last night we had a fab dinner of buritos cooked by Marie with the last of our fresh meat that we bought frozen and vacuum packed in Las Palmas. We played some crew games after dinner and had a really good laugh about the highlights & funny points of the trip so far! We are already planning our next milestone party for when we cross 30 degrees west (hopefully tomorrow eve) as we have a surprise parcel from our. read more...

Great Escape of Southampton - Day 8 (almost certainly)

 With all this aimless chatter you probably wonder what we do all day. So do we!  Well we sail and chat aimlessly with Paul and with purpose with anyone else.  David is on book no. 4 and Paul and Peter (aren’t they a couple of dickie birds?) are playing cribbage with Paul the clear, outstanding and obvious, in a meek kind of way, winner so far; but it’s not even half way through an 18 day tournament.Someone has stolen the moon.   Consulting Mr Reed’s almanac the theft is temporary and full service will be returned next week.  Yet what does this mean to the intrepid crew of convicts?  The night sky is very dark (doh), which brings a very different perspective to life after sunset.  The brightest light is Jupiter, reflecting on. read more...

Cheeki Rafiki - Day 8 Cheeki Rafiki

hi everyone, my first blog of any kind so here goes. The whole crew get on well together with no signs of the tensions of close living we have been warned about. Also we are all in the best of health. Some of the crew have been feeling a bit queasy from time to time but this is now reduced to occasions when a lot of time is spent down below on the computer for instance.No-one has felt bad enough to be calling Hughey on the great white telephone. Spirits are very good with Ilya finally solving a puzzle we had all answered 3 days ago! -he got it when he reverted to Russian. At 12.15 we seem to have turned the corner and are now heading as westerly as we can in more or less a straight line to St Lucia.We have 1646 miles to go. The ideal direction is 278 degrees but the wind  is. read more...

Jacana of Ardmay - 26/11/11

Hi Everyone,   Another lovely day very hot and sunny, fortunately we get some shade from the sails pm to protect our fair skin!! No sighting of any boats today, a first. A delicious vegetarian dinner tonight prepared by young Andrew, the skipper thought we were eating too much meat and that's why he was not sleeping, we think it had more to do with the clocks going back 2 hours !!! Week 3 I feel there will be plenty of vegetarian eating, back to meat tomorrow. Must go have some dishes to wash on the poop deck.   Alison          . read more...

Paraty - TAG 7 - 1027 Seemeilen...Spinnakersegeln

Gestern gab es überhaupt keinen Wind...wir haben vor uns aus gedümpelt. Wir haben dann einen kurzen Badestopp gemacht und uns in das 25 Graden warmes Wasser getraut. Festmacher mit Fender über Bord, damit wir keinen verlieren....das war ein gutes Gefühl für die Mannschaft.  Danach sind wir 3 Stunden mit Motor gefahren um die Energieversorgung sicherzustellen. Da wir den Hauptmotor auch, oder besser gesagt hauptsächlich, für das Aufladen der Batterien einsetzen, konnten wir uns keine Nacht unter Motor leisten, weil wir im Schnitt mit 4 Stunden Motor kalkuliert haben. Bisher lagen wir weit unter dieses Durchschnitt, so dass wir uns diese Motorstunden gegönnt haben.  Gegen Abend haben wir dann den schweren  Spinnaker herausgeholt und. read more...

Happy Cat - Main up again

Finally had a quiet enough patch to go up the mast 'again', and attach an external halyard. While its not great fun swinging about, 20m up the mast, the view is spectacular. One vast circular ocean everywhere you look. So now we have our boat speed back to near normal, with the main up to the first reef position. A day with rain squalls and soft shifty winds around 7-10 nts. Should pass the one third mark around lunchtime. A bottle of Champaign, and tenderloin steaks is waiting, after one week at sea, and 1000 nm. Put the rods out again this morning and 2 hrs later a lovely Mahi Mahi landed for Sushi and the evening meal. All the crew in good form.  Team dynamics excellent. Cpt James ha    . read more...

