Logbook

Alyson sends me in emails everyday (over the radio, I have no internet access) to keep me up dated on what’s happening at home and away.

At 2200 last night I heard the Genoa flogging in the lee of the mainsail. I got up on deck and had a look round. There were two options. I could either pole it out and run goose winged or drop it completely. Dropping it would mean a loss in speed of about a knot but Elsi often runs smoother with only the mainsail up. Poling the sail out puts a lot more strain on it. I dropped the Genoa and as I pulled the halyard to me to unclip it I saw it was badly chaffed where it ran through the mast sheave. It was just as well I hadn’t poled it out.

This morning I slipped out enough length to get the halyard inside the cabin and checked it over. The halyards are all braided rope. The outer sheath was broken and the core was exposed. At home I would have tucked in the core and put a good lashing out over it all. But here, if it were to break in a month’s time it would be a serious problem. I have a bit of spare length on the halyards so I cut off the bad bit and re-tied and lashed the thimble back in place. The halyards were all spliced before but this will be fine. I’ll have to keep a close eye on it in future.

With one spin of our planet the sun has passed from the south to the north of us. At noon yesterday I was pointing my sextant at the southern horizon to find our position and today I’ve had to turn right round and face to the north. We’ve helped a bit by sailing south but it would have passed us in any case. It’s on it’s way north for the Shetland summer! From now until September next year it will rise and pass over us and set always to the north of us. When we will pass it on its way south once more we’ll be in the South Atlantic again heading home.

Our noon position was two miles south of the Tropic of Capricorn and that means we have passed out of the tropics. It should start to get a bit cooler from now on and that will be no bad thing. I like the sun as much as anyone but in moderation. It can be a bit brutal in this part of the world.
Although we’ll leave the tropics today the sun never does. It doesn’t like change and always weaves between the Tropic of Cancer at 23º 27’N and the Tropic of Capricorn at 23º 27’S. With the world around us changing as quickly as it does it is one of the few things we can absolutely depend on to be the same this year and the next ad infinitum.

The sailing is good today with a fresh wind and the sun highlighting the blueness of the sea and the whiteness of the many wave crests. We are rolling around a fair bit. Every now and then, while I’m writing this, Elsi will get hit by a lump of water that knocks us sideways and I have to stick my leg out to stop me sliding off the seat but are making good progress and that is the main thing.

Thanks very much to everyone who took the time to send New Years messages, it’s much appreciated.

I think Elsi was as keen as anyone to get into the new year. She didn’t hesitate at all and plowed straight from the old to the new with a press of wind in her sails and a frush of spray from her bow.
The wind had picked up from the north yesterday to about a F4-5 and we were running goose winged before it at a good rate of knots. The wind held all night and is still fresh yet (1500). It backed by the time the sun was thinking to get up and I had to drop the pole to keep us on course. Not long after I had to put a reef in the main as we were tending to round up into the wind a bit too much.

Being a bit nearer to the coast we’ve had a few ships on the AIS. The Federal Leda passed between us and the coast bound for Maceio and the Camilla Bulker crossed our stern about a mile away heading for SG Sin (Singapore?).

We’re far enough west now to set the clock back another hour, so we are now 3 hrs behind GMT. Mostly it’s been a quiet day. Running before the wind like this Elsi rolls around a lot so I’ve spent most of the day reading and not doing much else. Because of the fresh wind it hasn’t felt as hot, which is just as well as the sun is almost right above us now, nearly 89º at noon today. By this time tomorrow it may well be to the north of us.

There’s not much else to write about today. I hope you all had a great New Year and aren’t suffering too much today. I had a wee dram to welcome in 2014 and poured a tot into the sea as well to toast all the old sailors whose wakes we are sailing in. It would be fine if this N’ly would hold for a day or two yet, we’ll see.

The wind has gone round to the north and we are running goose winged with the Genoa poled out to starboard. The whine of the propshaft alternator goes up and down as we surge forward on a wave or level out after it has passed. We’re making 4-5 kts so the alternator is working well and the batteries are getting a good top up.
A tanker passed us just as the sun was setting last night. The MT Ottoman was chugging her way north bound for Casablanca.

We are about 150nm from the Brazilian coast, just a bit too far away to hear the thump of a salsa band for New Year. Rio is just round the corner and there will be some wild parties there tonight!

If this wind keeps up it looks like we’ll have a 100+nm day for the first day of the year so hopefully that will be the case. The current runs slightly stronger in our favour if we keep nearer to the coast. So we will try to hold a course from here to a point off Cabo Corrientes, just south of the entrance to the River Plate. The winds will begin to get more variable soon as we lose the benefit of the Trades and we will just have to take what we are dished out.

I’d like to thank you all for following the website and wish you all the very best for a happy and healthy New Year. I hope the next 12 months are all you want them to be and more. Cheers!

