Daily Logs

Four Seasons - Day 5- Wheelbarrows, dogs and landrovers

Along with a nuclear submarine, a flat iron and a baby in a pushchair theseare just some of the things we have seen so far. Yes, we are playing ‘spot theobject’ in cloud formations. Never ceases to amaze me what some people can see,especially after a rum ! Life moves along at it’s incredibly hectic pace. Windis umm, oh yes from the ENE. Still wing and wing and averaging around 6;5 kts.George is driving most of the time (as he is by far the best helm on the boat).However, we have had to deploy Mildred (the towed generator) to keep up withpower demands. Yes, as you can see, we are taking this racing very seriously. Ona more serious note, our rudder bearing has given way again and there is a lotof play in it. There is not a lot we can do about it apart from not push toohard and take up. read more...

Team Brunel - blog 5

Blog 5 ARC Rally November 27th 2015 ’15 shades of grey….’ Ever sailed an ocean? No? you should try it, it’s magical, overwhelming,  peaceful, violent, cruel but above all fantastic!!!! We’re sailing  through rainbow territory, honestly, we’ve seen 1 full grown moon  rainbow and a handful of partial rainbows, fairytale! And this immense  empty world causes a very subtle feeling of intimacy, comradery..  friends for life. We met 3 boats in 5 days.. busy times. There is literally no one around  here, which is great. Stresses the need though to be very careful  indeed, it’s us, the boat and the ocean. Oh right, and a whole lot of  flying fish. About an hour before sunset they start flying around to  escape predators (like our yellow. read more...

Timshel - Cape Verde to St Lucia Day 9

Sailing in the afternoon seemed a little slow so we put up the cruising chute - suddenly things were much more exciting.At least the refurbished snuffer worked OK, but our normal guide of 15 kts true max wind for this sail is probably valid, with 18 or so it just got too interesting so we reverted to poled out yankee with relief.We may yet need the light weather sail so best not to blow it quite yet.Anyway wind got up by evening so we were making max speed (7 kts or so) even in the correct direction for once, we do find it difficult to go exactly down wind under self steering.So good progress overnight continued in the morning.I was convinced that the black clouds that gathered in the evening would give us some rain and was ready with shampoo towel and bucket - but nothing we managed to. read more...

Albatros - Nov. 27 at 10:23 am

Albatros update: My morning shift starts at 8. At 7:30 I sit at the end of our boat, the Albatros. It is still dark, no lights to be seen anywhere, no other ships. But in front of us: the full moon. Above us the stars. And then, slowly, majestically the sun starts to rise and light up our world. Thus begins my day at sea.We are making a good course, and in my previous night shift we have hit squalls, those clouds with the dark belly. Stormy and rainy for all but 30 minutes, about 30kn of wind, and she, our proud ship, enjoying every second of it, rides like a madman, or rather mad women, through the deep darkness. Thus ended my previous shift, last night at 2 am.Ok, time to head for the helm again. My 20 minutes are about to start. Let's see what this day brings. [Boris]. read more...

Albatros - Nov. 26 at 4:01 pm

Albatros update: we changed course again. Sails now port side, and we are able to sail west! Saw some flying fish earlier today. Cheers from 23° 51.57 N, 29° 42.21 W2015-11-26 14:56:36 +0000. read more...

Albatros - Nov. 26 at 11:06am

Albatros Update: 24° 18.66 N, 29° 7.36 W2015-11-26 09:25:35 +0000Our new course of 230 degrees has brought us much closer to the ideal course - we are now 45 miles away from that magical, but really rather virtual line. Wind 20kn, 1900 miles to Saint Lucia. Still no catch, but Manfred delivers tasty food so no complaints.. read more...

Albatros - Nov. 25 at 7:22pm

We changed course to 230. Sails now starboard. Tonight octopus for dinner. Looks as if we are still doing pretty good.. read more...

Albatros - Nov. 25 at 4:58pm

Crew starts to feel better - it takes a couple of days to get acclimated to the constant movement and noise, the sleeping patters disrupted by our 3/4 watch system. My next watch starts at 4, in a couple of minutes. Last etmal 240nm - given we have no spinnaker boom, that is fantastic. Another boat just crossed our keel water, but we couldn't identify her. That was the biggest event of the day ;-)Weather is nice, some clouds, 20-25kn wind. We have tried to add our second fore sail but we are losing 20 degrees, without gaining any speed. So that doesn't make sense.On other news the crew has started to take seawater showers. It feels great! Ok, time for coffee now and my 4hr watch.. read more...

