Jack Rowland Smith - Log Day 10 - JACK Rowland Smith - Life is Good

I cannot believe we are finishing day 10, time just passes quietly by at sea, well relatively quietly unless something kicks off........ 1,600 miles travelled, 1,300 miles to go and if you were to look at our position today, we are broadly in the middle between Africa and the Americas.

Another cracking day for us; our standard sail plan of two reefs in the main, poled out jib, 20 - 25 knots of wind, blue skies, turquoise sea, speed constantly in the 8 and 9 knot area - what more could you possibly want? “More speed” demanded the skipper, frustrated that we were not moving up in the overall rankings, “no and what is the point” the crew responded very conscious of the impact of a false move on our compromised rig. As noted in yesterday”s log, the Independent State of JACK has been declared but the crew are not taking orders from anyone until that person has a standing that has been agreed and voted on, the title “Skipper” has no position in our documented constitution. The crew won the day because, In reality, all boats in this event are sailing downwind at their hull speed which is defined by their water line length. Those that go faster are the ones that pick up their bows and surf down waves allowing them to exceed their water line length speeds. JACK is not one of those boats, she does try though. So on each rolling wave she picks up her bow and starts the process of surfing, but then seems to say “this is too much effort” and plonks herself back down with a huge displacement of water that causes a small tsunami. So the reality of the situation is we need to just sit back and enjoy it for what it is, a very comfortable and pretty fast ride in the most beautiful and remote location. We could increase our speed by reducing displacement and that would involve chucking everything overboard that is not fundamentally needed like the ton and a half of diesel, the ton of water, food, the skipper......

I would like to report back that the “half way” celebrations were a hedonistic affair but alas, “French Bread” (but not the kind you are used to) and cheese WITHOUT wine for lunch (very unFrench sorry Thibaud) and a cracking chunk of ribeye steak with roasted vegetables WITHOUT wine for dinner was plenty to keep the crew happy. We are (that is the royal we because it should really read “I am”) doing well on the “no alcohol” front so far but to be honest, with all the responsibilities we have and the watch patterns, there is no real time. That may change as the days go by and we get closer but at least I can use this abstemious period to reduce my disclosed weekly alcohol intake at my annual medical without feeling a complete fraud.

Seaweed was a topic for day 10. Not the black smelly kelp like stuff you get off Southend Pier, but little individual tree like clumps that are light in colour and bob past you. “That is Caribbean seaweed only found in the Caribbean” announces the skipper, “well that is rubbish because we are far from the Caribbean” I respond. “Ah yes but it has come from the Caribbean and is washed here” retorts skipper, at which point I get confused and question this alleged North Atlantic current that that was our holy grail that leaves us so far south....”How does the seaweed move against the prevailing current” I ask, but too many intelligent questions for skipper to handle so off he trots mumbling away and giving no comment. But the fact remains that on day 10 and at about the mid point in the Atlantic Ocean we have started to see seaweed the likes of which us East Coast of England sailors have never seen before, it looks exotic and that must be a good thing.

Communication was another discussion point, the topic coming up because I made an observation about the limited number of free SatPhone minutes we have left to negotiate trade deals with Europe and America to support our Independent State, oh and more importantly for Ben to phone his girlfriend Sophie.........!! We have two SatPhones on board, these give us to basic communicate with the outside world by phone, text, email and also download simple weather files. However, the band width is very small so we have no internet and even large emails are automatically filtered; downloading two hundred thousand bytes (yes bytes not the K or M variety) of data, say 10 standard emails, takes 10 minutes. The conclusion we have reached to what is a relatively limited availability of accessibly priced communication in a world where electronic communication is everything, is that the market is very small and so there is no money in it. This brings us again back to the point of how few people in reality actually do cross oceans and that what we are doing is relatively unique.

On the matter of the Internet, I only really miss it because I am not able to get the quick answer to a simple question like “when will we next see the moon at night” (we have lost the moon now so nights are very dark) or “how did Everton do last night” (actually ignorance is bliss on that one) but we do miss not being able to see the full Facebook messages that our friends leave us and be able to respond (although we have our Communications Queen Kathryn to help us a bit here and we do see many of the messages). Thank you for your messages of support, we enjoy them and appreciate them and they help us through our hours of need which are usually when the skipper has “one of his brain waves” which, in itself, is suggestive of him possessing that capacity............

Other important matters of note, Clare remains well much to Ben’s annoyance, Chef Sue remains the best chef and two loads of washing have been completed with a successful spin cycle and flying fish are stupid and smelly (never order them if they are on the menu!!).

So we pass halfway and all the talk starts about getting to the other side. The skipper is already licking his lips at the thought of rum punches and wild parties, the rest of us remind him that he usually falls asleep after a pint of beer and a Diet Coke. But the reality for us is our course is set and the distance suggests that eightish day’s and we will be in. Wind is going light at the weekend which will help us a bit because we need some more southerly routing but the wind will not allow it without a gybe........ we can only sail on port gybe in very light winds. Worst comes to the worst we will just fire up the “iron top sail” (motor for those without a nautical background) and take the penalty because, after all, there is only so long we can live this saint like existence and a rum punch does sound good. But we still have a long way to go (more than the average sailor sails in two seasons I expect) and we do not want to wish it away because this is a once in a life time experience.

Signing off for today

Nick (foreign trade ambassador)