Lancelot - A Week Since the Start

Morning All Hope this finds you all well on a Sunday at home on the sofa with your feet up watching TV. Its much the same here except its about 25 degrees, blowing 20 knots and we've just an excellent full English breakfast and theres no TV. Frankenstein is still doing us proud and continues to pull us across the Atlantic, however we have a sneaky suspicion that the original executioner still has work to be finished!!!!! Confidence is returning to the crew and the 40.7 Rafiki is our next target! Almost at our halfway mark and from then on in its every mile takes us closer to a nice cold rum and coke!   Take care and catch you soon Lancelot  ?? ???????-?? ??????? ?????? ????, ?? ?? ?? ??????. ??????? ???? ???? ???????? ? ??? ?? ????? ? ?????????? ? ????????? ??????. ??? ?? ????. read more...

Great Bear - 27/11-2011 St. Lucia Here We Come!

Kære alle! Så ramte vi passatvinden. Det forekom næsten samtidigt med at vi krydsede de 1000 sømil. Nu er der heldigvis kun 1975 sømil igen! Vejret er ved at blive varmt - meget varmt. Vi har lige nu en inde- og udetemperatur på 28 grader.  I foregårs var der virkelig action på! Vi havde lige sendt vores sidste opdatering til bloggen da der lød et ordentligt smeld. Peder stod og styrede og vi farede alle op i cockpittet. Storsejlet stod og blafrede faretruende i alle retninger, mens bommen stod stille. I hjørnet af sejlet sidder, eller rettere sad, en ring som fæstner sejlet til enden af bommen. Sejlet havde givet op og var blevet så slidt at ringen sprang af. Vi fik storsejlet ned og. read more...

Foxy Lady - Log Day 7 – 26/11/11

Foxy Lady Log Day 7 – 26/11/11 We had two highlights yesterday (Saturday). The first was a mid- Atlantic swim! The winds and seas were calm, so we dropped all our sails and anchored.... We launched the small rib; Sam and I circled Foxy Lady and he took some dramatic mid-Atlantic shots with his video camera.Swallowed by the oceanLanding a small whale. read more...

Mojomo - day 5 sunday

22:17.7N 27:03.6W SOG 6-8 COG 255ishWind bit flaky EF3-4 sometimes tanatlisingly F5 for about a second. Day 4 for Mr Pink, he’s dragged us along 24/7 so far. The crew are gradually getting used to flying gianty sails and whilst apparent wind is always under 9knots (sail rated 10-20AWS) it shouldn’t be a big deal, apart from that bit the other night when it got to 18ish. We took the sail down yesterday to repair bits of chafe and let the ropes cool down a bit. David hold the current speed record at 19.6knots SOG. We've had 20.6 on the paddlewheelbut that's an optimistic number - 19.6 is likely Mo's fastest instantaneous speed to date, although i spose we don't watch it all the time so we might have been asleep or in the loo when the boat was doing over 20knots, maybe.Party. read more...

Whippersnapper - Day 8

A couple days ago we invented a new downwind sail configuration, I'll call it the twinakker rig (see photo). It's a little like twin headsails only one is our gennaker flown from the boom! 150m2, our secret weapon :) Only effective in light winds, it really helps when the gennaker is collapsing in the swell. We've had three very big strikes at Phillip's lures in the last 24 hours, one fought for a few minute before breaking the line (24kg line), one bit the lure clean in half and another ripped the hook our of the lure. It's amazing when Phillip brings in the lures and you can see deep gashes and bite marks all over them. Still no big fish on board though… maybe it's time for the 80kg line??? Today we'll mark 1000 miles towards St Lucia, we're going to celebrate with a beer at. read more...

Whippersnapper - Day 7

Apologies to all, apparently I've been including far to much jargon in the posts! I'll try to simplify things for our land lumber friends :) The food dramas continue… one package of our vacuum sealed mince was not vacuum sealed and has leaked blood all through one fridge, thanks again Mike for cleaning up that one! We are slowly clawing back the places lost on day 2 when we were without our gennaker (big blue sail that makes us go fast), 96th overall now and 7th within our category of 17. I know some of you find it hard to believe we're not coming first but there's plenty of time to go and I'd also like to point out that of the yachts within our category ahead of us, two are racing yachts and the other 4 are significantly larger (larger yachts generally go faster) so we don't feel. read more...

