13th November 2013

12th November 2013

Well, I managed to get away again from Falmouth on Monday 11th, Armistice Day. By coincidence I am reading a great book by Christopher Clark called The Sleepwalkers. It’s about the political build up to the First World War and how the statesmen of the time made the, often completely irresponsible, decisions, which led to the slaughter of millions.

There was a NW’ly wind forecast to come in the early hours of Tuesday morning and I left a bit early to get a head start on it. I think Sue Jackson, a local journalist Alyson and I had spoken to a couple of weeks ago, was the only person to see me leave.  As I pulled up the anchor I heard someone shout, “Andrew!” and looked up to see her waving and taking photos from near the Greenbank Hotel.

The ebb tide carried Elsi out and we passed Black Rock at about 1420 with a light W’ly. I was busy throwing bucket loads of water on to the anchor to clean off the Falmouth mud so I could get it stowed below.

The wind picked up to a good sailing breeze and we were abeam The Manacles bouy about an hour later. The bell rang, “Ding! Ding! Ding!” as we passed and I waved it a fond farewell; “See you in a years time!” I said.

As we passed The Lizard and headed out into the Channel making good speed it was hard not to feel a bit like Bilbo Baggins as he closed the round door of his hole in the ground behind him and ran off down the hill shouting, “I’m off on an adventure!”.

11th November 2013

Andrew and Elsi left Falmouth at 5 to 2 this afternoon and are making good speed South.  The winds hopefully look favourable for him for the next few days.

Elsi leaving Falmouth 11.11.12

10th November 2013

A huge thank you to everyone who has sent on good wishes either speaking to Alyson or through the website. I won’t be able to reply individually but I am grateful to every one of you.

Since coming back in I have taken advantage of the calm water here to finish off some of the jobs that weren’t quite done when we left last Monday. The first day though was a drying off day. I was lucky and the weather was fine and dry. I try to keep below decks as dry as possible but when there is a lot of rain and spray around and you are clambering in and out in wet oilskins or, especially, changing headsails it is impossible. Elsi has hank on headsails rather than roller reefing so if a headsail has to be changed the old sail has to come off and the new one brought up and hanked on. I never keep bagged sails on deck so the old sail comes below. If I am changing to a smaller sail it usually means the weather is getting worse so the sail comes below soaked in rain or salt spray which ends up in the bilges.

So the first day I had the sails hanging up to dry off along with sail bags, oilskins, wet socks (my new pair of rubber boots had split the first night out) and any other wet gear. I mopped out the bilges and generally got everything else back into place. I’ve also sorted through some lockers and got myself more familiar with what is where.

I’ve checked through the initial route again from the Channel out past the NW coast of Spain and down to the Canaries. I’ll be able to hang up the oilskins for a bit and break out the shorts, T shirt and shades!

The forecast is looking better for the first half of this coming week so hopefully I’ll get away again with a wind that will get me south and west from here. If I were lucky enough to get a fair wind for the first few days it would give me good headstart.

6/7th November 2013

Monday was to be the start of Elsi’s big trip and the weather forecast, when we looed at it over Saturday and Sunday, didn’t look not too bad. The wind should be NW F4 all morning and afternoon before backing west then south west and freshening. That should let us get past Ushant (on the NW corner of France) and into the Bay of Biscay. I wanted to clear Cape Finisterre (on the NW corner of Spain) by Saturday as there was a deep low coming in affecting the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel with winds up to F9.

However Monday started with a flat calm and it was early afternoon before there was any wind from the NW. The SW’lys were now a more persistent F6+ which was less good. But I still hoped to clear the Channel and have some sea room before the worst iof it came in.

I left Falmouth at 1435. Alyson and her sister Penny and friends Robin and Carolyn Wilson Webb were waving final farewells from Pendennis Point.

Less than 2 hours later the wind had gone south of west and any benefit I would have got from a fair wind had gone. To make matters worse the combination of the (initially) light head wind and the flood tide running up from the Lizard pushed us into the SE for a time when we should have been going SW.

The tide eased and we were able to make a course SSW but as the night wore on the wind freshened and backed it was obvious we were not going to clear Ushant on the one tack. There is a traffic zone for shipping on the corner there and as we neared it the wind picked up to F7-F8 and we had to hove to for a couple of hours. Monster container ships and gas tankers rumbled by in the darkness. I was really grateful for the AIS to help me keep track of them all.

We were not going to clear the traffic zone and so had to tack north again.

Sailing to windward is not one of Elsi’s strong points. She is heavy and under canvassed compared to modern yachts. To add to that she is carrying almost an extra ton of food, water and supplies for a year at sea and she is at her heaviest right now. As the seas got bigger and the wind freshened we were pointing to windward but the waves were knocking us back so that we were more or less beam on. In other words we were getting nowhere.

The forecast was to stay the same for the next few days and if I continued to tack back and fore across the Channel making no headway I would eventually get hit by this low pressure coming in on Saturday.

I decided to come back in to Falmouth and wait for a better forecast.  It isn’t easy or pleasant going back on a decision once made but I feel this is the most sensible thing to do just now.

So now we are at anchor in Falmouth and it will be Sunday at the earliest before we move from here again.

OCTOBER 2013 Getting ready in Falmouth

Since Elsi Arrub arrived in Falmouth on 9^th October there have been quite a few changes onboard to make her ready for the big trip.