Taniwha - Fwd: Log 26.11

Subject: Log 26.11Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2015 02:40:09 +1300Unanimous decision to install a safety zip in the spinnaker this morning. Successfully accomplished, just need to sew the zip in once at shore!Cheers--. read more...

Albatros - Nov. 24 at 7:20pm

First day distance made good 253 nautical miles. Second day only 200nm due to loss of spinnaker boom for Passat sailing.. read more...

Albatros - November 24 at 7:01pm

Update: meanwhile we have seen Dolphins, and rainbows. No unicorns though. While we decided not to try to build an improvised spinnaker boom, we do make good speed without one. A pity we can't go directly to west. But the mood is very positive.. read more...

Albatros - November 24 at 6:09pm

25° 54.38 N, 22° 54.72 W2015-11-24 17:07:24 +0000. read more...

Albatros - Nov. 24 at 1:02pm

Letzte Nacht um 12:20 ist unser Spinnakerbaum aus der Halterung gebrochen. Wir könnten den Baum bergen und können momentan keine Passatbesegelung mehr fahren. Daher fahren wir jetzt einen etwas nördlichen Kurs. Crew wohlauf. Haben zudem Probleme mit den Rudern, welche sich ständig lösen. Wir haben das Problem etwas mildern können, müssen aber immer noch alle paar Stunden nachziehen. Momentan fahren wir mit 8-10kn 290 Grad. Somit können wir nicht mehr mit einer Ankunft unter den ersten 3 rechnen. Sind aber alle guter Dinge, versuchen Fisch zu fangen und heute Nachmittag gibt es selbst gebackenen Kuchen.. read more...

Cookelu meu - progress report, midpoint celebration and alternaor problems

Yesterday we celebrated crossing the midpoint with a big party. Peter prepared a perfectly roasted beef, Yorkshire pudding and gravy with potatoes and peas and scones  prepared by Lars after a traditional British recipe.  That’s the good news. The bad is that the 24V alternator stopped working and we definitely cannot fix it. In our boat most of the electronics, the freezer and the fridge, the autopilot, the head (toilet bowl) and the watermaker and big inverter run of the 24V system, so without the alternator we only have the solar panels and the tow generator to charge them. They are not enough to keep all systems running. For the moment we don’t use the water maker – but have enough water in our tank – and we use the backup 25 years old Autohelm 3000. read more...

Skyelark of London - Day 5 - oh what a night!

Hi everybodyThe wind died down last night, so we ended upusing every sail configuration we could of thought off, to keep the boat moving, sails up sails down, poles switched from side to side, main up, main down.. do not know how Dan and Em keep going night and day! but ended up using the iron horse in the early hours until the morning.The Spinnaker went up first thing and worked for a while but it wasn't long until we needed the engine again!Just had a Sundowner with a lovely Dorado dinner made by Mike and Simon. washing up completed,now settling in to the night watches, sailing, Just!cheersTony. read more...

Mojeka - Transatlantic Day 10

19:37:00 UTC Friday Nov. 27, 2015Position: 14.916183N, 50.105749WMOJEKA PAS DE DEUXMojeka is a boat priding itself on its sense of culture.On the HiFi we have been treated to Beatles, Bach, BeBop and Blues.In respect to the dancing arts we are performers ourselves.Scene: Mojeka cockpit with one table off-center. Up to 7 performers with up to 14 bare feet (this is the barefoot route after all).The stage is a special construction so far not seen in theatres in the main centres. Its speciality is the capacity to move any spot of the floor randomly to another place without a moments notice.Initial scene: some of the dancers are sitting and have their feet firmly on the floor, in the interest of balance wide apart and projecting from the seats wide into the space in between. A new dancer. read more...

Vitamina - vitamina diary

We have crossed the 1.000 miles !!! and we celebrated it eating somecooconut and chocolate cookies... The wind has dropped to 10 knots the last two days and we will hope that itgoes up... we have fished a huge fissh but we losted it...a pitty... we continue enjoying the sunsets and the sunrises and the starnights..... St Lucia wait for us...... read more...