After the heat of the day we had a fine sunset last night. The last blue of the day blended seamlessly into a swathe of red that stretched across the southwestern horizon. I sat on deck, relieved to get some coolness at last, and watched the day come to an end. Gradually the night fell over our little world, all the colours slowly changing to black like a dark cloth being draped over a birdcage. In a book I read recently twilight was described as the hour between the butterfly and the moth. Out here it is more starkly the hour between the blue and the black.

The stars in the eastern sky come out first, as it gets darker there earlier with the sun setting in the west. The brightest stars are the first to appear. Sirius, the brightest of them is the first with Canopus not far behind. Then a bluish white Rigel in Orion’s right foot and the supergiant reddish Betelgeuse, 400 times the suns diameter, at Orion’s left shoulder. Because the eastern horizon darkens first it’s easier to begin star sights on that side before swinging around to see what is available in the west.
Last night Venus was still brilliant in the southwest. It will cease to be an evening star soon and by the end of January I’ll be seeing it in the morning sky for most of the coming year.

We hit something last night just after dark. I heard the thump on our port side and looked out aft but it was too dark to see anything. It doesn’t seem to have done any damage.
We had two visitors aboard during the night. I think they were terns of some kind but I only saw them in silhouette. They were both sitting on the rails aft. I had to go out several times during the night to alter the Aries and they were so near to me I could have touched them. They left a few deposits for me to clean up in the morning and a feather for a souvenir.

Today has been swelteringly hot again as the sun climbs ever higher in the sky. We’re not too far from Rio de Janeiro now so it must always be scorching there at every New Year. I was going to have my lunch on deck but it was just too hot. When the temperature is nearing your body temperature it’s a bit too much. It was 33º C inside the cabin but at least there was shade there. It was certainly hotter outside.

The wind shifted to the north and I had to gybe, for the first time in what seems like a long time, in order to hold our course.  I dragged all the onions, tatties and garlic out on deck to have a sort through and pick out any bad ones. I have banana shallots as well as onions and they have lasted really well with barely a bad one among them. The tatties are sprouting and some onions, which I have stowed down aft, are as well. The bag of onions, which were stowed beside the tatties haven’t fared so well and I had to throw out about a quarter of the bag. They haven’t had as much air around them as the others and this may be one of the reasons. The garlic is lasting well and I have enough to keep me going for a few months yet.

This might be the hottest day yet. Inside the cabin it’s 33º C. Outside there is not a cloud in the sky to hinder the sun so the heat is relentless. The sun is almost directly overhead now as well, 84º at noon today, so we are getting a real sizzling from it. The deck is scorching on bare feet and everything is bone dry. The sheets and halyards are stiff from having the salt dried into them and are reluctant to uncoil. Knots are hard to undo. I have to drink frequently but my body seems to be like a sponge that the water oozes out of as soon as I pour any in to it.
It’s as if the heat has worn out the wind as well and it’s just too much effort to blow today. It just wants to lie down and take it easy.

The wind was light most of the night too so we have a slightly poorer days run today. We’re still moving though and that’s fine.

We are about 50 miles to the north east of the Hotspur Bank. A pillar of rock rising straight up from the sea bed 3000 metres below. The contour lines so tight they seem to be piled on top of each other. Its summit levels out on to a flattish plain 50 metres below sea level with a single arm of rock another 30 metres high trying to reach to the surface. It was surveyed, I think, from HMS Hotspur in the early 1800’s.
Just inside there, between us and the coast is the Abrolhos Bank, an extensive shallow area stretching from the Brazilian shore to the edge of the continental shelf. Captain Robert Fitzroy of HMS Beagle surveyed this bank in some detail in 1832. He was a very competent and meticulous cartographer and his findings were used on nautical charts for many years afterwards.

On previous trips Fitzroy had been amazed by the overwhelming amount of flora and fauna he had seen but had no expert knowledge of and no time to detail it all. For this trip, a five year one which would take them westabout round the world, he insisted a Naturalist be onboard the ship to take note of all that was seen and to document it. The post was filled by Charles Darwin and the voyage ended up changing forever the way we look at the world around us.

We should sail over, or very near to, the Hotspur Bank in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

My hams are improving the whole time and I’m having a few slices for lunch everyday now. It makes a real good change from tinned meat. Today I had some with a few cashews, olives, crackers and water laced with lemon juice. At home I would be having a pie or a bacon roll so I’m probably eating healthier out here.

I had to squeeze down aft yesterday to get a box from one of the aft lockers. It was a struggle. There was hardly any room to move round in. Either I’ve grown bigger or Elsi has shrunk because I never had that trouble getting in and out of there 20 years ago.

