Logbook

Venus was brilliantly clear in the SW at evening twilight; a piercing led light shining down at us and I got a good sight for a position line. Not long after, at 2015, I had to drop the sails, the wind had fallen again to nothing. It was a clear starry night with no moon. The sky was a colander of pinholes of light all over but the only glimmer to break the blackness of the ocean was a silver path that ran between Venus and us. It was as if the sea and sky were showing us the way to go. And they were right, it was leading into the SW but we weren’t getting there tonight.

The wind didn’t come in again until 0245, a light breeze from WNW. The bit I’d written for the website hadn’t sent earlier so I tried it again after I’d got sails up. Sometimes the propagation is better at night and so it proved this time as it sailed off into the airwaves.

At sunrise I could see a sail astern to our NE. It turned out to be a French yacht and he called me up on the VHF. He was a singlehander as well in a boat of a similar size to Elsi and he was heading for Martinique. He’d crossed the Atlantic before, in 2007 in a smaller boat, 24 feet long. She was now in the Grenadines and he was hoping to have a meeting with her again.

The water coming from the seawater pump I have for the galley had been smelling bad and I stripped it down this morning. It didn’t look too bad inside but I cleaned it all up and put it back together. I use it for washing dishes when the weather is bad so the water coming out of it has to be clean. In fine weather I just dip a pot or plate over the side and give it a scrub. I rarely use fresh water for washing up apart from baking trays and the like as they don’t care for salt water.

While I was servicing the pump I came across a couple of cabbage which had gone off and it looked like I’d have to chuck them. But once I’d peeled off the worst they still had a heart of gold, well light green, and will do for a feed or two yet. I also found a ruler, which had gone missing from the chart table in the Bay of Biscay. I thought it had fallen down the back of the chart table but it had obviously shot right across the boat with one of the bad rolls we did there and ended up on the other side behind one of the galley bins where I keep day to day food.

Another yacht appeared astern. She was much bigger at 34m, a millionaire’s yacht, and was called “Highland Breeze”. I called them up thinking there might be a Scottish connection and there had been. In the past she was owned by, I think he said Lord Laidlaw? They were also complaining of the light winds and were heading for Sao Vincente in the Cape Verdes to take on more fuel. They were motorsailing when they passed us at 11kts. They came close enough for us to shout across to one another and one man on the stern, who could have been the owner, shouted, “You take care”.

I made some more water using the watermaker and only did 15 minute sessions so my sweat to water ratio was better! Conditions for sextant sights are near perfect just now with clear skies and sharp horizons. The clear skies at these latitudes also mean a burning sun and today it has been doing it’s best to fry my skinny white body.  I can feel it’s given me a whack across the shoulders as I sit and type here. Once the sun had passed due south the wind began to fall again as it did yesterday. It has only been a murmur all day but now it’s not even that. I’ve had to take the mainsail down and I’ve left the Genoa up but I can hear it suffering outside just now as the swell knocks what little wind there is out of it. I’ll have to go and have a look.

By 1800 last night the wind had veered more SSW and fallen light. An hour later the sails had to come down. The rest of the night and early morning was similar to what has been the past few nights. Sails up and down, wind then none then too much and having to reef. By 0300 the wind seemed to have steadied in the NW and was about F2-3. It was a fine starry night though with Jupiter sitting directly overhead. There’s plenty of wind on Jupiter. It spins incredibly fast and storms often form in hours and last for years.

Conditions here are really what would be expected in the doldrums. Winds from all directions, often light and never consistent in any one direction for long, calms, squalls and heavy rain and yet we are (supposed to be) in the NE Trades. We still have the doldrums to come.

We managed to keep sails up from 0300 on and although they were slapping and rattling we were at least moving albeit at around 2kts.

Just before the sun rose we had a school of around 20 Atlantic Spotted dolphins come around us. They were very active, slicing across the bow and speeding off at a slant to zoom back in again. They would come in sometimes in rows of five, six or seven all in formation with an occasional joker swimming on his side or upside down. One took to leaping out of the water and landing with a crash on his side. He must have done this a dozen times in succession.

