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CANARIES TO ANTIGUA DAY 19(11/12/ 06)
We're IN!!!!!!!!!
11 th December 2006
Time
Position – Stern to Nelsons Dockyard, English harbour, Antigua
Course- N/A
Distance to Antigua – 0Nm
Tonights film – Cancelled
J. There you are
SITREP – Well here we are, a slow nights passage, but few squalls and we all slept well. Due to the competions we are having and more specifically the prizes, everyone is in denial about what the brown thing was in front of us this morning. At 0604 I had to shout ´land ho´ (as you do), purely so that everyone could start talking about it. I asked Jerry what the thing under the lights on Antigua was, his reply “nothing they are floating”.
News –
Vince and Summer Breeze , emailed, they are stern to in English Harbour and have sorted a berth for us this morning, thanks Vince.
Kippers Swan Song
Food – Each trip is remembered for various reasons, TRS´s, Aliens, etc. This trip for me is about the food, it has been the first trip where everyone, regardless of ability, has cooked pretty much their fair share of meals. Gerold has been banned from cooking and washing up for three days! Those from last year will remember Jerry´s ´ Amazing Crack Sealing Custard ´, he has produced some amazing meals this year. Gerold has laboured to produce German dishes as well as taking further instruction (voluntarily) from Darrel on English and Spanish dishes. All whilst the boat has been rolling around. We have had no tinned meals, no ready made meals, and no frozen meals, a first for me. I wont mention Darrel, it may go to his head. The Hells Kitchen award is given, for the first time ever, jointly to Darrel, Jerry and Gerold, congrats and see you in the bar later.
Basically thanks guys.
E-Mails Thanks to all who followed the trip and especially those who sent emails, you would be amazed how good it is to get mail.The site will be updated through thewinter (probably two weekly) and then the next transat will commence around May 5-10 ish. See you then.
I have asked the lads to write a brief dit regards the trip and their personal thoughts, will see if I paid them enough.
Well. Here we are. Somewhere in the Caribbean with land in sight. The voyage has been an excellent one. The weather has cooperated throughout. The chow has been good and the cuisine was topped by Andy last evening with a full fledged roasted chicken dinner. An outstanding accomplishment considering the rocking and rolling. Kevin and Tony have my personal assurance that the Easterly Trades do really exist. And belated thanks to both of them for their assistance in getting Weigle´s body across the pond (as we say in England) last year. Best personal regards. Jerry
Gerold here for the last. Mir war es vorbehalten, waehrend meiner letzten Wache an Bord, gegen 5 Uhr morgens als erster der Crew die Lichter von Antigua zu sehen. Stolz wie Oskar lenke ich ushomi in die Einfahrt von Nelson's Dockyard bevor Andy das Kommando zum Ankermanoever uebernimmt. Wir sind in der Karibik! Was fuer eine Bilderbuchidylle. Yachten links und rechts vor Anker, tropische Vegetation und ein Liegeplatz mit dem Heck zu den geschichtstraechtigen Anlagen. Wir empfangen Antigua Radio und hoeren ein Weihnachtslied. Haben wir wirklich Winter? Haben wir wirklich gerade unsern Trip nach 2866 sm seit Gomera beendet? Es ist wohl so. Many thanks, Andy, for having great days on board of ushomi. Bye Darrel, bye Jerry. Have a good time!
10 th December 2006
Position – N16deg54 W059deg28
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 168Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart
Distance to Antigua – 132Nm
Tonights film – Shark AttackI & Shark Attack II
J. ILU Ax
SITREP – A wet and squally night, just King Neptune taking his payment for letting us across. We are all a bit tied now, part of the problem is that we are thinking of arrival and mentally falling out of our routines. If we did not know that arrival was soon we would be fine and continue as normal, ´int the uman brain jus amazin´. All in all another good days run in the bag.
News –
Norwegian John and Asanti are in Antigua. As you know Johns autopilot broke 5 days out, now I do not subscribe to this theory but e-mails have been received that state that he needed the practice. No names can be given as the list is too long !
Chris & Mandy – Thanks for all the e-mails
Vince and Summer Breeze should be in now, will probably hear later, as they have important business at the Bar to attend to (I assume they are lawyers)
Strange Going Ons
After finishing the 0100-0400 watch I went to bed. It had been a squally and wet watch and the comfort of my womb like cot was calling. My next watch was at 1100 so I set myself the target of sleeping until 1000, normally an impossibility due to the days heat. At 0930, whilst in the land of nod, a deluge of water cascaded down through my hatch, covering both me and the bed, this was immediateley followed by expletives and Jerries explanation that the boat had rolled and a wave had slapped over the coaming and into my hatch. Sounds good so far, except Jerry had been washing clothes, the water was soapy and was fresh !!
