Sorry! Having spent you 14 emails this morning, I thought it might be easier to put them all together ….so here goes!
The big one! Wild Goose musings…
(We had no ability to send emails from the boat, so all these are coming to you now!)
So finally the day dawned for the start! We were more or less ready and actually had quite a relaxed morning with phone calls to everyone at home and a last breakfast ashore in the cafe, but many others had engineers and riggers aboard till the very last moment, still more would have to wait for a day or so before all the repairs could be completed.
The marina is rather complex not having any finger pontoons so we had to leave in turn with two of the marina staff in a rather decrepit dingy coming and untying our bow lines which had disappeared under water once we tightened them up, once free we had to motor smartly out missing the submerged lines of our erstwhile neighbours. We were amongst the last to leave having been amongst the first to arrive last Friday. The price of fame apparently!
The start line was a line between the outer breakwater and a large inflatable buoy with the committee boat nearby. James had picked up some hot intelligence from someone he met in the bar who had done the trip before that we should start at the committee boat end of the line where the wind would be steadiest, hence in true racer style we staked our claim to a piece of water nearby and waited patiently for the gun. James did a fabulous job of defending our space (Don't forget this is NOT a race of course!), and apart from one catamaran who briefly got in the way, we made the best start in the fleet by miles leading the entire fleet out of the bay. Shortly afterwards up went the cruising chute and we were off in style.
The piece of water between the two Islands has what is called an acceleration zone, which is essentially like a strong sea breeze that blows every afternoon, so it was soon time to take down the spinnaker ( not easy but we are getting better at it!), and head north in order to avoid a huge wind shadow cast you the very mountainous Santa Antao Island. Frustratingly as night fell the wind dropped very light and we were fearful that the rest of the fleet would catch us up…..None the less we feasted on Jane’s recipe for Spanish fish stew, using fish caught be a neighbouring boat crew on a sport fishing day. Wahu apparently. Very good and free in the bargain.
Anyway it is now morning of day 2 and the cruising chute is back up, this time being flown as a spinnaker a la Tim and Galatea style. James took a lot of persuading to try this crazy idea, but I think begrudgingly now agreeing that it works rather well….although he has just told me that the jury is still out! He is hard to please!! We are doing over 7kts in 11kts of wind. Sea much much flatter than on the way down and not a cloud in the sky. The down side is that it is incredibly hot so we are all almost naked!
Day 2
So we have now been sailing under spinnaker for over 24 hrs, and overnight kept up an average of about 6kts. What a special night! Smooth sea and steady wind in the 10-12kts range, clear sky, and wonderful stars. Not many boats to dodge now as the fleet has spread out over a wide area, all sorts of different tactics in play in the search for a bit more wind.
As dawn broke the wind increased a little and we now have 15th and are cruising along at 7.5kts. If it picks up much more we will have to take the chute down and save it for another light wind day, but hopefully this wind (and the sail itself!) will hold for the rest of the day, and even into tomorrow. Stronger winds not predicted till Tuesday, and even then should be no more than 15-20Kts.
We have averaged about 5.6 kts since the start which is not bad considering that we were down to only 3kts at time the first night.
We are still re-living the brilliant start we had on Friday. Have a look at this…the entire fleet behind us!
Later in the day, at noon to be precise, James took his first sun sight. He should now be able to tell where we are, at least the latitude, if any of us can be bothered with the hour long maths marathon required! Still he certainly looks the part.
Meanwhile Simon is getting stuck into a good book, and I was unable to resit yet another photograph of an Atlantic sun set!
Having sailed fast through the night we are confident that we are back near to top of the class leaderboard. Certainly our arch rivals from the first leg are miles behind which is very satisfactory. Hope you at home are watching our progress.
Till tomorrow….
Day 3
So the spinnaker is still up and we are again doing a steady 6-7kts in a slightly hazy morning sun. Last night the wind dropped and we did spend a long time doing only about 5kts but still over the last 24hrs we have averaged about 6kts which is really not bad.
