Imagine 200 boats leaving through a narrow marina entrance into a commercial harbour paralysed for a few hours by the start of the ARC. We managed to back out of our tight berth (just) and entered the melee. Bands playing, horns honking, locals dressed up and general hullaballoo. Over the noise of the crowd, as we slipped past the gate, came a rousing rendition of roll out the barrel! We were late to the start somewhat awed by the goings on but crossed the line between the outer buoy and the Spanish Navy frigate Tornado and down the side of Gran Canaria with Twistle headsails tied at the clews in a broad reach through the acceleration zone in 25 knots and round the bottom of the island for the night. We were on our way.
The route from the Canary Islands towards the Caribbean is roughly south west for 2700 miles. Once clear of Gran Canaria there are three main choices although a million possibilities. Firstly, the northern route keeping above latitude 25 degrees north, the shortest route but also the potentially least windy as the effect of the Azores high in keeping the easterly trade winds to the south. Secondly the southern route down to the Cape Verde islands then turn right ’when the butter melts’. Longer by 250 miles but more likely to have good easterlies once below 21 degrees south., We chose the middle route, or rather the middle route chose us. After the first night and day we were bombing along on a strong east north easterly which was slowly turning easterly. Going south would mean tacking over onto a difficult broad reach given the high swell, a feeling of going backwards. We discussed it at some length but David’s common sense attitude of, lets go with the wind’ won the day. We poled our downwind Twistle rig and romped westward surfing down the swell in good control and easy self steering clocking up 150 miles in 24 hours, our hull speed. The wind took us towards our target of 23 north, 30 degrees west from where we would sail a great circle course in 300 mile rhumb line bites south west to St Lucia. Fine until the wind died due to a ridge of high pressure pushing the Azores high south. Wind for the boats below us and wind for the boats above, but we had 4 days of calms, contrary winds, squalls and beautiful skies at night. Time to contemplate ourfate, catch up on sleep, extend our culinary skills and enjoy the slowed down experience, even if we were now lagging behind most of the fleet an
in danger of missing the closing date for the finish. Ah well. As I write this at one am I am surrounded by blowing dolphins sounding like old men puffing, illuminated by a waxing half moon, the sails flapping lazily, the gentle knock, squeak and groan of a boat under sail and the snoring of my crew down below!
We are quite strict about keeping to time for watches at night to ensure we get reasonable sleep. Three hours on and three hours off does very nicely once into the rhythm which took us bout 5 days. It is dark for 12 hours so we both get two three hour periods of sleep made up during the day with the odd siesta. Thus three or four 90 minute sleep cycles in 24 hours, plenty to keep one functioning well and give some free time away from helming, navigating, cooking, washing, battery charging and rig trimming. Highlights are the dawn, dusk and the night sky. As I write this at midnight the moon has just risen as a golden ball behind me and a zillion stars are all about. Orion overhead its belt pointing to Sirius, the brightest star and the Plough to one side. Jupiter chasing Mars on my port side. Mornings are magnificent with the sky gradually lightening until the sun bursts through the clouds. Magic.
Once in to th NE trades sailing across the Atlantic is essentially downwind for 2000 miles. The Twistle rig is composed of twin high cut headsails loaded onto the furler in twin grooves and poled out on either side. The poles are connected to a universal joint rather than the mast. Once up the Twistle sails pull the boat forward, lifting the bow. Wind spills out either side as the universal joint compensates and reduces rolling. The rig is, to a large extent, self steering as the sails fill from both sides so the windvane has little work to do, just fine tuning. By moving the windward pole forward the boat can sail about 30 degrees either side on dead run. We found it terriffic, especially at night when it really looked after itself. While I am writing this in the cockpit we are 10 degrees off a dead run doing 5.5 knots in 11 knots of true wind with about two thirds of the sails out. If a squall comes I can slacken the sheets and reef both sails at the same time using the furler. Setting it up is a bit of a hassle as the sails are big (135%) and made of heavy spinnaker material. For this trip we put them up in the marina and used them as conventional jibs when going to windward. In fact they work so well tied together at the clew as to be able to beat upwind to about 40 degrees. When running we take down the mainsail and motor downwind with the ears showing either side. Each pole is pulled up an outhaul attached by a soft eye to the clews and made fast on a cleat on the pole. The universal joint is raised on the spinnaker pole uphaul and held in place by two downhauls, one forward and one to the mast base. The poles are attached to the universal joint.No poled out mainsails, preventers or parasails for us!