Excitement Mounts
We have started to pick up local radio, the strange thing though is that the presenter keeps talking with a heavy Cornish accent and saying ´my lurver´ all the time. It´s nice to know BBC Radio Falmouth have started broadcasting from Antigua.
Anticipation mounts for the awards and prizes on offer,
I´m Leaving on a Jet Plane
Jane, if you get this, about an hour before landing at Antigua look out through a port window, at approxiamately 1500 LT. We will be waving and I will have a white hat on.
The Sleep Monster
I think I´m losing my touch,it´s days since I had a really good kip. Still not long to go and this ship of fools will be shouting ´Land Ho´(well Andy and I will be doing our best to get either Jerry or Gerold to shout up 1 st ,so they can win the prize,naturally) as Andy said rather an exillerating night was had by all,it´s amazing how fast a watch goes when you´re continully reefing and hauling out sails while trying to keep a cigarette dry during tropical deluges. Not long after I came off watch last night and while in my favourite state(the land of nod) I was rudely awaken by a very strange sensation,almost like being under a shower while in my pit,being in that half asleep,half awake state,it took me a moment to realize it was chucking it down and my hatch was open. Going into ´full alert´ mode(?!?) I sat up and battled with my hatch for a few moments wondering why I couldn´t get it shut,before realizing I was trying to shut the wrong side! Mission accomplished I nodded back of,just a bit wetter behind the ears than usual. As we are approaching land we have released Jerry from his restraints,hoping that the marks disappear before we arrive,could lead to some embarrasing questions at customs!although he has started raving again so he may well have to go back into his cabin and Andy will just have to come up with an imaginitive answer or two! Judge´hang em high´Jerry was explaining the art of blame in the Navy to me yesterday,if something goes very wrong,the person on leave is 1 st to blame,then it´s the lowest rank,then on up the chain of command,so guess who´s gonna be getting some stick over the next few days!! It´s tough being the goldilox. I have spent a few days pondering on that one,if I´m goldilox I´ve been wondering who´s Daddy,Mummy and Baby bear? Think I´ve been on this boat to long!!! have to go,got to plot a sun sight,see when it is we are due into Cape Town. I wish I could say its been a pleasure but I get forced to write this blog,at this moment our illustrious kipper is beating me with one of his loafs of bread and making spit balls out of his mash spuds,they hurt a lot,when he hasn´t chewed them too long!! Can´t wait to escape and report him to the League against Cruelity to Wayward,Miscreiant Dodgy Navigators! He´ll be in for it then. Take care,I will be jumping ship in less than 24hrs and going to seek my fortune plundering Spanish galleons for their gold(and possibly doing a bit of cooking for people who have a sense of taste),Shiver me timbers me hearties!!! And will someone please tell me if I can get my dog sent to me by parcel post??
Gerold. So ohne weiteres gibt uns der Atlantik nicht frei. Heute Nacht ueberschuettete er uns mit einer Batterie von squalls, jenen kurzen aber um so heftigeren Regenboeen. Die zeigten mir mit Windstaerke 9 (um die 43 Knoten), dass Nachtwachen durchaus abwechslungsreich sein koennen und zwar mehr als einem lieb ist. Sicher wollte Neptun zeigen wie wohlgesonnen er uns waehrend dieser Ueberfahrt eigentlich war. Er haette ja auch anders koennen. Zu meiner grossen Freude tat er's nicht und so bleibt mir diese Transat 2006 in bester Erinnerung. Die Erfahrung der Weite des Ozeans, evtl. den Unbilden von Wind und Wetter ausgesetzt zu sein und sich doch ziemlich geschuetzt zu fuehlen an Bord dieses Schiffes, die Musestunden im Cockpit bei Musik, Literatur, Tee, das zwanglose, doch geordnete Leben an Bord ueber 25 Tage lang seit Sotogrande, dies sind einmalige Eindruecke, die ich von hier mitnehmen werde. Ich danke allen, die dies moeglich gemacht haben: Rosi, die die Verbindungen geknuepft hat, meiner Familie, die mich dazu ermuntert hat. Ich habe euch viel zu erzaehlen. Ich danke Andy, der mich mit seinem Wissen rund um alles was mit Seefahrt zu tun hat sehr beeindruckte und der mich, zusammen mit seiner Frau Jane, bestens betreute. Danke natuerlich auch an Darrel und Jerry fuer die freundliche Aufnahme in den Kreis der Crewmitglieder und die stets humorvolle Art des Umgangs miteinander. Allen, die mit diesem Boot unterwegs sind wuensche ich stets gute Fahrt. Mast- und Schotbruch und immer eine Handbreit Wasser unter dem Kiel!