Breakfast this morning was a “Jane Eaton Hash” expertly constructed by James and eaten with fresh coffee, to the strains of Santana blasting out of the cockpit speaker. I have discovered that the stainless instrument binnacle box makes and excellent steel drum….much more engaging than air guitar.
After breakfast we had a go at sorting out the problems of a) the housing market, and b) the NHS, so I think by the time two weeks are over we should have our manifesto ready for the next election. Who would like to vote for the Atlantic Antics Party. Can you have a triumvirate as Prime minister? I suppose we could each work a three day week so it would not be very stressful.
We are currently doing battle with our nemesis from Leg one, a bout called Argonaut (not sure if the owner is called Jason…He really should be, except that he is a crazy Dutchman. We thought we had left them miles behind so were rather alarmed to find him popping up on the AIS only about 12 miles behind. A frantic hour of ‘tweaking’ by me followed once it was light enough to see the sails, and I am happy to report that we are now gaining on them-slowly.
We have been studying the weather forecast downloadable from PredictWind by satellite phone complete with routing advice. As you might expect from three mavericks we are not taking the advice but interpreting it and forming our own cunning plan which is sure to be better isn’t it….Time will tell.
Currently the routing software has us arriving on the 4th, but we have every intention of beating that.
Whoever suggested downloading podcasts was a genius as they make the night watches fly by. The missing Cripto Queen had me so gripped last night that I unintentionally gave James and extra hour in bed.
That’s it for today!
Noon day sight first attempt 64.27%
Day 4
So it is the morning of another day on they good ship Wild Goose. We still proceed in great comfort at a modest pace under spinnaker variously rigged as a cruising chute, or flown “a la Galatea”. At first light we typed it for the first time, relatively smoothly, and are now heading south in search of a little more wind.
On a domestic front James has now assumed the tittle of “Domestic Goddess” having made the first batch of home made yoghurt which we have all had for breakfast. Delicious!
The other great excitement of the morning has been seeing the first dolphins of the trip. There were only two of them and they did their usual trick of frolicking at the bows, but in a slightly hung over fashion, just not up to the standard of their cold water cousins. Perhaps like us the heat makes them lethargic, or perhaps also like us they were just a little senior, and not quite up to their youthful selves..
I have this morning decided that it is time to break out the Grenada Guide book. “Are we nearly there yet?” I hear you cry. No: not for a little while, but for the next week or so I will be able to entertain the crew with interesting and useless facts to pass the time- surely better than discussing the NHS as we did yesterday.
Here’s hoping we find just a little more wind to speed us on our way!
PS. Yesterday’s fishing ended in a huge fish, perhaps a whale, eating all our tackle. Un daunted James is trying again and has just baited the line with a totally unconvincing plastic squid. Any fish stupid enough to think that is going to taste good deserves to be caught and eaten!
Day 5…MIA!
Day 6
Well….Last night was one to forget! It was very hot and the wind dropped off for some of the night resulting in some heavy rolling and the sails slatting noisily. The seas seemed very confused at times coming at the boat from all angles. The net result was very little sleep for any of us which led to the night as a whole being long and frustrating. Having said that; we were treated to a dramatic light show from lighting strikes from cloud to cloud for much of the night, and particularly once the moon had set it really was quite a spectacle.
Morning broke a bit cloudy but the wind has filled in and the boat’s motion has returned to normal. Breakfast today was a real spirit raiser as we had scrambled eggs on toast. The key to this being the word toast. James’s efforts yesterday neading, proving, needing, and baking resulted in a perfect loaf of bread! He has definitely earned the tittle of ‘star baker’. Shortly after 1030 the clouds cleared and we are now again enjoying what the Cowes based weather man Chris Tibbs described as champagne sailing. Tearing along at 8-9kts in a regular following sea and bright blue sky. I asked James if we could crack open a bottle of Bolly to celebrate, and to my astonishment found we had none aboard. What sort of boat is this?!
