Sunday Update from Skipper Ken

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Buttered popcorn and Whales – oh my!

First low wind day on this leg. Winds have been less the ten mph all day. Used the spinnaker to keep boat speed up – averaged maybe five knots and then finally the wind disappeared as the high passes over us.

Of course a high means sunshine and clear skies. Paula cooked up some salt and butter to be applied on popcorn with beers in the cockpit. We saw whales not once, but twice today. For over twenty minutes two large whales and a calf roamed around the boat spouting. We have excellent pictures. Very large animals!

In about a day we should arrive at the English channel entrance – water depth goes from 12,000 plus feet to 350 fit in few miles with winds expected from the southwest – waves could be generated. Planning our strategy. While winds are low now, we are watching a low moving up from the south with winds of 30 plus. We would like to be in the channel prior to the front arriving. Of course the plus side is we will be cookin’ in winds of 20 plus. From the entrance of the channel to Amsterdam is only 500 miles – four nice sailing days maybe three in winds of 20 plus or forever in today’s “breeze”.

For now it is sunshine and beers in the cockpit…. tomorrow is another day

Skipper’s Update

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Over then half way to Amsterdam within hailing distance of the English channel. another wild night. no moon, haze and mist – can’t find a horizon , solely depending on instrument in winds of 25 mph and ………. instrument failure. Two unexpected gybes at 25. Blew the traveler blocks in to pieces, parts everywhere. Chaos at midnight – whole crew is on the deck. Rigged the traveler to work but no movement. We were sailing within an hour – still nervous on the instruments. They always work well during the day – lucky for us the nights are getting shorter as we head north. Weather download looks spotty – nice windy low is moving north and high below is falling to pieces. Today a nice Bryce and Matt rig on the traveler – movement has returned. kinda.

After all the troubles on the Bermuda-Horta leg with power generation, loss of refrigeration and warm beer. We mastered the power system – we have electrons everywhere. Boat oozes with power. Used less then two gallons of diesel and the beer is still icy cold on day six. Life can be good on the seas. As the British navy learned long ago – if the crew has grog and beer morale will be high.

Mix in some terrific seal-a-meals, we are fat and sassy looking forward to the English channel – one of the busiest, if not the busiest shipping channel in the world. Four lanes of boat traffic currents that change with the tides and all commerical traffic has the right to run over low-life pleasure craft that wander inadvertently into their shipping lanes. We are already studying the charts in anticipation.

And the “Beat” goes on….!

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Drama on the high-seas!

From the skipper…

“With one loud ping the trip ambiance changed. The pin holding the forestay to the boat hull either sheared or came out. The forestay was broken. a boat forestay serves two main functions – holds up the mast and is where the front sail is attached. Both relatively important. wind was blowing high teens, we were beating so the mast was being pushed to the aft of the boat – lots of tension on the forestay.

Scrambled on deck – immediately if not sooner starting tying halyards to deck cleats to keep the mast from breaking. Genoa was flying like a flag to starboard side still on the forestay which attached only at the top of the mast. Whole crew rallied to pull the sail in without having it fill with water and pulling the boat with it. Using a couple of old shackles reattached the forestay minus the roller furler which was destroyed never to be found. Forestay was non functional but not banging around. top boat speed was maybe four knots – no more eight knots. After a quick round of beers – crew looked at methods to improve boat performance.

Took the main storm sail (is designed to be used when winds exceed 40 to 45 in place of the main sail – in four years of boat ownership we had never used – was brand new). Crew rigged the storm sail as a foresail using the spinnaker topping lift and the spinnaker foreguy for lines. looks weird as the storm sail has a big orange spot in the middle since it’s purpose is high wind conditions but….boat performance improved. We can do five to six knots on a beat and a beat we are on. The successful re-rig was followed by a round of ports and back to shifts – only 1200 miles to go.”

For all of us left behind it will be a LONG 1200 miles. But our confidence in this fine crew out-weighs this “minor” setback!”