9 th December 2006
Position – N16deg46 W056deg37
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 179Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart
Distance to Antigua – 296Nm
Tonights film – More Phoenix Club, Blue Planet (docu thingy)
J. 2MD&WWBTA Ax
SITREP – Yet another good day. We looking at a Monday am entry into English harbour, probably be anchoring at 0500ish. Then, yes you guessed it we will scrub the good girl down inside and out, sort the sails, cover them up and get laundry ready. She has looked after us so we look after her. Then at 0930 ish, after confirming our berth with Brother Joseph at the marina we will weigh anchor and berth stern to in Nelsons dockyard. Then all jobs for Monday complete we can relax and sleep for two days.
News
Summer Breeze is due into Antigua tomorrow morning at 0500.
Asanti - No News from Asanti (Norwegian John), if you are in John can you let Jane know, if she does not hear she will make her way to English and B&B for the night, due to her arrival time.
Astro Navigation for Aardvarks
This will be the last gripping installment, you may be pleased to know. If you forget all else, remember the simple note below:-
The versine formula (and the versine is merely the trigonometrical function (1-Cos ? )), is a general one for all spherical triangles but applied to the PZX triangle which is already familiar: versine ZX = versine P * sin PZ * sin PX + versine (PZ ~ PX), where the symbol ~ just means subtract the < from the >. Or, in other words:
versine Zenith distance = versine LHA Sin Co-lat Sin Co-dec+ versine (Co-lat + Co-Dec)
Bingo.......your laughing.
Gerold here . Das Meerwasser schien ihnen, seit sie die Kanaren verlassen hatten, weniger salzig, die Luefte wurden immer sanfter; sie waren alle guter Stimmung (Christoph Kolumbus, Schiffstagebuch, Mo, 17.September 1492).
An diesem Punkt konnten es die Leute nicht mehr laenger aushalten. Sie beklagten sich ueber die lange Reise (Mi, 10. Oktober 1492).
Um zwei Uhr frueh tauchte Land vor ihnen auf, sie waren etwa zwei Meilen davon entfernt, eine kleine Insel, die in der Sprache der Indios Guanahani genannt wird (Frei, 12. Oktober 1492).
Wir sind guter Stimmung und beklagen uns nicht ueber die lange Reise. Wie auch. Angenehme Temperaturen, ausgezeichnetes (Segel-)Wetter, gutes Essen, harmonische Zusammensetzung der Crew und dazu den Luxus ueber GPS und damit jederzeit ueber die genaue Position zu verfuegen. Weniger als 300 Seemeilen sind es demnach noch bis zum angesteuerten Ziel, Antigua. Freude ueber das und Wehmut ueber das nahende Ende eines, fuer mich einmaligen Erlebnisses halten sich die Waage. Fast unbemerkt, weil scheibchenweise, hat uns Andy die Fertigkeiten eines “day skippers” beigebracht. Warum nicht mal einen Tagesausflug mit einer Charteryacht von Barbate (Suedkueste Spanien) ueber die Strasse von Gibraltar nach Tangier (Marokko) unternehmen. Aber bitte die Tidenstroeme beachten! (Fast) kein Problem mehr nach Andy's Unterweisungen in der Kunst des passage plannings. Ist interessant und macht Spass. Naechste Aufgabe: Sichere Ansteuerung von Nelson's dockyard in English Harbour, Antigua. Aye captain!
Extra viele Gruesse heute an Hannes (zum 26. Geburtstag), meine Frau Helga, Holgi (unter 30 Sek geblieben?) und alle Freunde!
The depraved,make that deprived of,Sleep monster again,as you know our journey is coming to an end and in some style I have to admit. I was woken this morning at 6am,after 3hrs sleep by our illustrious kipper with a torch under his chin(scariest so far)instant alertness on my behalf,which is quite rare,I don´t mind admitting, to be invited up into the cockpit to do a pre dawn impression of Fu Yan Doo´s amazing Chinese circus! Or for the uninniciated,to take sights of stars before the sun comes up. This involves being bounced about the cockpit in the dark,holding onto a 4lb lump of metal and glass,trying to pick out a tinnie wennie little point of light under the horizon and move it upto the horizon using a little thingymagiggy on the bottom of the sextant,not being an ambidextrios acrobat I found this quite challenging but at the same time strangely fulfilling!!amazing what floats your boat when you´ve been away from civilization and stuck on a boat with a bunch of nutters for what seems a lifetime! Needless to say,got lots of writing on a bit of paper,still hav´nt got a clue where we are, somewhere in between here and Auckland , I think? Did plot a fix yesterday that was only 3 miles away from our position,turns out it was the position at this time last year!! Still the kipper has told me I´ve won this years Astro Navigation award,I did point out to him that I have been the only participtent this year,he told me not to worry as the prize is I get to buy everybody a round. So for all those who have followed us this year who wish to join us to celibrate my prize nav,please feel free to come along to the Robin Hood,378, Mansfield Rd ,Nottingham, Monday the 11 th of December,we shall be there from 8pm,dress is optional but but casual preferable.