It is interesting to reflect that we all had a low point on day 5. The initial excitement and novelty of the trip has passed, but I think having all shared our woes of last night together over breakfast we are now all back in high spirits.
After downloading the latest forecast and routing on PredictWind our regular morning crew conference concluded that we have made the correct call in heading south to find the wind, and we expect to gybe onto starboard and head direct for Granada later today, then it’s just a straight run to the finish…and we will see whose tactics have been the best. Fingers crossed.
Day 7
Well last night we had a somewhat eventful time! After a relatively peaceful and steady 5-6kts afternoon we noticed that the only two boats we could see on the AIS were putting up their spinnakers and increasing speed dramatically. We could not resist doing the same and so we un wound the big blue sail, and sure enough our speed rocketed up to 8-8.5kts in a flat sea with only about 12-14kts of wind. We had supper sitting in the cockpit in great comfort, hardly any rolling as the boat surged forward. Any any ideas that our neighbours had of overtaking us were frustrated. There seemed no reason to suppose that the wind would increase. Thus far it has tended to drop a little at night so it was decided to sail on into the night with the chute up.
All was well till about midnight by which time the wind was blowing a steady 17-18kts, definitely too much for the slightly aged sail, so it was all hands on deck to get it rolled up. Sadly it did not go according to plan. James is being very grown up and not blaming anyone but some of us do have a sense of responsibility. All I can say it the it was a wild ride for about half an hour. First the sail got wrapped round the inner forestay, then it ripped itself to shreds before we could get it rolled away. It was harnesses on, and onto the foredeck to try to get it down and packed away. It was so tightly wrapped that we had to just stuff what we could into the bag and secure it till the morning. Head torches were essential and my new one worked very well.
The good thing is that the wind has stayed strong and even without the spinnaker we are flying along and now heading directly for Grenada. Let’s hope this wind holds all the way now. If so it wont take us long!
Day 8
It’s the weekend!
You would never know it here as life goes on as usual. Our shift pattern of two hours on and four off continues day and night except that we have a three hour “dog” watch at lunch time to move us all on an hour a day so we don't all get the same watch every night.
We now have a three sail rig, main on one side, Genoa boomed out on the other and the staysail on the inner forestay also set on they opposite side to the Genoa. This surprisingly makes a huge difference to the motion of the boat, but we estimate adds about half a knot to our speed. All night we have had 15-20kts of wind roughly from the east which is speeding us onwards towards Grenada at a steady 7.5kts, occasionally catching a wave and surfing up to 9kts. Lovely sailing, and so far we are not missing the cruising chute.
As I type James, AKA Mary Berry Eaton, is making yoghurt, bread and brownies. He is indeed a man of many talents.
We also have acquired a pair of stowaways. A pair of rather tired looking egrets joined us in the middle of the night. They are sitting on the aft deck looking rather happy to be cadging a lift. I found a tiny little flying fish on deck this morning which I slid towards them and the brightest of them was on it in a moment. It took him a few moments to decide what to do with it, then it disappeared whole down his long elegant neck. We wonder what they are doing out 1000 miles from land, and will definitely need to google their migratory routes when we get back to civilisation and the internet. I just hope we are taking them the right way!
Day 9
What a glorious night of sailing. The full moon illuminated us for the whole time from dusk till dawn. It was almost light as day. Certainly light enough to see the sails and everything on deck. The waves look different in the moonlight and you cant really make out the form of them, but they sparkle in the path of the moon in a wonderful way. For most of the night all we had to do was steer right down the path of the moon.
The sailing is fast and yet gentle, wind has now been a constant 15-18kts for two whole days and nights and over the last 24 hrs we have averaged 7.1kts so travelled about 170 miles directly towards our destination. Which is now ‘only’ some 900 miles away now! We are on the downhill stretch. I have thought of asking James “ are we are nearly there yet”, but soo far resisted the temptation.
