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Jack Rowland Smith - Log Day 15 - JACK Rowland Smith - Quiet Refection



Day 15 and progress feels painfully slow at times as we are at the mercy of the wind direction which, especially during the nights, does not want to play ball.

We have 380 miles to run this morning and a forecast that should get us to St Lucia in the early hours of Thursday morning. We are trying to beat 13.00 GMT on Thursday so that we have achieved our 18 day crossing target. We have therefore completed 2,500 sea miles and to put this into perspective, a trip from the UK to Gibraltar is probably less than 1,000. Ben, at the age of 15, also has his qualifying mileage for the Yachtmaster certificate which is brilliant for him.

All the days blend in to one after a while as watches and meals become just part of the pattern of daily life. Sleep is the one thing that cannot be organised and so the crew sleep whenever is possible, except for Clare who is managing to sleep through most of the nights, and half of the days!!! I need to take some of her seasickness tablets!!!

Yesterday saw a very frustrating morning with little wind, and that after a rubbish night of squalls, that was transformed as the trade winds picked up and we spent the afternoon at 7.0 - 8.0 knots going towards St Lucia. Very little for us to do because we have very limited downwind options so our poled out jib and one reefed main was what we had and we just enjoyed the ride. It suddenly struck me that there was nothing in the UK on a cold December day that could get close to sailing downwind in the warm at 8 knots so I felt honoured to be given the opportunity to do this trip.

The trouble we are finding is that the closer we get to St Lucia the more squalls we get at night. This is a relative novelty for us as we had a squall free passage up until a couple of days ago. The situation is compounded by the fact there is no moon currently and so it is very difficult to see what we have in store except big red blobs on the radar!!! We are running downwind with a boom that is getting more bent by the day, a false move from us or a quick windshift (as happened last night but we were thankfully in the other Gybe) and the boom will likely break which is something we need to avoid at all costs, not least because it is very big and very heavy and could easily do other damage.

Up until 3.30 last night we were on starboard gybe but we were making painful progress as the wind had shifted, at one point we were going due north rather than due west!! In the end nothing for it, we had to gybe to get back on course but with 20+ knots it would potentially put too much strain on the spar and so we decided to tack round instead. “We didn’t lose too much doing that did we” asked the skipper of me, in the grand scheme of things it was nothing but it shows our mindset.

A squall not only comes with rain but occilating and stronger winds. At about 11.45 last night, the video watch were keeping track of everything when a large squall with a lot of rain and wind came through. Skipper is due on watch at 00.00 and so was asleep, I am on watch at 4.00am and so was also asleep(ish). I woke up to chaos. Rain was pouring in through all the open hatches and so the inside of the boat was soaked and Chef Sue was screaming at the skipper to come up and help. Well the skipper has a ritual to go through before making his watch entrance and no screaming or a squall was going to stop the ritual. I awoke and thought the worst, got straight up and grabbed my wet weather jacket and ran on deck to pouring rain and the boat flying along in 30+ knots of wind. My instinct was to grab the helm from George, who was struggling, and ensure that whatever happened we did not gybe.

Things quietened down a bit just as skipper surfaced from the state room. Chef Sue had also resumed her station sitting behind the wheel that I was steering at. As skipper popped his head up the companion hatch, Chef Sue shouts “Nick I hope you have pants on under that jacket?”, Skipper looked at me and clearly there was only one answer........... another close call in the episodes that are experienced trying to get a boat acros the Atlantic.

Nights now are much more highly stressed and they put much more pressure on a small crew because sleep patterns are even worse. After our 3.30 gybe we settled down under deeper reef Main alone and basically saw out the night pushing along at relatively slow speeds. Whilst we suffered a couple more squalls, at least we were sailing once again in the general direction of St Lucia, even if it was a bit slow.

This morning, nearly 400 Miles out to sea, we were visited by a butterfly. Truth be told I am sure the butterfly had been hiding somewhere on the boat but he came out and sat on the winch beside me as I steered. Pretty sentimental stuff this, especially when you are tired, but Clare believes that her father comes back to watch over us all as a robin or a butterfly. So rather apt that we have a visit from a butterfly in the middle of the Atlantic, Douglas would have loved to do this trip with us all and certainly gave an opportune time for a quiet reflection.

So what is left for us to do? Well, sail downwind to St Lucia which has been what has been required since day one. Easy I hear everyone say and to some degree it is. It is however amazing how a trip such as this takes its toll on the boat and the crew and we have to be constantly checking things. George had two hissy fits yesterday, within ten minutes of each other. This time though nothing for it, out came the screwdriver and the chart plotter (the autopilot is connected to this) came out of its casing and we disconnected some of the “unnecessary” outputs to see if that made any difference. Rather worrying operation this, especially given the chart plotter is the centre of everything navigational so it failing to reboot would be less than unhelpful!! Since then George has behaved but we constantly have someone behind the wheel. Our rather bent boom really needs to hold out too. We will make it even if it breaks but it will put a day on our journey time. As I write this the wind is building and we are on port gybe so at maximum risk, never good for the nerves with George driving so I am sat behind the wheel!!!

By the way we still have not seen any boats/ships/planes though last night the VHF radio burst into life for the first time which means there are boats in radio distance now. Ben and I also saw something that was very eerie, we saw what looked like a flare go up and come down a few miles away from the boat, but we received no emergency call or anything. There is probably a simple explanation but very spooky all the same and Ben went to bed very unnerved.

A bit of trivia for you all, flying fish fly far better nearer the Caribbean than in the Atlantic so I assume there are more predators. They seem to fly for longer and seem to look where they are going. This being said, one skimmed Ben’s face and landed in the cockpit last night much to the amusement of the crew off watch (skipper and me) and to the disgust of the crew on watch (everyone else).

We will report in again tomorrow and in the meantime we will do our best to get downwind to St Lucia.

Nick

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