Hell´s Kitchen
Tensions had eased somewhat after the little fracus yesterday morning,until Jerry stepped up to cook. He´s definitely been saving the best till last and produced another amazing cook in the bag delight. Pork chops,veg,mash and gravy. He was introduced to Bisto gravy granuals and took quite a shine to them,after we´d scraped them up from the back of the cupboard because some muppet had placed the pot in the storage upside down. The mashed potatoes were heavenly,melt in your mouth,but nearly created a problem after it was noted that its a shame the kipper can´t produce spuds like that,tempers were cooled down with Milky ways and hot chocolate,followed by a bed time story. It has to be noted that the kipper has produced a masterful slow baked sausage,oven roasted chips served on a bed of simmering baked beans and garnished with huevo´s fritos,mouth watering,just a shame about his crap mash. The competition is coming to a close,the grand draw and prize giving is being held 1 st night ashore,something about cooking at the Gib Sally Army soup kitchen,´patronised by the stars´ was mentioned,think I´ll make myself scarse for that night out,see if I can´t come down with a severe case of food poisoning or something!! Hasta for now
8 th December 2006
Position – N16deg48 W053deg30
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 172Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart
Distance to Antigua – 475Nm
Tonights film – Jaws
J.I ? YLt ¤? t ) &I ? WITofY
SITREP – A night of squalls behind us. Nothing bad, kept everyone on their toes though. Again we are doing well, and the forecast is looking good all the way in. One upsetting part is the wind direction, back by the Cap Verde Islands I made the decision to head south a bit further than necessary, this was due to the expected NE winds regular in the northern trades. We have had easterlies the whole crossing, ever looking for the NE winds. The NE winds would have meant that we could gear up and sail Ushomi on her fastest point of sail,I was hoping for some 200Nm days. All said we are having a good trip and guess what, Tuesday are forecasted the NE winds.
Springs, neaps and stuff
Tides are a wonderful thing, with unerring regularity they go up, then go down. 4/5ths of the planet is water, this water is affected by the Sun and Moon (like our port aft cabin occupant). When the Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned, ie that is the New Moon and the Full Moon, then the affects of the gravity of both planets are pulling in the same plane. Hence the water mass of the oceans is pulled accordingly, this creates Spring tides, these are the very high tides and the very low tides. When the sun and moon are not in alignment ie half moon then the pull of the planets is 90 degrees apart, therefore the water is pulled in more than one direction and therefore pulled more uniformly, this creates Neap tides, these are the low high tides and the high low tides (the range or difference between low and high water is less than springs). Does that make sense, (Jerry states that no one told Lake Michigan about tides)
Hells Kitchen
Fighting has broken out, it started with Jerry´s totally unfounded comments regards my signature dish “Casaroll de Sausage”. Young Skywalker threw in his ten penny worth and Gerold stated a preference for Wiener Schnitzel. It was horrible for a while, Jerry got the large cooking pan stuck on his head and a few dents appeared in the frying pan. Tomato puree and chocolate mouse was everywhere, it looked like Baghdad on a Saturday night. I tried to calm everything down but it blew up again when Jerry was accused of cheating, at that he took a swing at Gerold with a haddock, Gerold deflected that with a cucumber and countered with a wild swing with the old Tuna. Fearing for the Tuna Darrel lobbed the butter at Gerold, missed and hit me, I retaliated with a tomato, missed and hit Jerry´s bunk. The whole sordid tale is upsetting so I wont go into what was done with the carrots. Needless to say the kitchen is temporarily closed.