Taniwha - Log 24.11

Subject: Log 24.11Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2015 04:04:57 +1300VERY busy couple of days since our last log!... all hands on deck to keep us on the line.. regular sail changes, course plotting, cooking, keeping a constant 24hr watch rotation working! All crew managing to grab some sleep when they can, keeping daily rum ration to minimum!Cheers--. read more...

Magic - salty sea dog Blog

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Aqualuna - 23:29.677N 31:08.433W

DAY 6 ARC FRIDAY 27/11/15As you may have noticed on the log chart we had a bit of a wiggly waggly course as we were looking for wind last night.My watch from 3 - 5 am was good except I had to reduce the genoa as a big squall was coming up behind us, this didn’t help much so got Jonathan up to help me take a reef in the main.Yacht eventually settled and we were able to make a more southerly course broad reaching.It was a beautiful night with good moonlight which is great to see what is going on.We also had our first lot of Flying Fish land on deck.When I awoke this morning ‘the boys’ were hoisting the bright pink asymmetric (hereinafter referred to as the Pink Panther) which has helped hugely in the light winds and with our speed. The Pink Panther comment was made by Jervis.Sue’s. read more...

Taistealai - The Story So Far

Day Five and time to reconnect with the world andeveryone whom we hope has been lamenting our lack of Taistealai blogs.  For those of you who don’t know aboutsailing, try to imagine our world for the first few days of the voyage; the boatis rolling and bumping around like a demented roller-coaster, nothing stayswhere you put it down, and striping our foulies off or on becomes a crazyone-legged dance, slip sliding around whilst holding onto the boat. Never hasthe phrase “one hand for you and one for the boat” seemed so relevant. And thecause of all this? Day one of the ARC and full-on ocean sailing as we chargeddown the coast of Gran Canaria before heading west to cut through the infamouswind acceleration zones off the Canary Islands. We knew what to expect – Chris,our illustrious. read more...

Taniwha - Log 25.11

Subject: Log 25.11Date: Thr, 26 Nov 2015 02:29:18 +1300Nigel spilt his wine last evening, he was keel hauled by the crew at day break.As he came up the other side he was heard to yell.."the best exfoliation I've ever had!"--. read more...

Lucky Star -27/11/2015 Atlantique 1 Spi 0

Bonjour tout le monde!Ici Lucky star, nous avons testé le spi ce matin et cet après-midi, ça marchait super bien (7-8noeuds). On se voyait déjà remonter au classement, Team Brunel en vue!!! Malheureusement, un grainen a voulu autrement. Un spi sous 30 noeuds de vent c'est compliqué à gérer... Bref sur les 160m²,il nous en reste 5...Nous allons nous rabattre sur nos autres voiles d'avant.La bonne nouvelle c'est que le bateau n'a pas été couché et qu'il n'y a rien d'autre de cassé.Nous lançons donc un appel à votre générosité pour nous envoyer un nouveau spi (très) rapidement.Sinon tout va bien et on garde le moral.Pour suivre notre position vous pouvez le faire par le site directementTeam Lucky Star. read more...

Lea - Log Day 19 –Thursday/Christmas Calendar

  22:48 Local LeaTime Todayis the day we decided to start our Christmas calendar. The reason for that isbecause in 25 days, my mother is leaving us for a few weeks because of work. Soit’s partly so that she doesn’t miss out on the very precious tradition of theChristmas calendar, and partly because it’s our 9th day at sea and weare really starting to run out of jokes. The way it works, is that we each havetwo gifts for everyone, so that we’ll have 24 in total, which of course wouldmake more sense if we started on the 1st. But anyway, whoever’s dayit is to do the dishes also has her turn to get a gift, so they kind ofcompensate. We are all probably more excited about this than the normal amount,but then again who said we were ever normal.  Todayit was my day to do the dishes, so. read more...