Skyelark of London - Day 6, 27th November 2011

As the silver sliver of New Moon appeared against the darkening western sky a voice was heard to say "There's more? I'd better have my bowl back" So Skyelark has its 21st Century Oliver Twist. How will the story end...Earlier in the day we had devoted time to domestic issues with the dhobby wallers hard at work. Attention too was given to the kitchen knives which were sharpened in the absence of a conventional tool. Lateral thinking and a rummage in the toolbox provided the method and with the job barely completed a moderate tuna was landed. Within minutes it had been gutted skinned and filleted with the newly honed filleting knife. Sashimi for lunch and sushi for a starter before our evening meal was our treat of the day.Meanwhile our resident District Nurse Gladys Emmanuel (pseudonym). read more...

Challenger 4 - Day 7 - 27th November

Day 7 - 27th November"The mother of all watches" - Every day a portion of the crew have to partake in the "Mother Watch", a quaint term that basically means you have to cook, clean, wash up, and generally administer to the crews and ship's, domestic needs. Each of the three watches contributes a member, and for the next 24 hours, from 6am in the morning, you have to cook and serve breakfast at 8am, clean the galley, floors and surfaces, clean the heads (toilets), cook and serve lunch at 1pm, although this tends to be sandwiches, and finally cook and server dinner at 6pm, with a final clean of the heads before bed. The whole thing is actually a good idea, and is less arduous than it sounds, as it gives everyone a break from the watch system, and more importantly you get to go to bed at. read more...

Engelen - Day 7 - One week at sea

We are now one week at sea. One week ago on November 20th we left las palmas for our trip to St. Lucia. Now one week later we have probably one third of our journey behind us.The last days due to to very little wind our daily averages were not that good as we wanted them to be, but since last evening the wind is becoming stronger and we will soon hit the 20 N. Maybe by the middle of the night. That's when we head directly to St. Lucia while using the trade winds.We received an email yesterday from sailing vessel Hassebas saying they have 20 kts of trade winds going straight to the caribbean.Roel is taking a bath/ bucket everyday now and is trying to convince us to do the same.Our fishing luck was partly good. We caught a 50 cm fish which would have served well for dinner but at last. read more...

EH01 - LOG DAY 7 - Prop wraps and piles

Sunday morning and its our 7th day at sea. We gybed over onto starboard yesterday expecting to be laying St Lucia (ish) however wih the weather forecast being, well, a forecast we are heading the wrong way again so it looks like another gybe session later today. Those familiar with sailing and racing will think this involves a short manouvre with most hands on deck, trip the pole, float the kite, gybe the main and reset the pole hey presto! Sadly when rigged for low chafe ocean mode as we are its an hours work todrop the wrap preventer then the kite, swap around all the sheets and guys, check for chafe then re hoist the kite after wooling it so it goes up sweetly. In all a bit of a mission, but its not like we have loads of otherpressing stuff to do!Regarding the subject of this blog, it. read more...

Raparee - 26 November - Into the trades, and a spot of bother (again)

26 November - Into the trades, and a spot of bother (again) We just managed to scrape in our daily 144 miles over the last 2 days, ......we need to keep up our 6 knot average. Progress is helped by our magic rig. Boomed out staysail to windward, well forward and fairly flat so it feeds wind into the genoa to fill it at all times even well offwind. This rig is almost as fast as a cruising chute and is safe and stable. We had hoped for quiet Saturday at sea, and so it started. First signs of tradewind clouds and a little less swell. Temperature definitely on the up. Getting in our stride and taking on little jobs on board. We see other boats about every 2 hours and sometimes chat on VHF. There is a big HF SSB chat session amongst the cruising section at noon daily so we can get the. read more...

Dantés - Die ersten 1000 Meilen sind geschafft!

An unsere Begleiter im Geiste und alle, die uns glühend beneiden!Nach 128 Stunden und 58 Minuten haben wir heute Nacht um 21.58 UTC die 1000 Seemeilenmarke geknackt. Im Vorfeld dazu hat unser Skipper uns nach dem Verzehr von gebratenem Hühnchen mit Zucchini und Röstkartoffeln eine Flasche Rioja genehmigt, für unsere Crew war das natürlich nur ein Fingerhut und uns darum umso kostbarer. Kurz nach Mitternacht gab es mitten auf dem Atlantik eine sehr nahe Begegnung mit einem weiteren Teilnehmer der ARC. Abgeklärt und unaufgeregt meisterten wir auch diese Situation, Grußadressen wurden trotz sehr großer Nähe nicht ausgetauscht, dafür war die Begegnung dann doch wohl zu flüchtig.Die erhofften Erlebnisse mit den Bewohnern dieses Meeres. read more...

