Alice - Start day

Woke up to rain this morning but it's drying out and brightening up now. roger has made the rolls for lunch, chris is drying the boat, Andrew istidying and I am catching up with last minute emails and Internet while Ihave the chance.we have really enjoyed our time in Las Palmas.theorganisation has been fantastic and we have enjoyed all the parties, happyhours and seminars.last night we were all exhausted and met Sue, Davidand Paul for a Chinese and then headed back for an early night.Kevin andJean who we met in Portugal have just arrived to see us off so it's coffeeand tea time!. read more...

Alice - First night at sea

We had a wonderful start day yesterday.  Theatmosphere and excitement in Las Palmas was wonderful and even the occasionalshowers did not seem to dampen spirits.  A brass band and jugglers andclowns came down each pontoon before we left and Martin on Caduceus played thebagpipes all the way out of the harbour.  We left after the main rush hadfinished and crossed the start line at 13.10.  The promised accelerationzone at the airport didnt really happen for us so we had a pleasant sail pastthe bottom of the island.  At one point we were within speaking distance ofToucan but then they put up their cruising chute and off they shot.  Thewind in the night was right behind us but as we had reduced sail we made veryslow progress.  However at 6am we put the genoa. read more...

Alice - Alice in Charge

After the slow first night we are now doing a lot better as we have put "Alice" in charge.  She is making sure everyone does their jobs properly so the log will now be written by her.ALICEThe photo is of me sitting on the boom and keeping a look out.  We have been sailing on a broad reach for over 24 hours and have now done 280 miles.  All the crew seem to sleep a lot but I keep awake to make sure everything is ok.  Its very rare for them all to be up together.  Everyone is feeling well, the sun is shining and we have 15 - 20 knots of wind - this is the day that the weather forecast was for no wind at all!!!  The first night at sea we all had a lovely pasta bolognese and last night was chicken, new potatoes and green beans - delicious.  The fresh. read more...

Alice - No Wind

We have woken up this morning to virtually no wind at all.  It is now 32 degrees in the saloon.  The crew are up on deck changing sails but as there is no wind they are not doing much at all.  Still there are plenty of jobs to do.  I helped trim the sails by using the winch.  We are not rolling around so much so its housework time, its been impossible to do much in the last few days.We saw our first dolphins since Las Palmas this morning.  There were about 50 or 60 of them leaping around the boat.  In Norwegian (the only word I know) they were "Sprelsk" - hope Gaute and Thea are enjoying the crossing too.  We think there are some whales close by tooRoger has started fishing but is upset not to have caught anything yet. . read more...

Alice - Checking the fruit

The photo is of me doing a check on the fresh fruit net.  We have to check it all every day to make sure none of the fruit has gone mouldy.  It goes off very quickly in this heat. Yesterday we rigged our twin headsails for the first time which only lasted for about  half an hour as then there was no wind.  We decided to motor which helped to charge up the batteries. Saw lots of dolphins - the Atlantic spotted dolphins, they were doing wonderful acrobatics with jumps up to 6 ft high.  We could see whales in the distance too with their blow holes. In the evening we were serenaded by George the deckhand playing the guitar.  We had a good evening meal of beef stew in the cockpit, cooked by Roger the cabin boy while Air Traffic and then Joe Bonnamassa were. read more...