NaughtyNes - Blog days 1-5

All well here after a little trying and fairly slow Wednesday night. Stuff all breeze so we opted to motor for a while in hope of getting through a very large dead patch, which we eventually did by around 10 am. Started today slowly with a shy kite up in W-NW winds of around 5kts and now steadily building. We now (10 pm) have around 10-12 kts from the north west and doing just over 7 towards Verde. Our on going plan is and has been to sail at angles that give us the best speed and heading taking into account that we need to get south before heading too far west and we need a bit of breeze to get moving, although we are all so far impressed with the boats performance even in reasonable light winds for'd of the beam.Life on board is very comfortable and everything works extremely well.. read more...

NaughtyNes - Log Day 6

Less than 2000 miles to go!  The weather has settled into a routine slowing building to a steady 9/10 from mid afternoon to late evening, and then dropping off through the night to nothing at dawn. Then a few knots by mid morning, and then 5 or 6 knots until the afternoon increase.  The upside is that the direction is good for us, the sun is shining and perfect conditions for doing very little but relax.Nigel is in his element having all day to plan, prepare and cook the most fantastic meals with endless supplies of freshly cooked flapjacks and other treats in between.  The main race at the moment is to be able to eat our way through the 19 crates of fruit and veg that Nigel ordered in a moment of over enthusiasm when provisioning.  However being rather clever he did. read more...

NaughtyNes - Log days 7 and 8

Early yesterday morning as dawn broke and were becalmed, Nick told us of the sea and wind God Hewy and his story when becalmed during the 1976 Hobart race. The skipper had called on Hewy for some wind and as part of the tradition through some coins into the sea as an offering. A few hours later there were in the middle of a massive gale with huge waves and breaking tops.Nick then made his offering to Hewy to send us some wind and threw some coins into the sea. And Hewy has delivered - 36 hours of 18 -25 knots of wind, 2 Mt waves and 6 mt swell. Unfortunately Nick forgot to tell Hewy the direction of the requested wind ( or he cheap skated on the offering) and it is bang on the nose from the SW. However it is better than no wind and we are maintaining a good speed although more north than. read more...

NaughtyNes - blog day 9

Well another somewhat bumpy and tiring night. Our regular feast last night was also reefed and limited to cold hand food of hard boiled eggs, dry crackers, cheese and the odd clandestine mars bar. Even the cups of tea got were reduced. Our gourmet chef and over stocked larder both had a night off. The wind and then seas eventually abated, but not without fist some entertainment in the form of a broken (chafed) furler drive line. Lots of fun jury rigging that at 3 am on a bouncybow. A few hours of stitching and re rigging once the sun came up and the seas abated, has it now back in good order and hopefully the chafe point correctly identified and fixed with leather protection. A much easier day so far today with light to moderate south westerly's on a left over swell and clear sunny. read more...

NaughtyNes - Blog Day 10

The skipper asked me to do a Blog - things were going so nicely up to this point (apart from the peppers which I will discuss a little later) anyway I told him I'd already had one today thanks not that it had anything to do with him. "Blog" where did that word come from? So now that I understand what he really wants I can elaborate on the peppers in my defence. I have been given the envious task to be head cook for this little journey across the pond. First question was "is there anything that you don't like to eat?" Not a particularly taxing question for the grey matter on these quite grey haired guys (except Nick who is just hair), "I'll eat anything" was the general response. Well I know the skipper does not do "Dead Animal Shit" but doesn't mind us executing poor little fishes. read more...