Peat Smoke - Log Day 7 One thousand mile celebration

We are all very happy as around 3pm today we reached 1000 miles, only about 2000 to go! this means two drinks for the crew at happy hour from 5-6pm - yipee! We will post a photo tomorrow from this celebration! Saw Ocean Wanderer, first yacht in a few days and spoke to them on radio really nice. Tomorrow is our curry night with 'Chef' Paul just making it at present, smells delicious we cant wait!   Caroline, David, Paul and Davie x. read more...

Dantés - Führung in Gruppe F

Hallo alle unsere Unterstützer und Freunde an Land, als wir eben die Nachricht erhielten, dass wir an der Spitze der Gruppe F liegen, haben wir uns unheimlich gefreut. Wie Ihr vielleicht bemerkt habt, ist die Dantés sehr viel weiter nach Süden gesegelt als die meisten anderen Yachten. Wir haben nicht den direkten Weg genommen. Zum Einen, weil wir einem tropischen Sturmtief ausweichen wollten, zum zweiten um erwartete Flauten- und Schwachwindzonen zu umgehen. Es anders zu machen als viele andere ist natürlich nicht ohne Risiko. Man weiss immer erst hinterher, ob die eigene Taktik die bessere war. Nur der Erfolg zählt! Aber das Risiko hat sich gelohnt, auch wenn das natürlich nur ein Zwischenergebnis ist.Constantin hat ein excellentes und erfolgreiches(!). read more...

La Palapa - Another relaxing day at sea 26 Nov 2176nm to St Lucia

well this morning we decided we would try to get a few thing accomplished. in fact just two, laundry and 5200 the reinforcing panel to the main. after we wrote these on the white board i decided to take a quick nap while aimee made quiches. it was really rolling and as i was dozing off i was really expecting to be waken up by a scream of frustration as egg went everywhere. around 1130 i awoke to find aimee in the cockpit enjoying the sun and and quiche in the oven. the breakfast turned into more like lunch and was great. we followed this with some more reading in the sun and another nap and next thing we know it was 4pm and we had accomplished nothing!aimee did get the cloths washed and i got started on the 5200 project but then we where interrupted by happy hour and the new evening stu. read more...

Dantés - Irgendwas ist immer...

Wenn der Skipper excellent und die Crew gut ist (wir sind gut!!!) und deshalb wenige oder gar keine Fehler gemacht werden (meint "unser" Skipper Constantin), dann kommt es eben zu anderen "Ereignissen": Kurz nachdem wir unseren "vorläufigen" Geschwindigkeitsrekord aufgestellt hatten, brach der Achterholer am Spinnakerbaum. Zu dem Zeitpunkt sind wir wirklich nicht am Limit gesegelt. Der Knall holte die halbe Crew aus den Kojen. An Deck versuchte der Rudergänger die Dantes einigermassen vor dem Wind zu halten und zu fünft arbeiteten wir daran, den schlagenden Spinnaker herunter zu zerren und vor allem den Spinnakerbaum unter Kontrolle zu kriegen. Hat auch alles geklappt und unser Leichtwindspinnaker blieb heil. So was muss natürlich in einer Nacht passieren, wo man. read more...

Bandido - On our way

It is now 24 hours since we left Gran Canaries following repairs to our steering gear, the sea trials went well (A great thank you to the Oyster team for their quick response and efforts), we are now on our way to St Lucia, We had light winds for the first 6 hours leaving Gran canaries as being in the wind shadow of the island, then the steady trade wind from ENE started to build and we were sailing again, what a great feeling, we have had 20kts of wind all through the night which has helped us catch up a little time I think, our average speed being just over 7 kts.We tried our hand at fishing again yesterday but no luck after about 8 hours, Gus then brought in the lure for the night only to find we forgot to take the protective plastic collar off the hook! no excuses for today!!Alex. read more...