Simon just revealed that he used to do car number plate spotting as a kid. Apparently there was a book your parents could buy you which told you where each number plate came from. Who knew?…Very worried that he also owned an anorak.
Such little bits of trivia come out as we chat through the heat of the day. The early mornings are pleasantly cool and that is when we try to do important things like sail changes and maintenance tasks before it gets too hot. Then of course a hearty breakfast and a pot of fresh coffee is essential.
The morning gets seriously hot with the sun almost directly over head and all you can really do is look for a bit of shade to read a book. After lunch (also a very important miles stone in any day) the sun goes behind the sails and gives the cockpit some shade so the cool breeze can do its job. This is the time of day for enjoying the sailing, turning off the auto pilot and surfing down some waves. Today I currently hold the record at 9.3kts, but the others are working hard to beat it. Then finally late afternoon, the sun begins its decent into the sea and for a couple of hours the temperature is perfect. It is during this twilight that we try to all sit down for supper together, sometimes with a beer or a glass of wine. The boat does roll all the time so it is best not to use the table and get out the candlesticks, so supper tends to be served in a bowl with a fork or spoon.
Once it is dark the temperature falls slightly and by about 8pm it is cool enough for the off watch crew members to have a go at getting some sleep. Amazingly despite roaring along at 7-8kts the boat is very dry so the hatches can be open to let the cool air in. On deck I find that a light fleece top is all you need even in the hours before dawn, I call it my ‘evening wear’ topped off with shorts and bare feet. The one other change to ‘day wear’ of tea shirt, shorts and hat, is that I can dispense with the hat at night. As far as I know there is no such thing as moon burn!
The other strange thing on board is the time, not only does it seem very flexible, sometimes running forward at an alarming rate, at others dragging slowly, but as we travel west sunrise and sunset get about 30mins later each day. When we left the Cape Verdes it was light about 0630 and dark about the same time. This morning dawn was about 0730, and it will be light till about 8pm. Of course this is due to the fact that we have chosen not to change our ships clock as we cross time lines. By the time we reach Granada we will be five hours out, although we will still be hungry at breakfast time no matter what the clock says!
Forecast looks promising for the next few days to hopefully more of the same to come.
Day 10
Welcome to another day in paradise! Another great sun rise after a night of full moon sailing. The day started very well with Simon’s delicious scrambled eggs and the last of the bacon, all washed down with good strong fresh ground coffee. This I consider essential, although James thinks Simon and I are nuts and should be perfectly content with Gold Blend. I sometimes wonder what planet he is from!
We then all sat down with the latest weather forecasts and routing advice and had a lengthy debate about our course. All through the last three days we have been convincing ourselves that we have been sailing close to the rhumb line of 272 degrees but when you look at the plot of our position on the paper chart it is clear that we have been steadily drifting north, in fact heading for Barbados. Nice as Barbados no doubt is we have decided to gybe to head slightly south. To do this now whilst the wind is blowing pretty much due East seems to make sense as we expect the wind to have a little north in it by the end of the week….also it looks as if we will have a bit more wind further south. So here goes!
A little later:
Well that was a rather lengthy manoeuvre! We are all sweating buckets (apologies for the mental image!) as there was really a lot involved in getting the main with it’s preventers, two jibs, poles and associated ropes all sorted out. Literally everything needs to be re-routed somewhere if you are to eliminate chaiff, and this is a serious consideration when you will likely be on the same point of sail for several days and nights. The whole manoeuvre has taken about an hour. Anyway we are now on our new course and waiting for the wind to strengthen to again speed us on our way. Distance to go to the way point at the bottom of Grenada is now 550 miles!!
Day 11
I am writing this morning from the foredeck. It is by far the ‘coolest’ place on the boat. First it is in the shade, the sails casting a shadow, secondly the wind can blow across your skin to keep you cool, thirdly because the gush and swish of the bow wave is just beneath you, and we are tramping it is just a really cool place to be!
