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Jack Rowland Smith - Log Day 13 - JACK Rowland Smith - Wet (or not so wet) Weather Gear



No sign of the fabled “crew log” yet so you have me again!!

Day 13 almost completed and, so far, very lucky for us. We have 725 miles to run and we now believe we can safely start looking at arrival dates/times which we believe will be early Thursday morning, obviously wind and routing permitting. Clocks went back another hour yesterday for the Independent State of JACK, such is the resident harmony that the hour was just adjusted and everyone mucked in the watch that consumed the extra hour. Oh if life was so simple in reality..........

After a rough night the previous night, it was a relieved crew that saw the sun rise and allow some light cast on the sea and allow us understand what we were wrestling with. The wind had been constantly 20+ knots all night and the sea very confused and whilst this situation did continue through the morning, by 3.00pm the sea state had subsided into a more standardised swell but the wind had remained pretty good, it made for great sailing and quick passage.

In fact as I write this we still are averaging circa 6.5.- 7.0 knots with the rig that has served us so well, double reefed main and poled jib.

The ARC office post a daily listing of location, distance to finish and average speed of each boat in the fleet. Whilst this is, of course, a rally you cannot help but have a passing interest on where other boats you know are and where the rest of your competitors are. For us, with our routing being so south, we have used average speed as a gauge of how we are doing. Yesterday we posted a 24 hour average of 7.5 knots which, we believe, is more than respectable and shows that whilst we have to be conservative, we are still pushing as best we can. It was also a good average verses our friends and competitors so we are happy. Of course there are days when the results are not quite as good which is normally received with the grunt of the skipper and the “they must be motoring” comment. The fact remains though that over 2,200 miles, good old JACK with family crew and bent boom have averaged 7.0 knots. We are proud of that.

Whilst George the Autopilot has given us a few issues, for the most part he has handled the downwind conditions brilliantly, especially in the windier and rollier stuff early on. Because of the distances involved the settings were well muted and so course changes only required when absolutely necessary and that worked well. Over the last couple of days, with all the system reboots we have done to try and solve the problems, we appear to have lost the “muted” settings and so George has been a little less reliable, at times we have even had to resort to hand steering.

And so it was, in one of those hand steering phases, that the skipper’s wet weather gear got wet!!! I was on the helm during the middle of the day having taken over from George who was struggling. Skipper was fast asleep in the “state room” or forecabin to the rest of us. I was merrily minding my own business when a slightly larger wave popped up alongside the boat with a little crest on it. Rather than JACK doing her usual thing of just lifting up and rolling over it, she clearly just thought “cannot be bothered” and carried on, at which point the crest of the wave broke straight on the deck, sending water down the side decks and down anything else that was open....... oh yes, Skipper had left his forehatches open and so was awoken from his deep slumber by a gush of sea water that soaked him, filled his deck shoes and, yes, got his wet weather gear wet that were hanging up under the hatch. Skipper was less than amused, I was sheepishly giggling to myself as I tried to apologise in the most humble way I could and the rest were rolling around in laughter. Top tip in the middle of a rough ocean, close your hatches. But on the bright side, the bed and sheets got a good airing in the tropical sun.

In this part of the world squalls are common and they represent localised clouds that are created by the warm humid conditions and ambient sea temperatures. We have been very fortunate on this trip in that whilst we have seen a couple pass by us on the radar, we have never been troubled. I had just finished my watch and handed over to the “video watch” and was in the process of checking emails when I heard lots of scrambling around and rustling of clothing. A squall had just come into radar range and was coming towards us. Well Clare, who by the way is now fighting fit, donned full wet weather gear, clearly expecting the worst and one assumes forgetting that we are in the tropics rather than English Channel. But braced and kitted the crew were awaiting the onslaught on torrential rain, strong wings and anything else these squally things may through at us. Alas we watched the cloud disperse on the radar and by the time Clare made it into the cockpit, the few drops of rain had fallen and I was able to quietly mutter, “but I can only see stars.......”. The only wind effect was a complete lull, in fact the only one we have had since our first night, but the wind picked back up after five minutes or so and off we went again. So we are prepared for a squall and we know what we need to do but we are now below 15 degrees north and squalls hopefully don’t like venturing that far south. - too close to Antarctica!!!!! However at least Clare has put on her wet weather gear on the trip!!!!!

“Dolphins on the starboard bow” was the shout as a lone dolphin comes along and then disappears, much to the dismay of the waiting crew. But clearly he had just gone off to tell his mates that we were friendly because we then were greeted by a whole pod of dolphins jumping and playing in our wake. Go Pro camera mounted in a professional stick (boat hook) and attached with insulation tape was then forced into the water to try and capture these beautiful creatures playing. Unfortunately JACK was doing its level best to surf, well lift her bow at the very least, and so the Go Pro footage was somewhat restricted by the time that the camera could actually be kept in the water. What wonderful creatures dolphins are and what an absolute pleasure it has been for us to witness them in their natural habitat, one of the very special memories of this trip.

Of course, whilst wanting to appreciate the full experience of the Atlantic, you cannot help but think about land. It is fair to say that when land is discussed, the focus currently does not get much past rum punch and cocktails but there is also so more talk now of walking, shopping and spas. For me it is bitter sweet; it will be great to achieve a life long ambition but sad that it marks an end to a relatively short period of being away from everything and focused on one thing. I will not be drawn in to such discussions at present, after all we have at least a full working week left at sea and some tricky weather to deal with. I did overhear a conversation between Chef Sue and Clare which went along the lines of “I will be glad when this boat stops moving”, “so will I As I am getting fed up with it”. Well I will only be glad we stop moving when we are tied up in St Lucia because we need to move to get there and we need wind to move.

But, alas, as the miles tick down there is no doubt we are starting to think about the outside world and Skipper and First Mate start to plan the next period of their adventure in the Caribbean - exciting times.

Not really much else to report, Chef Sue continues to do an absolutely fantastic job of keeping us all fed and we still have some fresh veg left so scurvy should not be a problem for this crew. Young Ben continues his “home schooling” by being extremely diligent and focused on getting as much GCSE revision and as many mock exams finished as he can. On the positive side, Laurel and Hardy may be back today as fishing was once more a discussion point yesterday, Marlin were even mentioned. Let’s hope not for the rest of our sakes!!!

Seaweed report, day 13 and big clumps bordering on “forests of seaweed” the scientific name of which I have been told but I have forgotten!!!

And So what does it look like for us on our run in to St Lucia. Well in short, Monday looks great for us with stronger winds from the East. Other than that it is light and there are much less in the way of routing options now we are closer to our destination. We plan to stay south and may even go a little further south Sunday to give us a good angle for Monday but the other days do not look fast for us. We will likely have to shake the reefs out of the main but so be it, we have nursed the rig long enough and we know we can get to St Lucia in reasonable time whatever happens. Fingers crossed we get more wind than less, we love it when the white horses are out, the sky is blue and the turquoise water sparkles.

All the best

Nick (in his element)

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