Meltemi - 7.Tag

Hallo Landbasis, wir melden uns wieder von der Meltemi, wie immer von der Hundewache um jetzt 1Uhr frueh bei moderaten Winden und sternenklarer Nacht. Wir fahren Schmetterling (rechts ein Segel, links ein Segel). Die Wache begann mit einer "Shifte", also mit links ein Segel und rechts ein Segel.Im Morgengrauen hatten wir erstmals das Vorsegel ausgebaumt, um vor dem Wind den fuer uns besten Kurs bei stabiler Segelstellung und optimaler Fahrt laufen zu können. Nach dem Fruehstueck dann Spi gesetzt und bis zur Abenddämmerung gefahren. Daher Stimmung: die Meltemi Crew ist in absoluter Racing-Mode.Weitere Hoehepunkte des Tages: zur Mittagszeit Grossreinschiff durch beide Wachen, nachmittags grosser Thunfisch-Schwarm an Steuerbord beobachtet (fuer uns etwas betrueblich, weil die. read more...

Angerona - Log day 5 & 6

We have decided to share the work with the daily log.  And today it’s the youngest crew member, Håkon, which has been assigned the mission.   The captain vetoed that he should not work on the log due to other assignments.  Several times a day he writes in the ships log about position, wind speed, weather and temperature.  He also writes a daily report to “Fri Vind” who supports us with our daily weather forecast.   Day five had an unexpected start.  We went on with our daily routine with breakfast before we hoist the sails.  When we tried to hoist the main sail the wind suddenly picket up, and we had to make a sharp turn to go up against the wind to get it up.  The sharp turn resulted in a messy saloon and a wet bed due. read more...

Watergaw - DAY 6 -Friday 25/11/11 - Enigmas

Getting into the rhythm of the passage now, and folk are feeling better as they manage to grab sleep when they can, and to enjoy the funny moments, the occasional sighting of yachts/ships and creatures of the deep, the accidents, and the quips. Weather and Progress The wind was pretty good, and we made decent progress southwards if not always in the absolutely right direction (not enough west in it for Chris Tibbs – had to tell him we were doing our best). The seas were smooth enough to allow us to tackle and finish off the bodge job on the broken spinaker pole. Having ground and shaped the remnants of the cracked aluminium casting yesterday, and epoxied it into the plastic collar, we needed to drill and tap it to secure it more positively, and to put cross bolts into the new. read more...

Watergaw - DAY 7 - Sat 26/11/11 - Tickety Boo

Weather and Sailing We have had a pretty decent day today, with our best 24 hour run. When weset off from Gran Canaria, our weather guru (Chris Tibbs) had said that weshould be aiming for a line around 20 o N and between 30 and 35 o W, since thesouthern route was the most promising in the context of the prevailing weather.We plotted an eastern and western vector for this and set off aiming for themiddle of the target, but we found that our rig and the wind direction meantthat we were drifting east of this. We would get a wind shift from time to timethat allowed us to get frustratingly close to the eastern rhumb line, but thenthe wind would ease back northwards and we would be forced to head away from it.We got the feeling that Chris felt we weren’t trying hard enough!  Happily, over. read more...

Voahangy - Day 7 - Wind chasing

We passed the 1000nm this morning, only 1700nm to go says Terry! I'd feel more excited if the wind had not deserted us: our downwind run came to a halt yesterday when the wind turned to the S-SE, meaning we had to head south to keep a good angle and our speed up. It worked for most of the day, with the main sail and gennaker up, we averaged 9knots; only problem was, we were heading to Brazil. So we decided to resume heading west today, with very light easterly winds, our sails flopping and the boat wallowing under 5 knots. Very frustrating day, after hours of chasing the wind we ended up running the engine for a while (we need it to recharge the batteries anyway, as our battery chargers are playing up, but that's another story...). This crossing has confirmed one thing about our boat:. read more...

Nix - Day 7 (26th) - Dreaming of St. Lucia

''We arrived in St. Lucia at 4 o'clock this afternoon - we won the race! Stepping on to the pontoon we were handed Pina Coladas.'' Living the dream. I was then abruptly awoken at 5 a.m. to carry out my early morning shift - sadly it's only day six.   The spinnaker has been up for 36 hours now and we believe Roger (the auto-pilot) is feeling a bit worse for wear as he has acquired a squeak in the wheel. Alternatively it could also be due to the many kamikaze flying fish that have attacked Nix over the last few days by not only flying head first into the hull, but also into the faces of select crew members. Rogers squeak was short lived however as Nico gave him a generous dosage of WD-40.   George and James' tanning continued due to yet another day of glorious hot sun.. read more...

