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Jack Rowland Smith - Log Day 16 - the Joys of Sailing



Day 16 of the trip will go down as the day when if it could go wrong it will go wrong and we have learnt more lessons about ocean sailing.

As I write this we have 275 miles to run but those who like numbers will notice that our day to day mile rate is significantly down, we have only run 105 miles since my last report having averaged 6.8 knots in the previous day’s ARC produced noon to noon averages. Two reasons for this significant drop in speed, wind direction and more breakages.

A little more wildlife but not much to be honest. The odd bird looks at the boat as a potential resting place but I think word has got around about the sanity of the crew (well skipper) and they are giving us a very wide berth!! No dolphins either but the flying fish still come and visit with their delightful aroma. Poor language from Ben last night as he started the “video watch” and one landed right behind him in the cockpit and then flapped around all over the place. He was saved by a gentle nudge back into the water.

No crew issues yesterday either, everyone was pretty tired from the previous night spent dodging all the squalls. Even the skipper seemed to exhibit behaviour more becoming of a man with his level of responsibility. Chef Sue continues to produce culinary delights in what, at times, can only be described as near impossible conditions such is the way the boat is rolling, Clare continues to sleep well and is now feeling well enough to get involved more and Ben mixes watches with study, blogging and emailing (Sophie!!). I continue to enjoy the experience but the knowledge that my wife wants to get to St Lucia (and spend a few days there) weighs on me a bit, especially after the trials and tribulations of the last 24 hours.

So what has happened. Well, to explain the wind issue it is necessary to look at the design of JACK. JACK is a fantastic go anywhere boat that will keep you safe. As with any boat there are however compromises as no boat cannot be “all things to all men”. One of the compromises in JACK’s design is she is not really adapted to dead downwind sailing. Then if you throw into the mix the waves, we can therefore only really tack downwind with angles of 30 degrees either side of the actual wind direction. The forecast for yesterday, today, tomorrow etc etc is for the wind to be a solid from the east and we are going due west. So in short, we cannot point the boat where we want to go, we have to tack downwind. If you couple that with the burden of the broken boom which reduces our gybing options you can see the issues we face. Many boats have spinnakers that allow them to sail dead downwind even with some of the issues we face with JACK but we do not carry a spinnaker, these are expensive sails and get used relatively infrequently in cruising sailing and so are a luxury.

So we are tacking downwind which makes our Velocity Made Good to our destination less and I have to confess that yesterday afternoon we spent way too much time on the wrong gybe but, frankly, the gybing process is difficult and we were on the stronger gybe for the boom.

And then, at about 3.00pm, there was a huge bang and the fitting on the mast that supports our jib pole sheered completely. The pole was under significant load but thankfully it did not hit anyone or anything and did no collateral damage. However we now have no way of fixing the pole to the mast, we have thought about various options but they would involve potentially damaging the pole, the mast or something else which seems pointless at this stage. Without the pole the jib will not work going downwind so we are left with one sail only. The fitting that failed is a solid stainless steel ring and it was the ring that failed, not the weld or anything else. This shows the loads the whole rig is under.

This significantly dented morale, with this breakage and the bad routing our likely arrival time into St Lucia is delayed. However we still believe we will make Thursday if the wind plays ball a bit for us today.

After all this, and expecting a night of difficult squalls, we decided to have an early dinner so that those on the night watches could get some sleep. Dinner had been planned over a number of days as being “Darling Ben’s” favourite of fresh meatballs and pasta.

Food was five minutes from being served when bad crashing started from the rear lazorette garage (I call it a locker but skipper is insistent that garage is more appropriate and makes the boat sound larger!!!!!) where many of the tins of food and all the spare diesel is stored. Opening up the garage lid we were greeted with chaos. The floor of the lazorette is wet as it is close to the water line, in all the rolling the diesel cans and the plastic cartons storing tinned and glass bottled food had broken free and were flying from one side of the boat to the other every time the boat rolled. Skipper went in and just became part of the same movement finding it impossible to stop himself and at the same time he was at risk of injury because everything weighs so much. In short ithe situation was extremely dangerous as we could damage ourselves, the boat and also puncture diesel cans. It took us one and a half hours in the pitch dark to retrieve the diesel cans and get the diesel in the tanks, pull out all of the tins and bottles (some had already broken) and rehoused everything in the boat and then secure what was left. And just as we finished a big squall came through soaking us and giving us some fun wind shifts to deal with. However we all worked as a team, got it all sorted and sat down to a delicious dinner two hours later than expected; somehow Chef Sue had saved the dinner from being ruined.

On the brighter side we put a gybe in (or pirouette as he often tack round) late in the day and are on a better course for St Lucia. We have also been blessed, so far, with a squall free night and this has given us some quiet time, even if progress has been slow.. And touching all the wood I can find, the “output removal” and reboot has George working ok at the moment and steered brilliantly whilst we sorted out all the messes of yesterday.

So yesterday was not our finest hour but we live and learn. We have some clearing and repacking to do in the light this morning, at the moment when the boat rolls all you can here is tins moving!!

No 24 hour records for us today and certainly two more nights at sea but the more the miles tick down the better it is for us because we are now in motoring range should something untoward happen. We hope for a better day and the lesson is that you cannot rush ocean sailing because things happen, you do not control the weather and the boat cannot be equipped for every eventuality.

Nick (the Philosophical one)

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