So yesterday we gybed twice after a great deal of very serious discussion about tactics. The first time we decided that it was time to go South to make use of an Easterly wind which we knew would today turn to the North East. Faultless logic and for a while it seemed to work, but then just as it was getting dark the wind forced us to head ever more south to the extent that we were 45 degrees off the rumb line…so we gybed back. Again at first all was well and we were able to sail straight down the rumb line, but as the night wore on we were forced ever further to the north again! Curses we should have stayed on the other gybe after all….Imagine our delight then when at breakfast time the wind finally did as forecast and is now blowing steadily from the North East enabling us to head straight for Grenada.
Our killer tactic is now simple…go straight! We are going to let others follow the Predictwind routing advice and go way off to the north, or alternatively way off to the South. We are going to just plod down the shortest route. If we are right it could pay off-If we are wrong we will find ourselves becalmed.
Watch this space!
PS Today is probably the most perfect yet in terms of sailing weather. The sea has flattened, there are just a few fluffy clouds and a steady wind of about force 4. Lovely!
Day 12
We really feel we are getting close…can almost hear a steel band on the wind.
We had a splendid night of sailing with 15-20kts of wind blowing us almost directly towards the island. Our rig of main to port, Genoa to starboard and staysail to port seems to work really well in this sort of wind speed and it is gratifying to learn that the two boats to the immediate north of us were both flying spinnakers all night and failed to make any ground on us at all. Interestingly we believe two of them have now blown these sails in a 30kt gust that hit them directly in the early hours and must have passed a few miles to the north of us. We did however get a little rain which gave the decks a good wash and also resulted in James’s feet getting a wash before he was able to close the hatch above his bed.
Right now, which is 1030 am, we have 270 miles to go to our waypoint at the bottom corner of the island.
There is a sense of excitement but also tinges of sadness that this epic adventure is coming to a close and that the three of us, who have bonded into quite a good little unit, will soon be talking to other people. How will we cope with the crowds? Also we have very mixed thoughts on the arrival of internet connectivity! No doubt as soon as we get reception on our phones they will fill up with unread junk email, and do we really want to hear the world’s news? I am pretty certain that the news from Ukraine, Gazza, and Trumpland will all be bad. No doubt there will be new political scandals at home too. Maybe I am being unduly pessimistic, maybe the world’s problems have all been solved during our self imposed exile…
One thing we are looking forward to is Googling the migratory habits of the Egret after our long legged white passengers left us. We hope their journey has continued successfully after their little rest with us. Today we have seen some beautiful gannet type birds with huge wing span and very efficient diving fishing method. Would be nice to find out what that are too.
Finally I have to report the loss of the very last of our fishing equipment. Another huge “one that got away” must have swallowed our last lure hook line and sinker as the saying goes. I hope he does not have too much of a tummy ache! No fresh tuna for us sadly.
Day 13
This morning dawned with a brief tropical down pour, followed by a spectacular rainbow.
The night had seen us in close proximity to four other boats. It seems our courses are now converging as we near Grenada. Sadly the winds are mostly light so those who have not blown their spinnakers have a definite advantage and we could only fume as they crept ahead of us and their light disappeared into the gloom. The one boat that we have held onto, and finally this morning overhauled is our neighbour from the marina in Cape Verde, Blue Pearl. Strange that after 2000 miles we will finish within a few minutes of each other as we did on the first leg from Las Palmas. None the less it was a lovely night of sailing. The moon, still near full, did not rise until about 11pm so the early part of the night was a magnificent star filled spectacle. No light pollution here!
One bit of excitement on the daily radio chat this morning was news that Blue Pearl hit a UFO, unidentified floating object, in the early hours. It sounds as if the boat is OK although some very nasty scratches down the port side. Slightly alarming particularly for those who sleep right up in the bows.
We are now just 100 miles from Grenada and hoping to see it for the first time about lunch time, when we will need to gybe to get round the bottom of it. I am hope it to get a signal on my phone about then so I can send these 13 little missives to you all.