Zingara - 27/11

Zingara auf reise. Heute, am 27.nov liegt bereits die erste tolle segelwoche hinter uns. Es ist der erste advent und. . Natuerlich, peg hat geburtstag!! Dir liebe peggy alles liebe , wir prosten dir zu. Nun fahren wir direkten kurs auf st lucia zu, jeder hat so seine eigene taktik. GRIB files, wx karten, vorhersagen...wo pfeift der beste wind? Das macht die sache so spannend! Noch eines, meine kompremierungssoftware fuer diese mails laeuft nicht und so koennen nur kurze berichte uebertragen werden!Sorry. . Beste gruesse von 30 west, ernsti u crew. 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...

Lone Star - 26 Nov - Day 7 - Fishing and Sail Repairs

During the last twenty four hours we had two significant activities, fishing and sail repairs. Each one had a certain amount of success. On the fishing front we caught a Mahi Mahi that was a little over a meter in length and weighed a lot. Got it on to the swim platform on the transom and the darned fish managed to spit out the hook and flopped back into the water. It looked like Drew and the fish were in a wrestling match and, for a moment, I thought Drew might go into the water with the fish. Drew and Ron looked like a couple of lost puppy dogs when realization set in that we lost a magnificent fish and would have to settle for grilled steaks instead of fish for dinner.The process of repairing our Ballooner sail is almost complete. Drew and Ron have spent more than 15 hours hand sewing. read more...

Brizo - Log Day 7 – Saturday 26th Nov: Banana’s and Fish

Fairly frustrating 24 hours – we knew that the unusual low pressure system  this far South would throw up quiet winds and we have tried to go further South early to get around this but with minimum winds we have slowed up. We don’t have a conventional spinnaker (you know the coloured billowing downwind sail) as its often only Pat and I on board and it really needs more a larger crew to operate it. So we opt for a simpler light weight downwind Asymmetric  sail (still big to handle) we call it ‘Limey’ as its bright green. I won’t bore you with the details but it works well when the wind is’ not quite’ directly behind you – and guess what it is ! So we cannot sail quite in the direction we want to go – we are either pointing to. read more...

Hanami II - Day 7, turned the corner!

Today we turned the corner in a number of ways. First, and most important, we have dropped below the magic 20 degrees north, and now have our course set for St. Lucia via the Great Circle route.With that has come lighter winds, and we could certainly do with a bit more breeze. Skies are blue, no sign of squalls (now that's tempting fate, but I did say we needed more breeze) and even the sea seems to have taken on a bluish tinge.It's pretty amazing looking round to be surrounded by sea encircling the boat, with nothing in sight, knowing that if we continue on this course we reach the Caribbean, but a small adjustment south could take us to Brazil, or a smidge north, to Florida, or the Panama Canal and the Pacific. What freedom!Smaller corner turned when I started to grasp some of the. read more...

Casamara - Day 6

Hi everyone,   As you can see from our track we are now going west having come South to avoid the wind hole. We will be on this tack for circa 1700nm having done over a 1000nm is just 6 days.   After the challenges of the genoa shackle and mast climbing yesterday we have had a quiet day sitting in the sun and chilling out - this is after all trade wind sailing!   Tim caught our first fish a small Dorado - a good looking fish and we will have this for supper!  yummee.   We are going to try the parasailor tomorrow!   Simon P   Hi everyone, just taking a break from making bread and nursing a few bruises to update you on the menu, which today, since we have not had to do the Casamara mast impression on the Cirque De Soleil is back on track!We. read more...

Ensemble - LOG Day 7: Nov 26th - Butter melting...