Sleep monster here ,I woke at one point to the smell of fresh coffee,fell asleep again and when I got out of bed I was convinced I had been dreaming as there was no sight of coffee,turns out I wasn´t dreaming, I had smelt it only Andy and Jerry had drank it all,considering the events to follow I think the ´boys´ should have their coffee intake regulated!! I am at present taking a break from cleaning up, it´s amazing where tomatoe frito can end up,I have to admit I´m regretting throwing it now,it was bad enough having my cooking slated when I used it in a dish,but as a weapon it´s just a damn right waste! I think what surprised me the most was how fast Jerry can swing a frying pan when he puts his mind to it,boy that oldster can move. We have removed the pan from his head and Jerry is presently in the shower trying to wash the butter from out of his ears and from the back of his neck,Andy has hunkered down in his cabin making a list of all the horrible things we´ve said about him,so he can show his wife, who,he says,will then give us all a good kicking. Gerold´s sat on the foredeck trying to feed whats left of the carrots(they took some retrieving I can tell you)to the dolphins. As soon as I´ve finished with the cleaning I´m off back to me dinghy. On a lighter note, can somebody please let me know if S & M is a branch of Marks & Spencers and if I meet a woman into it,does it mean I´m getting dragged round supermarkets on dates? The Island is approaching with each mile and once the crew have finished cleaning, preperations for our arrival will continue, I think Jerry´s feeling confident that his time slot will be closest as he asked how much a beer is earlier and what the exchange rate for the U.S $ is, Andy had a brainwave and has told Jerry not to worry,just give us E.C.$200 and we will go to the bar for him,so he doesn´t have to queue!! Teach him to slate sausage cassorole hey! Personally I can taste the 1 st rum and salt fish pattie. Thats all for now,got to find out what shifts tomatoe stains and take the dints out of the pans before dinner.
7 th December 2006
Position – N16deg42 W050deg31
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 168Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart)
Distance to Antigua – 647 Nm
Tonights film – Phoenix Nights followed by Robinson Cruso
J. the ¤SWITofY
SITREP – Another good days run, a bit rolly in the night, but progress good, Jerry looking at winning the stepping ashore competion.
Astro for Aardvarks – when/if we sight land
An important moment on all vessels. The reasons are obvious, but the important one is not to look and point but to fine tune our navigation, an acceptable error of 5-10 Nm in the Atlantic is definitely not good when the green and brown stuff looms close. It is at this point that astro navigation comes to an end, it will have seen us across the ocean but now we basically use landmarks and flags (flags to ensure that we have hit the right country). By taking bearings to identifiable landmarks (definitely not cows or sheep) that appear on our chart we can fix an accurate position. Depth is an excellent tool, charts show depth contours much the same as OS maps in the UK show height contours. This does not mean the end of the mighty sextant though, by knowing the height of an object we can measure the angle from us to it and with a bit of trigonometry (or Nories tables) work out our distance away from it, it just keeps getting better!
Vessels normally start a book for sighting land and for dropping the anchor/stepping ashore. This is a useful thing to do, as people start taking a real interest in navigation, height of the island, weather forecasts etc. Incentive is a wonderful thing.
We have decided this year that the winner of the ´first to spot land´ and the ´time ashore´ competitions will buy the first beers.
Gerold here . So wie unser skipper hier da Sichten von Land ausgelobt hat erinnert mich das sehr stark an die Geshichten von Asterix und den Roemern. Alle gucken in die Luft und wissen von nichts. I know nothing I'm from Barcelona, wuerde Jerry sagen. Also hier muss noch ein Goldstueck an den Mast genagelt werden!
Auf was ich schon lange gehofft hatte, trat tatsaechlich ein. Delphine! Unvermittelt tauchen sie an Backbord auf und eilen schnurstracks auf unseren Bug zu wie kleine Kinder dem Spielplatz. Acht bis elf Tiere tummeln sich vor und unter uns. Sie spielen Fangen mit dem Schiff, lassen es ganz nah herankommen und jagen allein oder im Dreierpack voran, um sich anschliessend seitlich zurueckfallen zu lassen. Nur kurz ueberlassen sie die Spitzenposition ihren Gefaehrten. Mit der naechsten Welle surfen sie wieder elegant heran und beginnen das Spiel von neuem. Mir scheint , aus den Augenwinkeln lugen sie zu uns herauf und wenn das Boot eintaucht koennen wir sie fast mit der Hand beruehren. Ein einzigartiges Schauspiel. Wie auf ein Signal hin schwenken alle nach Steuerbord davon, bis auf einen, der vielleicht bis jetzt noch nicht zum Zug gekommen ist. Er liefert ein kurzes Solo bevor auch er verschwindet.
Es sind u.a. solche diese Augenblicke, die dieses Unternehmen so lohnend und unvergesslich machen. Danke Jungs!
Hells Kitchen
We couldn,t just leave Goldilox behind, so we put him in the tender (a little inflateable) and towed him 200 yards behind the vessel. At this point we realized that our tactical voting was maybe not so clever. Jerry just produced lunch, pasta in a sauce, in dog bowls, it was tasty and contrasted well with the blue plastic, I had ´FIDO´ and Gerold ´TYSON´. Jerry then came up with a sandwich for himself, two inches thick. When asked why he was eating different food he looked at our food, then us and asked us if we really thought he was going to ´THAT´. We retrieved Goldilox, and had a surprise re-entry into the kitchen. Who says rules are rigid.