There was a sail to the NW of us at this time as well but I never saw it again.

This morning’s radio schedule with Alyson was a bit different. She was on Skype to her son Finlay, who is in Vietnam right now. She put the radio mike to the laptop so we could have a natter. So I spoke to him in Hanoi via Shetland!

I had a craving for some kind of homebake. I made up a kind of sponge with ground almonds and coconut and stuck it in the oven while I rigged the big solar panel outside. I thought I would try a bit while it was still warm and I just kept on going. It wouldn’t have won any prizes at the SWRI but it tasted delicious to me. Before I thought I had better save some for later I had ploughed half way through it.

I got out the watermaker thought I would top up our supply a little. It’s a hand-operated de-salinator that is advertised to produce 5 litres of fresh water for an hours pumping. It’s normally used as an emergency unit in liferafts. One hose goes over the side to take in seawater, the hose that the fresh water comes out of goes into a drum and the excess saltier water gets pumped over the side via another hose. I rigged up a bucket of saltwater in the cockpit and ran the fresh water hose into a drum with the excess running over the deck and back into the sea.

In this climate it’s a bit self-defeating though. It could equally be called a sweatmaker, I almost sweated as much as I pumped! I didn’t get five litres for my hours pumping. It looked more like three when I was finished and I had drunk about a litre of water in pumping. Still we were two litres ahead.

As the day wore on the wind veered round with the sun and at 1400 it was a Sw’ly. We were heading north of west and I had to tack around again to get south. About that same time we had a moth aboard. It must have come off a ship surely as we were about 240nm from the nearest land, the coast of Mauritania, at the time.

Now, at 1600, the wind has eased again and is about F2. Light headwinds don’t make for fast progress. The days run is our poorest yet and reflects the calms, light winds and headwinds we’ve been getting. But really it’s been a beautiful day with blue skies and flat seas. If we weren’t in a hurry to get anywhere it would be brilliant. It’ll turn yet though and the old Walker log will be whirring again before too long.

In the late afternoon yesterday I saw a very strange creature. We were lying becalmed and I was about to call Alyson on the satphone. I happened to glance over the side and saw what looked at first like a huge bloated worm. It was about two feet long and about six inches in diameter with blunt rounded ends. It was almost translucent and had various colours running through but the dominant colour was a lilac purpleish tinge. It looked so fragile and flimsy that if I had tried to pick it up it would have fallen apart between my fingers. It reminded me of the type of plankton you see under a microscope but of a giant size. A strange beast to drift around the ocean.

A light breeze had come in and I had set sails but had to drop them again after only twenty minutes. My dinner was nearly cooked when a heavy shower of rain came out of the darkness and I heard the wind get up again. It would have to wait till I’d had my grub. The rain drummed on the cabin top as I finished off my dinner and pulled my oilskins on. It had come out of the WNW and was about a F3. So, sails up again and we were moving. An hour later we were sailing at 4kts and on course.

By 2000 the wind had veered into the NNE and dropped and by 2200 there was barely anything at all.

I woke at 0030 to the sound of a snare drum. Heavy rain again and the wind was up. It was NW’ly again and about F3. By the time I got below we were making 5kts in the right direction.  By 0300 the sails were down again and reset at 0400. This time the wind from the SE and light again. But this time the wind held and by 0745 it was up to a F4 and we were going along really well on a beam reach.

As I had my weetabix I was listening to, of all things, an American radio station called Trucker Radio. It was playing good country music and full of all kinds of info for truckers. Some company in Manitoba had taken over a Nebraskan outfit and if I needed to buy a new 18 wheeler before Christmas I now knew where to get one from.

As the morning passed the sky cleared until it was almost a perfect blue leaving only a scattering of low thin cloud fringing the horizon. A school of around a dozen dolphins (Bottlenose, I think) came around us playing in the bow wave. I never tire of watching them. They are so deft and slick they make us feel like a lumbering whale plodding along hardly able to turn left or right.