The day starts at dawn with the hand over from the last night watch. We alternate 3 hours on, 3 hours off from dusk to dawn which is about 12 hours so 2 watches each. We swop the watches each day so today I did the 23.00 to 0200 and 05.00 to 08.00 but will do the 20.00 to 23.00 and 02.00 to 05.00 tonight. Cup of tea and brief chat and debrief about the experiences of the night and likely conditions and course for the day. The watches continue but in a more casual way. Breakfast of museli and milk with some fruit although not much left now. One of us will stay in the cockpit while the other does his morning ablutions mostly involving baby wipes as we are still conserving water carefully. Supplies look good and we may be able to relax the rules a little in a week or so and have a decent wash. Nevertheless the morning ‘top and tail’ along with teeth cleaning, etc makes a lot of difference.
By 10.30 UTC the ARC weather, position and news emails will have been sent. We set up the Iridium GO satallite hub on the sprayhood inside a zip lock bag and tied on. This is to ensure good exposure to the satillites and works well. It connects by bluetooth to my ipad and iphone. It take about an hour to download the ARC messages, read and reply to the daily weather and news email from JB, request and receive weather synoptic and forecast charts from mailasail.com and download the 3 day forecast using the Iridium GO app. I sometimes make a call using the iphone. This uses about 12 to 15 minutes of Iridium time per day but we have over 300 minutes currently in credit. We then look at the data and discuss any changes in our strategy based on the results.
At 12.00 UTC we join the ARC SSB net for our group. Run rather casually by volunterer net controllers and somewhat hit and miss as we spread out over the ocean. Exchange of positions and any local news. As we have got rather behind we find our reception and transmission weaker but is also because our batteries are at their lowest charge in the morning. I play around for a while listening to hams but have not managed to link in with the Caribbean nets yet.
Coffee and a bit of quiet time for reading, doing puzzles, checking rigging and looking up stuff before lunch about mid day (about 6 hours or so after dawn) currently about 14.00 UTC. Lunch is often last nights supper with additions. Today we have some rice and peas from last night and will add sweetcorn and tinned bonito! Yesterday we had pasta with pesto sauce and tuna. The cheese is finished and the bread rather stale but we have biscuits. Plenty of bottled water to drink and the occasional fizzy drink for a treat.
Time to charge the batteries. We set up the 4 stroke generator in the cockpit and connect it to the shore power lead which goes to the battery charger. It usually takes about 3 hours to get the batteries up to capacity. Rather intrusive so we take it in turns to snooze below while the other babysits. That chore over it is time for a cup of tea. Some free time to read, do chores, check rigging and fish. Yesterday David caught a 3 pound fish which looked like a cross between a bonito and tuna with a lovely green sheen. Lots of blood and guts in the cockpit for a while but great fillets for supper which we have about an hour before sundown. We take it in turns to cook although nothing too formal. There is a bit of competition about the menu and presentation which is no bad thing for satisfying our appetites. We are down to tins now that we have exhausted all the fresh stuff and, of course, have no fridge.
The chef does not have to do the washing up but will be on casual watch in the cockpit where we will chat for a while about anything that comes to mind. At dusk we start the formal watch while the other goes to bed in the single saloon bunk with leecloth. Actually very comfortable. We hotbunk through the night but it is warm enough to need just a light sheet as a cover. So far has worked well. We have 3 sets of sheets and pillow cases!
These activities are not infrequently interrupted but sail changes, reefing for squalls, and when we spot other vessels.
After 23 days at sea we cried, Land Ho! at dawn.
Around Pigeon Island and across the finishing line!
And what a reception!!
My sincere thanks to my old friend and sailing partner, Dr David Everett.