Jerry here
The mood aboard Ushomi has definitely improved. It is now a combination of anticipation and nostalgia. The anticipation has to do with whether or not we will be anywhere near Antigua upon making landfall in the Caribbean and, whether or not Darrel is going to be able to say that he has sailed across the Atlantic without having to do a laundry.
The nostalgia, of course, has to do with no longer having Andy´s sausage casserole, although this carries with it a great deal of thanksgiving. For my part, it will be nice to return to fresh buffalo meat grilled over an open campfire home on the range.
Speaking of cowboys, the yelling from the port quarter berth has been stifled by the use of Darrel´s body restraints and copious amounts of JW Red. Parenthetically, we´ve learned that Darrel carrys those restraints in case he meets up with a woman who´s into S & M..
Soon we´ll be able to say, in the words of the glorious US leader, ¨Mission Accomplished¨.
Goldilox reporting
It´s true, I was cast off into the distance,almost! If only Jerry hadn´t have cooked,I was enjoying myself out there,peace and quiet and nobody asking me how to boil a potato! I even managed to nearly get rid of the sextant over board, it´s plastic so it floats!! I have managed to jump up and down on it though,surprising resilient. So if anyboby would like to buy a second hand,slightly bent sextant,only one mirror cracked, oh and a shade or two missing,please contact us at the regular e-mail address. So there I was rolling around all on my own to then be fed from a dog bowl with ´Spike´written on it(wasn´t he the dog out of the Tom and Gerry cartoons?) and then demands to pass on step by step spag bol receipes to Gerold! I prefered not being wanted. Then again,was missing the telly and winding the kipper up. We have been introducing the foriegners to British comedy with showings of the phoenix club, Jerry is finding it hilarious,unfortunately he sits opposite me while watching and is eating his dinner so that when he finds a moment particulary amusing, I get peppered with whatever he´s eating at the time! We were teaching Jerry Great British tunes yesterday, Andy went for a rendition of ´Jerusalem´,I went for ´My daddy was a bank robber´(mine wasn´t,he´s a dodgy antiques dealer)by the Clash. I´ve also found 3ways of getting the kipper to move quickly,1, spill a hot cup of tea over him, 2,watch him shift after being hit by a wave coming into the cockpit and my personal favorite,when he´s stood in the companion way either tug the hairs on his calf or even better flick him with a t-towel,it isn´t for the yelp of pain,it´s the little jump that acompanys it that really tickles me!on board entertainment will never be the same. So not long to go now until we hit somewhere with trees on it,looks like I´m stuck on board with this lot and not in me little tender and yes its true,it looks like I´ll manage to cross the whole Atlantic without doing any clothes washing at all,well me mum gets upset if I turn up on the doorstep with clean clothes. I would like to say I have surpassed my previous shower record of 3 in a trip,by at least 10! so at least I´m clean even if my trousers can stand up on their own!!thats all for now folks.Hasta.
And the last word – the whole point of the exercise was to teach my Peshwarmi nan learner the road to enlightenment through humility, start again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6 th December 2006
Position – N16deg39 W047deg36
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 185Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart)
Distance to Antigua –
815Nm
Tonights film – Oceans 11
J. LingYMED
SITREP – It´s still banging mister potter
Fantastic last 24 hrs, a steady 16-20 knots of wind and good sea´s. If only we could do that every day. That is the best days run of the trip so far. Word from Norwegian John on Asanti, he left the Cap Verdes after four days there at anchor. He is due into Antigua on Friday/Saturday, but yesterday a pin in his autopilot broke and he is having to steer the last 4 or so days, that´s sailing. Apart from that he is having a great trip.
Twitchers
Corner 
I say, whato fellow lovers of all things feathered. Today has been one of those wondrous days, let me share it with you. As I alighted to the cockpit, where the smelly crew sit, a wondrous sight presented itself to me, that cheeky chappy Fregata Magnificens no less (the frigate bird). These ´magnificent´(excuse the pun) birds are generally black with ´scaly´wing coverts due to light margins of feathers and have a deeply forked tail, also the male has an orange, inflates to red, sack on his breast, lovely. He spends his day on the wing or perched in trees, allowing easy take-off. He seldom enters water but will take food off the surface. Oh joy to the heavens for letting me see this splendour, it has made my day, I will have you know. Todays picture, another cheeky chappy who hitched a ride, oh I say!