I was able to get good sextant sights for the first time in days. A number of times lately I’ve had to rely on the GPS to give me a daily position. But today was almost as good as it could be. A clear sky and a sharp horizon and Elsi reasonably steady on the water.

The sun passed our noon meridian and began to drop into the west and the wind came more to the south and dropped with it to a F2-3. It’s been the warmest day so far with the temperature inside now at 27C. The wind is still holding but we can’t hold our course any more and are having to sail WSW. But I’m not too worried, I’m sure the wind will come from the NE before too long and we will be back on track again.

After two days of light headwinds we had a welcome switch in the weather. At 1600 the wind started to file in from the Se and by 1830 we were romping along on course with one reef in the main and the Jib set. It was really good to be moving again. Later on, about nine, I was up for a look round. Great swirls and whirls of mareel were spiraling off the keel then rising up to the surface to explode in bursts of luminous green. Although it was very dark the light coming from them clearly silhouetted the Aries steering gear on the stern.  The wind was so steady and fresh I had a feeling this would continue and it would gradually swing round to the NE to fit in with the normal weather pattern. But it wasn’t to be.

At 0300 I woke to find we were heading NW. I have a compass above my bunk so I can check the course when below.  The wind had fallen away and veered round to the SW again. By the time I had slipped out the reef and sheeted in the sails the best we could do was head north of west. I tacked around so that we could make some southing and we settled on a course between SE and SSE. I went below and pulled off my oilskins and wrote up the log then got into my bunk. I was up again within 20 minutes as the wind had freshened and I had to take in a reef again. I really hadn’t expected this, to be battering our way south to windward in the NE Trades. I smiled and shook my head at how upside down it all was. When you expect to be going to windward it’s far easier to accept. When we cross the equator (if we ever cross the equator) we’ll be battering to windward in the SE Trades for several hundred miles and I would expect that. But here.I wasn’t expecting this. Maybe the SE Trades will switch around as well…

When the daylight came in the sky was a mottled light grey, the sea was a slate grey with white fringes and there was not a trace of blue anywhere. I should have been on deck in shirt, shorts and shades and instead it was spray, grey and pray the wind was going to turn NE’ly! We could easily have been in the North Sea.

By mid-day it was still overcast but the wind had dropped further and it was raining. By 1330 I had to drop the sails and as usual pull in the log line and lash the tiller. There was just no wind and the sails were flogging around and getting us nowhere. Now at 1600 it’s still calm with a low rolling swell from the NW. The wind will come later maybe but for now it’s just a waiting game.

At 0200 I woke to the familiar slap and rattle of the sails. There was no wind. I pulled in the logline, which glistened in the darkness with mareel as if it were studded with luminous jewels. They ran off my fingers and on to the deck as I coiled the line down.  Mareel is also the name of my youngest daughter and she is just as amazing as her marine namesake.  I dropped the sails and tied off the helm and steering gear to stop it swapping about. It was overcast and hazy. The only lights in the sky were the vague pinpoints of light of two very high stars shining as if through frosted glass. The Routeing chart indicates there is a 3% chance of a calm here.

At 0300 I could see the lights of three boats around me. I thought at first they were fishing boats but they all turned out to be yachts. They must all be headed down for the Cape Verdes as well. One was on the AIS. It was the 16m Italian yacht, “Nefeli”. I could see the mainsail highlighted by someone on deck checking it with a torch. I made a cup of coffee and sat on deck till they were past and clear of us. Nefeli was calling a boat called, “Starship”, which I imagine as one of the other yachts. The other one turned out to be a Finnish yacht called, “Ironside”.

The day has been overcast again with frequent showers. All morning and up until 1500 the wind was only a handful of knots and we averaged 1.5 – 2kts. All the other yachts were the same and we all stayed in sight the whole day.  In the afternoon Starship dropped sails and must have started their engine as they soon then disappeared over the horizon.

