can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

North Star - USA - 20 Nov Log Day 1 - First Day Challenges



Well, venerable North Star sauntered to the starting line and crossed at 1310 19 November with a few miles to go. The winds were light but with the help of our dramatically colored, although a little faded, brown and white spinnaker we flew down the coast of Gran Canaria looking for the dreaded acceleration zone (where the wind sometimes doubles or more in velocity around the end of the Gran Canaria Island). Finally, not having found it, we took the spin down anyway just as a precautionary step for the evening. Our self-steering vane, which we affectionately call Joshua, after Joshua Slocum, decided not to come to work today. After an almost total rebuild of the vane, we did find the seas in that dreaded acceleration zone and found that neither Joshua nor North Star's electrically-powered auto pilot would control the ship, so we were forced to hand steer until the morning when we could see what we were doing to set things right.

Did I say a few miles to go? Quite a few and with North Star blazing along at her comfortable 5.5 knots for these long voyages, we should be to St. Lucia in a few weeks. So for us, Ted (skipper), Rick and Henry (crew) this is a marathon and not a sprint. Rick decided he would not be the galley slave so we could share the honor. He chose to be the galley manager and resident wine expert. Henry, who is, like Rick, also one of the world's best crew, does everything necessary to keep things together. Did I mention the North Star is 35 years old this December? Remember Henry ties things together. Our memory of our last crossing when the bimini almost fell overboard, one of his first steps was to tie it up and secure it to keep it from falling over again.

In the morning Joshua finally decided to play nice and do his job steering North Star. I spent the day chasing a possibly non-existent fresh water system leak and finally gave up and took a nap. Henry and Rick focused on developing a strategy to arrive safely in St. Lucia. I think they focused on the strategy to avoid interaction with me -- the guy on the war path looking for that stupid leak. I thought for sure there was a leak, but now I am not so sure -- but I was glad to take a nap!

Previous | Next