Well, the 'butters started to melt' so we'll be heading more West now... (navigation instructions from the days of Columbus).The weather has definitely taken a turn for the better - warmer and sunnier. Not enough wind though....For those of you following our progress on the plotter - you'll be relieved to know that for some reason the 'brick' posted our position at 1600 GMT not 0400 GMT - and we are in fact some 70nm closer to St Lucia than indicated - so 'woo hoo!'. Still haven't had to use any engine hours either.The ladies are still cooking up a storm - fresh bread and banana bread today.With calm seas and a perfect trolling speed we decided to rig up a third rod and improvise a game chair (see attached photo). All we're missing is the stubbie holder (and the fish).Maybe tomorrow. read more...

Adelante - Ein Tag im Passat - Teil 2

Soeben hiess es "alle Mann an Deck !" Der Spi hat sich in einem plötzlichen Windloch zu einer schönen 8 um das Vorstag gelegt. Zuerst Versuch die Lieken auseinander zu ziehen, haut nicht, also zurück in den sehr engen Bergeschlauch, alles neu ordnen und wieder hoch mit dem Spi.Jetzt ist wieder alles o.k. und aus der Kombüse steigen bereits wohlgefällige Gerüche.Die Tage, wie wir sie jetzt erleben, sind von einer noch nie erlebten Ästhetik. Wir haben uns alle an die Schiffsbewegungen gewöhnt, die Geräusche des Wassers und im Schiff sind irgendwie vertrauenserweckend und melodiös. Die Windstärke ist zwar selten genügend, wir hätten gern 20 m/s, dafür stresst sie uns nicht. Die Sonne, seit dem Start immer wieder von. read more...

Diamonds Are Forever - 26/11 - Day 6 - Water water everywhere!

Diamonds blog - 26/11/11 - Day 6 - Water, water everywhere!Hi everyone! On to Day 6 onboard... After a very very dark night last night we have been greeted with some glorious sunshine today, as well as calls of "yeehaaa" from Kirsty and Marie as we surf down some incredible waves! All they're missing are their cowboy hats and chaps...   We've been keeping an eye on our daily run's, clocking up 143nm in the past 24 hrs which is excellent progress and keeping us in good spirits as we push on towards the fleet! The wind has been in our favour today and we are sailing downwind with the main sail and poled out genoa up (so we have a sail out each side of the boat) which is a very stable rig in the F4/5 breeze. So far Diamonds has clocked up 11knots of speed whilst surfing on a wave,. read more...

EH01 - LOG DAY 7 - CREW BLOG

Saturday 27th NovemberDear all, in the cockpit are Al, Jamie, Phil, Neil and Dave (Wayne Sleeping).We have now been going for over a week and a week that has proved to be a big learning curve for all concerned. When we set off from Las Palmas nursing 4 day hangovers there was an air of antispation and unfortunately vomit. For many of us this has been trip we have been longing to do for many years and now that it was actually happening, was it going to live up to all our expections? Well it certainly has so far.It has taken most of the week for us to get to grip with sailing 24/7 and all that entails. We are on 4 hour watches in the day and 3 hour watches at night which means that you actually don't get much sleep as there is always something happening on board. There is also mother watch. read more...

Malaika - Log Day 5

Friday 25.11.2011, 19.30 UTC, SV MalaikaNice light show at the sunrise, then a bit cloudy, and not so much wind, but finally good COG at 260. All sails on - and that's not new.Fancy dinner for two - thank you quiet sea state :) Aggi's daddy sits at home with computers and send us a lot of briefing, sail this way, don't sail that course. So good router we have :)Slowly preparing for night watch. Later as usual sat phone time to connect with friends in the Fleet. Pawel. read more...

Cochise

Day 7 Whale!Actually two whales - we had a pair of 3m pilot whales swimming alongside the cockpit for a few minutes this morning - fantastic! Our first flying fish came aboard and hit Sam on the left hand whilst he was steering -although he claims to have seen it coming and hit it with a left hook. Either way it ended up a scaley mess in the steering wheel trough, and was difficult to get out!Fishing has not gone well - several have got away, and one of a pair of birds that were eyeing up our lure snagged itself on the line and was dragged behind for a few miles until we eventally freed it. They both flew off - hopefully happily ever after!Sailing has been mixed. Yesterday afternoon and this afternoon have seen some lighter winds, but in the night and this morning we have had 14-18kts. read more...