My bread had all run out so I baked a loaf and while it was in the oven had a shave. It does put a great smell into the boat! It was still warm when I sawed a slice off it and spread on some lemon curd and very good it was too.

I pulled up the cruising chute in the afternoon but the wind was so light it made little difference to our speed. The batteries are running down because it’s been overcast and the little or no wind has meant slow progress through the water. So all my charging systems haven’t been doing anything.

There was more lift in the sea coming from the SE in the afternoon and I hoped it might be a sign of more wind coming in from there. Sure enough by 1600 we had a SE’ly F3-4 and were making good speed again. I hope it keeps up for a few days.

It was 25 years ago yesterday when Terry and I set off from the Canaries to sail across to Antigua. I remember it as if it were yesterday.

At 0400 the wind had lightened and I shook out the reefs in the mainsail but there was still enough wind to keep the Jib up. The sky has been similar to the past few days in that it has been dull and overcast in the morning and brightening up in the afternoon.
By 0800 the wind had dropped lighter still and I could set the Genoa. And, it’s been like that all day since then. Not more than a SW F3 and often less.

I spoke to Alyson this morning and asked which direction this low was moving. She said it looked almost stationary, SW’ly winds all day today then maybe S’ly tomorrow. The barometer is rising 1013 yesterday and 1020 today so we are slowly coming out of it, but it is uncommon for this area.

I began to hear a dull scraping noise like two pieces of steel that needed oiling. It was only occasionally at first then more often. It seemed to be coming from outside the hull. I went aft for a look and could see nothing obvious. I thought it was coming from the rudder, which on Elsi is a heavy 10mm steel plate. I oiled the top rudder loop, which was the only one I could get to but it sounded like it was coming more from under the water. I looked over the side but couldn’t see very much for our movement through the water.

In the late morning I saw a whale. I was sitting out in the cockpit and saw the plume of spray then the back and fin rise and disappear. It all happened in a few seconds so I couldn’t be certain was it was. It didn’t look very big, maybe 20-25 feet.

At midday it was fine enough to take my duvet out and give it a bit of an airing.
In the early afternoon the noise I’d heard earlier was still there and it began to bother me. The most likely thing I could think of was wear and tear on the rudder loops but maybe one of the rudder pins had come loose and fallen out. I decided I’d have to to heave to and check it out. Even doing that I still couldn’t see clearly under the water. I would have to go in and take a look. I dug out the goggles and pulled on a pair of swimming trunks. Then just as I was about to go in I saw three fins pop out of the water just yards away from the boat! My immediate thought was sharks but they were only dolphins swimming slowly south. They are the first I’ve seen and it was uncanny they should choose this moment to appear!

I’ve only ever seen a shark out at sea once before, in the Caribbean. Now, of course, I imagined the ocean teemed with them and they were all lying in wait for me just under the surface. Any shark who did gobble me up would have got a bonus, I’d just had a bellyful of fried tatties for lunch.
I tied a line around my waist and stepped over the rail. I have steel steps welded on the stern leading into the water just for this purpose. I was about to take my first step down when there was a sudden crack from the mainsail. I jumped and had to laugh at myself. Elsi was having a chuckle at my expense and had timed it perfectly. I took a brave pill, stepped down and slid under the surface. I didn’t hang around long but from what I could see all the rudder pins were there and it all looked ok.
So, I’m assuming it is wear and tear on the rudder loops. There still should be plenty of metal there but it’s odd I only heard it today for the first time.

The noon position today was right on the fold of the chart so I’ve flipped it over and it’s showing the Cape Verdes. All we need now is a fair wind to blow us down there.