Sleep monster ,still here,still trying to find out where we are,still can´t see much but sun out of my right eye,still think the G.P.S. is a wonderful invention. Still trying to convince the rest of this mottley crew that with a positive mental attitude we can be in by Sunday. Andy has down loaded a gismo which shows our position on a real time chart on the laptop,it includes all sorts of exciting information such as waypoint data, G.P.S. data and steering data,which equates to a likle ship on a chart that moves when we do,and best of all a day and hour countdown that has us jumping around like children when the data says we´re due to arrive on Sunday and groaning when it says a Tuesday arrival! Being professional men of the sea though we are using it as an aid to navigation only, and are relying on Dangerous Darrel and his trusty sextant to get us there!!! the 99hr countdown is due to start tomorrow,
Andy woke me this morning saying he has a surprise for me(scared me for a moment)can I guess what it is? I replied straight away that the countdown has started, it turned out to be Christmas bread(go figure,although it turns out that last night was Santa´s day in Germany,so Gerold was made up),I then stepped into the cockpit to take over the watch and he asked me if I want the good or the bad news?confused as I was, he preceeded to tell me there was no bad news,so I sat down a wave came along(as they do)and knocked my tea all over him, moved a bit sharpish he did,then treated myself and Jerry to the latest in Musto tropical sailing attire, Andy in t-shirt,grundies and his sailing boots,needless to say I´ve not really had much of an appetite today!Hasta manaña folks,hopefully I wont have fallen in trying to work out which end of this pesky sextant you look through and what it is exactly that you point it at??
5 th December 2006
Position – N16deg34 W044deg30
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 164Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart)
Distance to Antigua – 996Nm
Tonights film – Phoenix Nights (series 1 episode 1,2), Main Showing - Crash
J. O5DtoGML Ax
SITREP – It´s banging Mister Potter
Well, less than 1000Nm to go. All still going well and still hoping for Monday afternoon/evening. Had word from Colin, Eric and Dave berthed in Antigua on the 1 st December (by my reckoning a 17day trip), Vince in Summer Breeze is still 180Nm infront of us and due in on Sunday.
Hells Kitchen
Last night saw an event that has turned the tables around, Jerry produced Steamed Chicken,cooked in a secret sauce, boiled potatoes, and peas. OK you say, not an exciting meal, but it was cooked to perfection and reminded us what good common sense food is about, non of this arty foreign stuff, good wholesome, basic food. Every morsel was finished and we all waited for more.
So the leader board is now, Jerry 2425 points, Gerold 2321 points, Andy 1989 points, and Darrel, surprisingly bringing up the rear, with 12 points. Some of you may be alarmed at the results, but let me assure you the scoring is carried out using a high tech computer thingy that I wired up in my tea break. Also on the breaking news front, it has saddened us all that Darrel´s cabin has revealed some surprising finds, during a ´vessel integrity check´ I happened to find several jars of ´Senora Ramona's Spanish Cuisine in a jar´; that would be bad enough, but an empty ´Pataks´Chicken Tikka Masala´carton was found with his laundry, not to mention the ´Ladybird book of cooking´. Remember you heard it here first.
Sport
On the exercise front we are forever busy, our bodies are temples, not necessarily well kept temples, more your village church in need of a new roof, kind of temple. But temples they are. Egyptian PT is a favorite (think of a mummy, mum). Today is a special day though, it is the Ushomi sports day (parents welcome), the teams are England1, England2, USA, and Germany. First up is the sack race, twenty times around the cockpit, closely followed by the egg and spoon race. The football knockout series (England V Germany hot favorites for the final) starts at 1300 LT on the fore deck and will run concurrent with the javelin competion. High jump will be over the spinnaker pole at 1500. Shark wrestling has been postponed due to Nobby ´ the terror of the deep ´being injured in practice with Jerry (USA). Tea and cucumber sandwiches will be available at 1700. St Johns Ambulance refused to attend so your favorite on board medic ´Appy Andy the Tamworth stitcher´will eagerly attend to all injuries, ´motto where experience lacks, enthusiasm makes up´. LET THE GAMES COMMENCE.
E-mails
From Tony Locke, sailing in Anglesey for some daft reason (update on the ARC)
Day
8 – Drama As Yacht Is Dismasted
yacht Mustang loses mast - all OK onboard
The
strong winds and Atlantic swell have taken their toll on the ARC fleet with
two major breakages occurring yesterday (Sunday 3 December).
Canadian yacht Mustang, a Camper & Nicholson 25m sloop, suffered a break
in her mast, losing two-thirds of the rig over the side late on Saturday evening.
“One of our rigging screws failed unexpectedly,” explained skipper Matthew Cote.
“The rig is less than a year old, and failed on the leeward side. We have rod
rigging, so it was a big job to cut away the damaged sections.”
