Jack Rowland Smith - Log Day 8 - JACK Rowland Smith Relief on a Number of Counts

Day 8 ends with another 3.00am gybe which is sending us due west and on starboard gybe - what a relief.......

Couple of trivial points of note as I sit here, the half moon when you are close to the equator is the shape of a saucer and not a traditional half moon on its side that you get further north. Secondly, when on night watch on a clear night I recon you see a shooting star every 10 minutes and that is the ones you spot, it is unbelievable.

Now on to yesterday. Well it was always going to be a tough day for us from a wind and gear perspective but in some ways having a lighter wind and sea day gave the crew a chance to recover. It also gave us a chance to look at Clare’s seasick tablets and try to get her sorted out. It has got to the point that skipper has had to resort to reading the instructions for the tablets rather than just the normal “have you taken your tablets”. The situation is compounded by the fact that Clare is not consistent in her taking of tablets which I believe is hereditary but better leave that point quickly...... but what we did do yesterday afternoon was change Clare’s tablets. Well she popped her head up at 3.30 this morning and had a cup of tea with us in the cockpit so this is definite progress. It will be a huge relief to me if Clare starts to feel better again and at least have a chance to enjoy this once in a life time experience (thank goodness it is only once I hear Clare saying........).

The sea was still too up and down for any washing machine antics and so twitching skipper and first mate have a lot of washing stored up. Conditions look more promising for the spin cycle today so I suspect it will be a boat laundrette this afternoon, hopefully the washing will increase our reduced sail plan and speed us up!! I would point out that my washing machine, a bowl of water and some washing powder, functioned without issue yesterday!!!! I will also point out for future reference that I even washed some of my wife’s clothes (may need documentary evidence of this in the future.....).

Fishing was of course banned yesterday; anybody fancy some tuna?? We have so much we are happy to sell some though time and distance to market may be an issue!!! With no fishing opportunities and associated tomfoolery, Laurel and Hardy spent the afternoon checking each other on Physics, far more productive and Hardy learnt a few things from his nephew Laurel!!! Proper home schooling though Ben once again excels in his dedication to get work done, we had to tell him to stop yesterday!!!

First real video watching day for the crew yesterday evening and first watch (8.00pm to 12.00pm) watched two videos in the cockpit. I am sorry to do this to all my friends in the UK but it is 5.00am ships time and I am sat writing this on watch in the cockpit wearing shorts and a tea shirt (clean). In fact, on the matter of time, in reality it is probably 4.00am but we cannot get a ship’s consensus on who’s watch we gain the next hour we need to gain so we carry on on the wrong time.........what a way to live, we can even decide our own time out here.

Talking of watches and time, there is definitely a point of note that has become very apparent. The skipper is a little averse to doing watches at night on his own, speculation being that he is afraid of the dark. Firstly just getting him on watch at the allotted time is difficult enough, but the first mate has to keep him company until she falls asleep (which can be quite quickly if skipper is waffling on about something irrelevant as we all know he often does). So 45 minutes later and no one to talk to guess what, oh I will wake Nick up because we need to gybe. Now gybing our boat with a less than optimised pole system and a broken boom takes some time but alas, it always has to be done in pitch black at 3.00am (much like the reefing instances of previous blogs). So there you have it, we have a skipper who is afraid of the dark......... I might also add that first mate slept through the gybe at 3.00am this morning, pretty impressive considering she sleeps in a bunk under the foredeck. The banging around and expletives as I get sheets, guys, uphauls and downhauls (ropes to my non sailing readers) caught around themselves, the boat and my life harness was far from quiet. There is a very big risk in these manoeuvres that I clip myself on the jib pole and get hauled up with it.

On other matters, George the autopilot appears well but we are not leaving him, worryingly Clare’s showering pattern is syncing with Ben and that cannot be good for general ship aroma, we hope that “John The Router” will be impressed with the timing of our overnight gybe when he checks the weather facts and Chef Sue is doing a fantastic job (tuna pasta bake last night) but thoughts on interesting ways of cooking Tuna would be most welcome.

And now to turn to matters of sailing and the biggest relief, we have gybed and whilst for most other boats that is a pretty insignificant activity, for us it means the crease on the boom, which is now bigger following yesterday’s early morning hours, is on the same side as the main sheet is pulling and therefore the strong side is taking the strain. Yesterday we had no option after the overnight wind shift but to steer south and at significantly reduced speed. It was frustrating but nothing to be done, we could not risk the boom. We have however already dreamt up methods of sailing without it, even have Mum sending us ideas from reading what others have done!!!! So a “standard” 3.00am gybe has lifted the spirits and on a big wind shift that allows us to steer due west.

The other positive is we survived the tricky day of weather and the boat speed never dropped below 4 knots. We have a “weather eye” on the competition even though this is a rally. We have lost miles over the last two days because we have been forced to sail so conservatively but we are the most southerly boat in our class and, based on the forecast, we should now have a better sailing angle as we head for St Lucia, not much but every bit helps. A point of note, the further south you are the more miles you have sailed so we are doing respectably in our view and we are not embarrassing ourselves.

So a happier boat this morning. We are not out of the woods yet but our long range forecast looks ok for the next few days once the wind fills in this morning and we will be staying on starboard gybe as much as we can. John may have to be lonely tomorrow morning unless he can think of some other lame excuse to get me up.

We received an email from the ARC office yesterday on competitors who have been forced to retire, we wish them all well and hope the injured crews all make full recoveries. This is a tough sport and as we know, things can go wrong for a split second and the consequences significant. We hope all the other competitors are having a good passage, we cannot remember the last time we heard any VHF traffic or saw an AIS signal and therefore have anyone sailing close to us.

Have a good day

Nick (master of nothing today)