Rhumb - Day 6 - A quiet one at last

After the hiatus of the first 3 days, we can now report much more settled conditions, although it has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime, and seriously hampering progress generally.A very quiet day for us all, and much needed after much banging and flogging in the sails and rigging as a result of winds dropping to 12kn. We all so wish for a good full nights sleep, apart from Roger who seems to be able to sleep anywhere, anytime. I think myself and Tweetie can only muster around 12 hours between us for the whole trip so far. Today we had thought about doing some fishing, but after depleting the Atlantic fish stocks with our flying fish yesterday, we have opted for a beet stroganoff with all the trimmings (peas). Lunch was a mix of smoked salmon sarnies, with a nice mixed salad. read more...

Meltemi - 6. Tag Parasailor

Hallo zusammen, nachmittägliche sonnige Grüße von der Meltemi. Nach zwei Schiffssichtungen in der Nacht (leider ohne AIS) brach ein schöner Tag an - allerdings mit recht wenig Wind. Am Vormittag haben wir dann den Parasailor gesetzt - wunderbar zieht er uns in rot und weiß bei Wind um 10 - 14 Knotenmit 6-8 Knoten durchs tiefblaue Wasser. Zur Belohnung gabs dann heute selbst gebackenes Brot (Backmischung von Ikea) im Sonnenschein zu köstlichem Salat von Klaus und Timmy. Die Stimmung ist gut, frische Sachen sind in Fülle vorhanden, die Wachwechsel funktionieren reibungslos und durch das System 4 Stunden Wache tagsüber und 3 Stunden nachts kriegt jeder auch den Charme der verschiedenen Wachzeiten mit. So richtig vermissen tut den Winter hier keiner aktuell, mit Badehose in der Plicht sitzen. read more...

Ocean Venture - Blog - Ocean Venture - November 27th

November 27th Today there is a tale to tell!! Fish Count “1”; Bought Lures Lost “3”, Hand Made Lures Lost “2” (your lures are safe Rick). Using all of our fishing technical know how we made a new lure out of pipe and cooking foil (well done Mark), and hooked a “Mahi Mahi”, not a big one, big enough to eat, weighing in at around 2 Kg. Tonight it will be cooked in the oven in cooking foil, lemon slices & juice, garlic, olives, courgettes, green pepper, salt and pepper. Our taste buds are watering already. There should even be enough for a whole mouthful each! Yummy Yummy says my tummy! Our skipper’s (Derek) first fish caught in the ARC and he’s taken a photograph to prove it. A Flying Fish landed in. read more...

Bamarandi - Friday 27th November - New crew member "M" flies in it join Bamarandi

Days Day Date Time Miles to St Lucia Miles in 24hrs towards St Lucia Cum Miles towards St Lucia Ave Miles per day towards St Lucia 1 Wednesday 18th 13:00 2090       2 Thursday 19th 13:00 1901 189 189 189 3 Friday 20th 13:00 1756 145 334 167 4 Saturday 21st 13:00 1605 151 485 162 5 Sunday 22nd 13:00 1423 182 667 167 6 Monday 23rd 13:00 1238 185 852 170 7 Tuesday 24th 13:00 1073 165 1017 170 8 Wednesday 25th 13:00 891 182 1199 171 9 Thursday 26th 13:00 722 169 1368 171 11 Friday 27th 13:00 531 191 1559 173An uneventful afternoon was followed by an uneventful night with a few drops of rain on the 10pm to 2am watch and some heavy black threatening clouds that sent people down for their waterproofs that eventually came to nothing on the 2 other watches through the night. We. read more...

PG Roshni - 27/11 1415 Clear

14:13.1N 51:41.3WWell we did end up gybing as the forecasts all gave wind coming more NE. This has paid off finally and we are on a direct line for St Lucia eta sometime on Monday...Beer o'clock me thinks.Weather has seemed to have stabilised and we have blue sky and a nice steady 20kn up the chuff to push us along at 9-10kn. After tightening the steering wires the vibration from the port side wheel has stopped but she still feels heavy - I reckon we are dragging a fishing net or something wrapped round the keel. Can't do much about it until we get there as stopping and diving on the boat in 2-3m seas is er..well slightly mad unless you really have to!In other news:A full roach hunt was conducted around the suspicious areas and suitably toxic preventive spray used. Happily nothing more. read more...