We are moving towards an impressive mountain range and in just over a couple of day’s time we’ll float right over the top of it. From the city of Vitoria a massive chain of underwater mountains stretches out east 600 miles into the South Atlantic to the island of Trinadade. In the northern hemisphere it would be roughly the distance from Shetland to London. It is toweringly steep in places; rising from 4000 m below sea level, on both the north and south sides, to a summit pinnacle just 11 metres below the surface. We’ll pass over some of the northern range tomorrow afternoon and cross near to the main ridge sometime on Monday night.
It’s just as well it’s in this part of the world. If it were a thousand miles south of here the steepness of the contours would cause some pretty dangerous seas.

We tend to think that world geography has huge highs and lows. Mount Everest is about five miles high and the Mariana Trench, in the southwest Pacific, is about six miles deep. And they are massive to us, on a human scale. But on a global scale they begin to shrink by comparison. If you look at a map of the world and try to find Burra Isle, which is about five miles long, you’ll see it’s only a dot (if you find it at all), about the thickness of a sheet of paper. So, if you laid one sheet of paper on top of your map and another under it that would be the highest and lowest points of our planet. On a global scale the slim crust above and below us is a lot thinner than we think.

Well, that’s enough geography for one day! We are still going well. Each day is much the same in this part of the ocean. The sky was full of clouds this morning and I wondered what was going to come of it. The wind picked up very slightly but nothing of any consequence and by 1000 it was clear again, sunny and warm.
Now (1800) though the wind has fallen light. It’s still enough to keep us moving but we won’t make 100nm tomorrow if it stays like this all night.
Thanks very much to you all again for all your messages and good wishes. It’s much appreciated and keeps my spirits up. Thank you all.

The Grande Brasile passed us on her way south to Vitoria, Brazil around 0930 this morning. She could have been a container ship but she was too far away to see properly. It’s the first ship I’ve seen in days, we’ve been out here pretty much on our own for a while now.

One of the ingredients I have with nearly every meal is white cabbage. I slice it thinly into a pot with onions and garlic to fry before adding whatever tin comes to hand. It, like the onions and garlic, can keep for months and is one of many things recommended to me over the years by the vastly experienced Dutch sailor Jan wit de Ruiter of “Bastaert van Campden” fame. I’ve known Jan and his wife Paula for 30 years now and anything he recommends is backed up with sound practical experience.
He has done two singlehanded circumnavigations, one non-stop and one with one stop, quite a number of transatlantic crossings and with Paula they have been numerous times from Holland to Spitzbergen in the “Bastaert”. Usually they stop off at Shetland on their way back from Spitzbergen and that is where I met them first back in 1983.

I was planning to build Elsi and was always down at the harbour looking at yachts to glean ideas from. Bastaert van Campden stood out immediately as a proper long distance sailing boat and a number of ideas from her design were eventually copied when I was building Elsi. Both Elsi and myself have benefited greatly from Jan’s advice over the years and we are far better prepared for this trip because of it. Thanks Jan!

Each day is much the same here just now. The Trade wind blows steadily day and night and we get a bit further into the southwest every day. The sun is warm, the wind is warm and the sailing is good.

Last night before sunset we sailed past a Portuguese man o’ war. It was the size of a large transparent dinner plate and its edge was rimmed with a brilliant fluorescent pink. Many marine creatures in the tropics seem to be decked out in the most vivid and eye-catching colours.
I remember from diving on coral in the Pacific and Red Sea the amazing range of tropical fish, which swarmed round the reefs. Every time you went down you saw something different. Even the Dorados, which follow Elsi from time to time, are a striking sky blue edged with gold. Always good to see them.

Curried chicken for dinner tonight. I’m still using up the tatties so it will be them instead of rice. I better get them scrubbed and ready for the pot.
…..

This time seven years ago I was lying in a hospital bed in Albany, Western Australia minus my appendix, which had burst about a week before. Elsi was drifting around in the South Indian Ocean on her own about 300nm to the south west of me. She ended up drifting for seven weeks before we finally got her back. She was a bit battered and bruised but it’s a testament to her that she survived so long. The cabin door had been flung open at some point but there was barely a bucketful of water in her when the fishermen found her. I’m not sure if it was the weight of goose barnacles on her bottom that kept her upright or the half ton of corned beef I still had onboard. At any rate she had seen some pretty poor weather in that time and it wasn’t great the night they found her either. So we are probably both enjoying this stretch of balmy weather just now running down the Trades under blue skies and warm winds.

The wind has turned more easterly so the swell is aft of the beam now. It makes for easy sailing but the wind generator is less efficient. I haven’t had the solar panels out for a while because I haven’t needed them, there has really been no shortage of wind. But there isn’t much coming from the Aerogen today so tomorrow I’ll probably get the panels out.

We continue to make good progress with daily runs over 100nm per day. We should have another week at least before we start to run into more variable weather.

Many thanks to all of you who sent on Christmas messages and good wishes. It was really good to hear from you all.