Just after dark last night I saw a starboard light up to windward of us a few miles away. There was nothing on the AIS and I wondered if it was a yacht. It didn’t have the extra navigation lights for a bigger ship. The just after 2100 the collision alarm on the AIS went off and I looked to see the boat nearer and showing a port light. As I was looking out I heard a call on the VHF. It was the yacht “Hot Stuff” with nine girls aboard from a company they called “Girls for Sail”. They were in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) and had left the Canaries and were headed for St. Lucia. The two girls I spoke to were Clair and Sue and they were hugely enthusiastic were really looking forward to the challenge of the sail across and the party at the other side. I asked if they were all for sale and Clair said, “Young man, you simply couldn’t afford us!” They have a blog and asked if they could put me on it. I said of course and asked if they minded going on our website as well. They were sailing faster than me and we wished each other Bon Voyage and they sailed off into the night. I hope St. Lucia is ready for them. If I achieve nothing else on this trip at least I will have made it onto the Hot Stuff blog!

We sailed along fine for the rest of the night but the wind slowly veered so that by 0730 we were sailing to windward in a SSE F4 and could barely hold our course. The sky was a March grey and apart from the warm spray coming over the rail we could have been in the North Sea. Alyson said there was a low to the NW of the Canaries so we must be getting the bottom end of it.

At 1400 there was a heavy but short lasting rain shower and the wind veered through more than 90 degrees so that it was coming out of the SW, almost the direction we want to be going in. I really wasn’t expecting to have to tack down through the NE Trades but that’s what we’re having to do here. The sudden shift in the wind of course made for a very jumbly sea (there is a SW going current here as well) and it was heavy going as we pitched and heaved our way into the SE. By 1500 it had freshened to a F6.

The Hydrographic Office publish what are called Routeing Charts. They show the predicted winds and currents for each month of the year for each ocean of the world. The wind in each part of the ocean is shown as a circle with arrows pointing into the center. The longer the arrow the more predominant the wind is from that direction. The shaft has different thickness’ to show the different wind strengths. All the arrow lengths together make up 100% of the wind to be expected in the area. For where we are now, SW of the Canaries, it shows the wind should blow from NNE to ENE almost all the time. A sw’ly can’t be ruled out entirely but it is so unlikely it doesn’t even figure as an arrow or even an arrowhead; only a dot inside the circle. You would need to be very unlucky to hit that dot. We’ve hit it or rather it has hit us.

This was to have been one of the most relaxing legs of the trip, rushing southwards with a warm NE Trade at our backs under blue skies with orderly lines of white cloud. I had a list of jobs to do, a spot of painting on deck, mend a couple of the masks on the pulpit netting that had worked loose. But not today. The headsails have been up and down, up and down reefs have been pulled in and shaken out till I’ve lost count.

The one bonus is that this email setup seems to be working again after a blip of a few days, which is really good. Thanks again for all your comments and good wishes. I was able to pick some up tonight from Alyson.

All yesterday evening the wind blew strong from the NE and we sailed with only two reefs in the mainsail. I woke at midnight and the wind had fallen away enough to set the full main and pole out the Genoa. There was just enough wind all night to stop the main from slapping around but not much more. By daybreak though it was lighter and I had to drop the main, it was flogging around for no reason. I kept the Genoa up and we made very slow headway in the NE F1-2 light air. I shook my head and laughed, from a feast to a famine.

I had expected sunshine and Trade wind sailing once we had passed the Canaries but this morning was overcast, dull and damp. I should have been sitting in the cockpit soaking up some sunshine as we sped along south, but I was huddled up in my oilskins watching the Genoa fill and empty itself continuously. I had to steer SE, almost 90 degrees off our course, to try and keep some wind in it.

To windward a grey lacy curtain of rain draped down to the horizon. The rain, when it came, didn’t bring any more wind; it just changed the sea surface around us to a million ever changing circles. To the southwest was a patch of blue sky and lighter cloud, which held a promise of better weather if we could ever reach it.
An insect like a dragonfly flew over us! It hovered around the masthead then made a decision not to land and headed off to the north. At the time the nearest land was the island of Hierro about 50nm to the NE.

The sky eventually cleared and it was like a door opening into a different climate. The sun came out in a mostly blue sky and the wind picked up to a fine NE’ly F4. We were underway again and sailing!