Aliena - viernes 27-11-2015

Hoy hemos tenido un problema con la vela mayor. Se ha roto el grillete que la sujeta. Por eso estamos de camino a Mindelo (Cabo verde, a motor, para repararla y desde alli ir a Santa Lucia. Seran unos dias de retraso pero no pasa nada. Estamos todos bien incluida Aliena.Carmen. read more...

Ruby Rose - Day 6

Greeting from Ruby Rose,   750 miles from Las Palmas and we spent this morning preparing for a day ofloafing around and reading. we’ve had a couple of lazy days getting us back intosteady sleep patterns..   Firstly, our watt and sea generator isn't working properly. We think its awiring problem, and so we will rewire it tomorrow and see what the news isthere. Its a conduiting job which i hate. Never tried it at sea , so there's funand games to be had there.   In other news: we stupidly took the advice from Tomas from Parasailor aboutour spinnaker halyards. He advocated a crane and block, not our system that hasworked flawlessly for 3 years. So off we trotted to Rolnautic  (AKA therichest man in Spain) and purchased blocks and shackles.  Anyway, wehoisted the. read more...

Y2K - Y2K - ARC 2015 - Day 5 - 26 Nov

Posizione: 22°11N 27°14W Rotta 230° Velocità 5,5 ktLa giornata passa tranquilla, stiamo navigando verso sud ovest al lasco.Vogliamo scendere ancora perchè siamo davvero stufi del mare mosso.Sicuramente non troverema mai una giornata di calma, e sicuramente ci pentiremo di non avere vento, ma ne abbiamo bisogno, siamo un poco provati e sballottati.Anche adesso, il mare è davvero mosso e ci sballotta, siamo in navigazione a oltre 7 nodi e sembra di essere in una lavatrice.Ci siamo confrontati fra noi e tutti abbiamo bisogno di un po' calma, tanto non regatiamo, se ci mettiamo uno o ue giorni in più cosa cambia ?Oggi abbiamo avuto un incontro molto ravvicinato con una barca Norvegese di nome Nelly 2. La navigazione avviene sulle stesse mura, noi siamo sottovento quindi avremmo il diritto di. read more...

TWIXX - TWIXX eten aan boord

Eten is zo ongeveer het belangrijkste gebeuren aan boord. Dus voor ieder wat wils. Frank vraagt Rob al een paar dagen waar de hotdogs verstopt zijn. Vandaag gevonden! Voor Frank maakt dit de reis al de moeite waard. Sommige mensen zijn gauw tevreden. Voor de borrel zitten we op een iets hoger eetniveau;). Taart met queso azul en ui en een halve met maanzaad en banaan. Voor vanavond staat er een lekkere curry met groene papaya salade op t menu. 'sOchtends vinden we vliegende vissen aan boord zelfs op het dak, het zijn echte hoogvliegers!Wel erg klein om daar een filet vanaf te halen. Onze voorraad groente en fruit zien er nog prima uit. Mede door alles te verpakken in de longlifezakken van de Hiperdino. Alleen de bananen gaan hard, zelfs de groene tros. Maar dat is ook wat iedereen al. read more...

Taniwha - 21.11 Log

Subject: 21.11 LogDate: Sun, 22 Nov 2015 02:03:44 +1300All's well on the good ship Taniwha!Rotating 3hr shifts between 1900 & 0700 working well.Bigger seas today... 3 - 4m, and gusting to 25... Bill's pancakes for lunch!Cheers--. read more...

Isabel - Day 5

Thursday 12 Noon 26/11/2105 23 2300 N 30 43 47W - 145 miles daily run - distance to St Lucia 1800Attached "Rock Star" picture of Skipper James on the bow last night. Itwould have been nice to send you a picture of Peter (again) today dressed injust his mincy Gingham shorts, Mrs G don't worry I have checked re suntanand he assures me he has creamed himself all over.Well today is the ARC brochure picture day with sunshine, puffy clouds (notsure what Chris Tibbs calls them) and 10 to 15 knots of breeze pushing usalong nicely. We have the "Bird" up, a full size genneker. Yesterday it wentup at a about 1600hrs in 20 kts of wind which of course then increased togusting 30 kts plus giving us a stonking sail at 10 knots + but comedarkness the fun had to stop so chaps on the foredeck hauled on. read more...