James has just got out the Courtesy flag for the Granadian nation, along with the yellow ‘Q’ quarantine flag. Seeing that reminds me that, amazingly, we have not sailed to France since the disaster that is Brexit. I wonder if I even have a Q flag since we have not needed one for so long. Grrr!
On a happier note we are very excited to be arriving before Jane and Lindsay arrive on Sunday. At the start when the winds were so light it looked as if they might be having to holiday just the two of them for a couple of days.So looking forward to seeing you both and having fun in the sun. It has been frustrating to be sailing on clear blue water for three weeks and not to have been able to swim and snorkel, or be able to stop by a little beach bar for a rum punch. We are so looking forward to doing all this together!
See you soon…
Day 14
OMG what a last day. It had everything that a Caribbean adventure should have, sun, wind, rain, calm, excitement, frustration, elation! Just no pirates.
The day dawned beautiful and found us some 120 miles from the finish sailing fast on starboard tack straight down the rumb line…272 degrees. Mental calculations had us arriving early in the night- we could almost taste the rum punch….but nature had a few surprises in store for us yet.
First of all as we were clearing away our last breakfast omelet the wind began to drop, lighter…and lighter..and lighter. The projected arrival time slipped. Near but so far! All morning the sails slattered against the shrouds. Oh how we wished we had not torn the cruising chute. We had some boats in sight, our friends on Blue Pearl, who we travelled alongside on the first leg were miraculously right with us on this final day again, and Soulsister who had been dropping in and out of AIS range for days finally came into actual view. But try as we might we were all creeping forward at just 4-5kts.
Then finally shortly after lunch (note that by this stage meals have become the only way of telling the time!) the wind returned, and as we approached the Island built until we were steaming along in 20kts of wind and doing over 8kts consistently…the lights of the Island appeared ‘Land Ho!’ We really thought we were nearly there by this stage, also that we were in with a chance of closing the 2.5 mile gap to Blue Pearl and keeping ahead of Soulsister who had been creeping up on us all day. Despite the excitement we kept our watch system going and some of us at least got a few moments of sleep.
We past the bottom of the Island in over 20kts, and decided to put in a reef prior to what we expected to be a spanking beat up the last few miles to the finish. Then we noticed on the AIS that Blue Pearl had stopped…had they gone aground? They did seem to have gone very close to the shore. We listened on the VHF for their cries for help…silence..hmm!
The we got it..all of a sudden the strong breeze dropped to just a faint zephyr, add to that a surprising counter current of 2kts, and we were stationary too. Out came the reef, sails tweaked to the max, and we crept forward. I was reminded of one of my teenage sailing books: “In light airs sensitivity is the key”. On we crept the line getting slowly closer. By this stage the line was a notional bearing from a pair of lights on a headland…closer and closer…then suddenly I asked James if there is an outer distance mark. “No but. The sailing instructions state we should be within two miles of the shore”. A quick look at Navionics revealed that we were 2.3 out. Oh no! So…we tacked in, and it took another agonising 20 mins before we finally were able to tack back and finish. 0311 ships (Cape Verde)time. Wow, what a last day!
So after 14 days the sails finally came down, engine on, and we headed in towards a bewildering forest of lights, still just behind Blue Pearl! There is a marina in there somewhere! For once it was nice to have Blue Pearl to follow!
The Arc+ welcome team were on the pontoon to take our lines and the adventure was over. True to Caribbean form we were handed glasses of wonderful rum punch as we stepped onto the dock-delicious! Even better it turns out that Blue Pearl is a ‘dry’ boat, and so they kindly donated their four glasses to us…for me that meant three glasses. Rum makes me happy…three glasses makes me very happy!
So that is why I did not write this blog yesterday morning…..
Jane and Lindsay, James’s and my wife fly in from snow covered southern England this evening, then our celebrations can really start