Halcyon of Hebe - Day 6 blog

Pos 19:54N 27:52W Day 6, not quite a week under way Bit of a wild life tour today with bigger dolphins, darker and less twitchy than the previous lot, and a whale. The whale was bigger than the several dolphins and flying fish we've seen combined. It was even bigger than Rob.Flying fish aren't as big as you might have thought, if you thought flying fish we the size of a large battered plaice. They flap their fins(?) fast, which, if you expected them to rely on gliding after gaining speed in the water prior to launch, is quite surprising. It is like watching a rather desperate young bird try to slow its plummet to the sea. A little more evolution and you might get the reverse of a dolphin, that is, an animal that lives in the air but dips its head in water to breath. If they got really. read more...

Island Wander - Saturday Day 7 - 19:52N, 29:35W - Friday night was movie night!

Most of the time one day is like another on board Island Wanderer; there is no distinction between weekdays and weekends since the same tasks have to be completed every day. However Friday night was celebrated in style: After narrowly missing out on victory in the first round of the Friday night pub quiz (hosted by one boat over the SSB radio), through lack of knowledge of the actors in the film ‘Jaws’, we cheered ourselves up by hosting a late night sail-in movie; We sat under the stars making reasonable headway watching Die Hard projected onto the mainsail!   Other than that the past 24 hours has been a little slow and mundane due to a lack of wind. The washing has been done – the boat is currently dressed overall with completely unrecognisable flags, a sight not. read more...

Kantara - Ian and the flying fish

Ian was beginning to think that we were all making up our sightings of flocks/shoals of flying fish but he has finally seen some for himself. They are amazing creatures and can skim for several hundred meters just above the surface. Next challenge are jumping crabs and leaping lobsters which Ian has still not been able to spot!   Fairly uneventful day on the high seas with fairly moderate winds but very clear skies. We did take three attempts to get the spinnaker up this morning which was not a great start but quickly sorted everything out and sat down to a good cup of tea and scrambled egg with smoked salmon to recover. Drug the night Joe, Mike and Jason all saw a pod of dolphins which were lit up by the phosphorescence and looked like tracer missiles darting round the. read more...

Grateful Red - day four - thanksgiving

Always like the last night shift, see the milky way and the sun rise. sailors have been doing the same for millenniums. never changes. today was beautiful but soon after sunrise the crew felt that five knots was too slow and the big dog spinnaker was needed. up to the foredeck not to bed - lines, poles and sails. Wasn't the classic toss but the spinnaker was up and so was my blood pressure. after a few icy cold beers the pressure was down, eggs were served and we were sailing seven plus. gliding across the water with a full chute and time to relax. day of spinnaker sailing soon to be followed by wine and thanksgiving dinner.A five star sailing day.Go pack go!Ken. read more...

Elisa - Dag 5: Minder wind en meer mail

Vandaag kenmerkte zich door een zeer rustige vaart, grote ontspanning en uitgelaten vrolijkheid. Het eerste werd veroorzaakt door een terugval in windsterkte, zodat we prettig voort gingen glijden in plaats van snel maar wat onrustig te stuiven. Nadat de ruimende wind ons motiveerde om te gijpen, nam de wind af tot een knoopje of 10 en gingen we van downwind meer reachend varen om meer schijnbare wind te pakken. Het grootzeil werd daarom uitgedraaid en de Parasailor meer dwars gezet. Hierdoor lag de boot heel rustig en konden we bij een snelheid tussen de 6 en 7 knopen heerlijk op het dek vertoeven met boekjes, praatjes, drankjes en soms zelf met de oogjes toe. Er werd door Oscar en Jeroen uitgebreid gepoedeld op het achterdek, waarvan de oudere garde per sé bewijs op foto en film. read more...

Grateful Red - day six

Beautiful day for spinnaker sailing. Just marking off the miles looking for the mythical way point of where to turn west. A 1500's crossing from london to New york - before the winning of the queen of england clock challenge of - Sail from london to Jamaica and back and have the time within a minute of Big Ben. hard to know where you are if you can't tell the time. without time the old sailors blew by the canaries - turn too soon doldrums, turn too late might not have enough food and water. So much easier with my GPS. Always amazed that the boats from 1500 and 1600 made the crossing.Our mythical way point was 25 north and 27.5 west and we are past. starting to look west - next point is 17.5 north and 30 degrees west on the GPS Should be at at least a couple of days but we have the. read more...

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