Hot Stuff - Hotstuff blog DAY 5

Hectic Nights - take two!   The last 24 hours have been the busiest of the journey so far. One thing wehave discovered is that this is NOT a holiday. Sarah's oil to make her eyelashes grow will have to stay in the bag for another day. It's funny - when weimagined the Atlantic Crossing we forgot the continuous maintenance that wouldbe required (and we are talking about the boat - not our nails!). Flashing back to the scene yesterday afternoon: The pole was laying down the companionway into the saloon and resting onKaren's head whilst we were performing surgery to try and recover the trip line.The kettle was on the boil to see if we could dissolve some of the saltencrusted on the machinery, together with the old fav' WD40. Thalitta wasrummaging in the first aid kits to find the. read more...

Taniwha - 22.11 Log

Subject: 22.11 LogDate: Sun, 22 Nov 2015 23:27:08 +1300Mahimahi this morning!... good start to the day!Making good an average 7+ knots and sticking close to the "great circle route".No rain, some scattered cloud, mid to high 20's. Lots of flying fish.Cheers--. read more...

EH01 - LOG DAY 5 - First Catch

We’ve had a mixed couple of days with still several squalls on Wednesdayand then very light winds especially yesterday and last night. Conditions havebeen a little exhausting for everyone, as we had to keep changing head sails andputting reefs in and then shaking them out on a regular basis. However, theweather seems to be settling now with 15 knots of easterly, north easterly windwhich allows us to run fairly close to our rhumb line After a few hick ups with our kite hoist yesterday, today we have it up,for the first time, and cruising along nicely. It is also getting warmer andwarmer so we have been having regular salt water showers to refreshourselves. Yesterday evening, just before the sun went down, we caught our first fish,a nice Dorado. Paddy and I managed to get it on board and. read more...

Nix - ARC+ leg 2 day 9 Our compeleges

During the last few days we had an interestingfight with our competitors; the Spirit, Bepa and Adrienne. We learned to knowtheir crew better during our stay is Las Palmas and Mindelo. All pleasentlydisturbed sailors that act as if they starting a cruise, but when they are atsea they pushed their yachts so hard that damage is unevitable. On the Nixwe only lost the spi boom rail on the mast, the #2 genoa, aspinnaker and the main sail is falling apart due to the big forces that weapply during reefing. Since the Adrienne was only 3 miles ahead, we put on thecarbon blade so the speed cannot fall under 9 knots. Result after 24 hours: a 9mile lead. Thank you Dick, Alexey and Ove for the fierce competition we got onour "cruise". Our simplified watch scheme paid off pretty. read more...

Nix - ARC+ leg 2 day 8 Mak Mee?

The Mahi Mahi we catched served us only one meal.The rest is fed to Mak Mee, the white Herron that landed on the Nix on day 5.Why the bird is called Mak Mee? and why Boris slept a night with the bird isdescribed in the following story that was told by crew memberKarel.   Karel told us that he once got caught in his bedroom by his wife with a beautifull blond naked woman. The explanation hegave her was as follows.   Karel (Carol for his friends) was walking throughthe meadow, when he spotted a big green frog. The frog was looking at him andasked him in frog Dutch ... Mak Mee? Mak Mee?.....(Can I come with you?). Karelwas a moment very surprised but then agreed. They walked through the meadowtill they came to a small canal. Karel jumped over the canal but the frog. read more...

Scarlet Oyster - Day 4 Scarlet ARC 2015, Rhumb line to the Rum!

Friday. Mid Atlantic.And its a big welcome to all our readers. Its been a bit full on for mesince flying out to Las Palmas so here goes with my first blog. This is thethirtieth ARC as every winter ship loads of Yachties head south to blueskies, Parties, fireworks and Trade Winds.Normally by now Jack Frost has rapped his icy knuckles on the window panesand snow mantles the Highlands. As a result of global warming this has beenthe hottest November in living memory. Property spivs are marketing smallvineyards for development in the Antartic.We are a cosmopolitan crew. A big crew. Plenty of time in a deck chair forlittle old me. Reading a book. Meanwhile Vitaly, our Russo Canadiansinglehandledly sends sails flying up the mast pulled in equally powerfullyby our Croatian, Dinko. Mario from. read more...