Engine being lifted out of Elsi

The engine has come out and a permanent magnet alternator to charge the batteries has been fitted on the propshaft in its place;  the crane that took the engine out, sitting on the docks opposite, was a bit OTT – 150 tonne crane for a 150kg engine.

150 tonne crane for a 150kg engine!

The electrics have been re-wired to allow for all the battery charging to come from renewable sources; sun, wind and water.

The cabin steps have come away and a large box has been fitted in place to give more stowage for food.

A packed box locker

The left and centre sections of the box locker are fully packed with tinned and packaged food – the right section has onions, banana shallots.

Alyson drove the 740 miles down from Shetland with a car full of essential supplies and arrived in Falmouth the same day Elsi did.

She has been busy sorting stores and arranging the stowage below to maximise the room available.

One way to keep cheese fresh longer is to wax it as Alyson is doing here.

dipping cheese in wax

There is a comprehensive stock of medical supplies onboard as well.

Checking medical supplies

Alyson also took down a new crew member to join Elsi. Tirval o’ da School has been given permission to take a year off from the Hamnavoe Primary School to join Elsi for her big trip. Alyson said he was very good company on the way down and I think he may make a good navigator as he kept looking at the Road Atlas to check she was on the right road.

Tirvil o’da school navigating and keeping Alyson company

We are in good company here at Port Pendennis marina. Initially we were tied behind the beautiful Windrose of Amsterdam. She is a modern superyacht with the classic lines of a 1930′s schooner. The world’s largest private sailing yacht, Mirabella 5, is in Falmouth near the end of a two year re-fit. She has been re-named M5 and her mast towers over everything else here. At nearly 300’ high it is over seven times higher than Elsi’s mast.

One of the key players involved in the rescue of Andrew in the Southern Ocean in 2006 was Falmouth Coastguard (CG). They are the UK’s International CG and deal with incidents all over the world on a daily basis, on average up to 10 incidents a day. We went up along the station to say thanks to them for their help and support when Andrews appendix burst. They worked in co-ordination with Shetland CG and the Australian CG’s and were all extremely efficient, professional and supportive. It was a real bonus when they printed us off a full transcript of the rescue. We spoke to Ken and Mike, a couple of the people who were on duty the night it all started, it was really good to meet up with them and they were also pleased to receive our feedback of their service, which they said is quite rare.

While we’ve been here at the Port Pendennis marina we have been looked after very well by the manager Mark and his staff.  We’ve imposed on them almost every day but nothing is too much trouble for them and they are all very friendly and helpful.   Since we have been here we have met several of the other boat owners in the Marina and particularly Philip and Bob have been very helpful.  In fact there have been many folk who have been very interested in Elsi Arrub and her planned trip offering assistance and help.     We’ve really enjoyed our time here and could certainly recommend it for a visit.

21st November 2013

As darkness fell last night the wind fell with it. I dropped the main initially as it was slapping and rattling so much then not long after had to drop the genoa and pull in the log. There was just no wind.  It stayed like that all night. I rose at 0100 and thought there was something but it was just light airs on the water. By 0500 though there was a definite breeze beginning to come out of the south west. I got the sails up and we were soon slowly sailing again.

The wind has freshened slowly all day and veered around to the west a bit more so that now, at 1400, we are battering to windward in a F4-5. The days run was, unsurprisingly, the poorest yet at only 39nm. It’s reminiscent of 2006 when I had so much light winds, head winds and calms and later the bottom covered in goose barnacles. There were quite a few poor days runs then.

I think the wind is to veer more into the west overnight so we should be able to hold a better course after that.

We should be in the NE Trade winds shortly so the sailing will be a lot better when we find them. Thanks again for all the good wishes from you that Alyson has passed on, it’s much appreciated.

19th November 2013

Through yesterday afternoon the wind had eased a bit and by teatime it was a lot less lumpy than it has been. I had tried several times to send off yesterdays report but either the propagation was bad or the channels were busy or whatever but it wouldn’t send. At 0300 I woke to find the wind had died away to a F3 or so and we were headed towards Canada. I took down the Jib and set the bigger Genoa. The full moon was just past and so there was plenty of light for changing sails. It was the first night since we left that there was no spray or waves breaking over us. I made a cup of tea with two of Marilyn’s, (my sister) oatcakes stuck together with a spread of honey and sat out watching us slip along in the night. Tried again to send stuff to Alyson but nothing was happening.

By 0800 the wind was up again so changing sail again. By 1000 though the sun was out in a blue sky and I could pull off the long drawers that have kept my milky white legs warm up till now. I was below writing up the log at 1030 when I heard the wind getting up. I looked out to see a squall coming in. In two minutes it had gone from blue skies and sun and a fine F4 to heavy rain and F6. I was anxious not to strain the roller leads again so got the pole down double quick and got two reefs in the main. It cleared almost as quick as it had come on and soon we were back up to full sail again.

The Houston Express passed 5 miles south of us bound for New York with a load of containers. Before long she was hull down and soon after disappeared over the horizon. They don’t hang around these container ships.

We were originally heading for a point west of Madeira but the wind has drawn us back east of our course so we will probably pass to the east of the isle now.
We should be past there on Thursday if this wind keeps up.