Assistance was called for from within the ARC fleet, and several yachts responded
with offers of cutting equipment and spare fuel. ARC yacht Petite Lune of London,
a Grand Soleil 56, was best placed to reach Mustang first and lend a hand with
a powered angle grinder. “We'd almost finished cutting the rig, when Petite
Lune arrived” said Matthew, “but by then the teeth on our cutters were almost
blunt, so it was a great help having Lune's cutter to finish the job.”
After visually inspecting the hull for damage, and taking onboard additional
fuel from a merchant ship, Mustang is now underway again and motoring towards
St.Lucia. “We are all determined to cross the ARC finish line, even it we are
motoring with a jury rig!” said the yacht's owner Kim Dunfield.
A broken boom was also reported yesterday by Mark Vernon, skipper of the Lagoon
440, Maverick Dream. “We are all frustrated at now having to sail slowly,” said
Mark. “We blew out our spinnaker a couple of days ago, so are now just cruising
along under head sail alone.”
The Sleep Monster here,just been covered in baked bean juice by my kipper,the ´Do as I say not as I do dude´ who states that NO LIQUIDS of any sort near the chart table,unless your the kipper with a tin o beans in your hand! Covered me Sheppards t-shirt he did,as rare as the proverbial rocking horse excrement as well they are. Heathen!! I have to buy Rod´The God' Smith a big drink when we get in for the fact that because he couldn´t make the trip at the last minute I don´t have to share a cabin with the kipper,who came out of his cabin with a little cloud of ponginess following him yesterday, turns out he´s washing his sheets today by hand, but has been saving his spare pair thats been laundered in a machine for when his wife joins him on board! Now I know why the ´Eau de poofter´ is being used so much. ´Respeck´ to Rod. Its true, I´m last in the cooking stakes,tensions are running high,I believe our kipper has gone over to the Dark Side with his highly bias judging. I´m still waiting for verification that curry does not come in cartons(it was a jar of Sharwood´s dansak,not a carton) the end result looks like I´m swimming the rest of the way to Antigua,which is a shame because I was looking forward to hogging the chart table for the big 99hrs countdown,still it´ll make that 1 st rum swizzle taste even better and being the youngest chief scout in Nottinghamshire 1986, I may use my wood craft skills to lash up a raft out of passing flotsam,or bits of boats doing the ARC,whichever comes 1 st . At least I won´t be tied to the a stove for this bunch of philistines, its like having kids! Jerry´s wonder meal was his 1 st to not include mince,made quite a change to ´unidentifiable pasta´. The canny man has traveled all this way with his own alluminium baking tray in his cabin,along with packs and packs of ready to cook stuff that goes into plastic bags and then into the oven!!! although I wasn´t quite sure about the florescent yellow ´chicken gravy´. So the big vote looks like it´s on for tomorrow,I´m off to sharpen me knifes and prepare a sun-run-sun that puts the boat just off Greenland,so they alter course and end up in the Antarctic,I´ll show them,slate my cooking. I´m going to set my Gran onto them all,the womans deadly when she takes her teeth out. Stay tuned in for tomorrows update. Hasta.
Gerold here. Dramatische Wende an der Kuechenfront, wie ihr seht. Jerry hat uns wirklich alle ueberrascht mit seinen Huehnchenschlegeln. Schmeckte ausgezeichnet. Kompliment! Platz 1 ist gerechtfertigt. Ansonsten laueft hier allgemeine Bordroutine. Ich muss zu meiner Wache gar nicht mehr geweckt werden so hat sich der Rhythmus schon verinnerlicht. Schoen, wenn einem beim Aufwachen bereits der Duft von frisch gebackenem Brot (aus dem breadmaker) in die Nase steigt. Droben im cockpit ruft Darrel staendig “Standby”. Er uebt astronavigation und schiesst dazu die Sonne. Nach anfaenglichem Kopfzerbrechen scheint er nun Gefallen daran gefunden zu haben. Wuerde mich auch noch interessieren. Jerry und ich muessen aber erst noch die Niederungen der Navigationskunst durchmessen. Das bedeutet heute z.B..: Calculate the tidal height of Cadiz at 0923 on March 10 th . Tatsaechlich finden wir die exakte Tidenhoehe heraus, dank Andy's Unterweisungen vom Samstag.
Was die gestaehlten Koerper anbelangt bin ich mir nicht so sicher, ob die Waage zu Hause nicht etwas anderes dazu meint. Zwar sind mir inzwischen Seebeine gewachsen. Die sehen aber eher etwas mickriger aus als die vormals benutzten Jogging-Wander-Radel-Fussballbeine. Dafuer ist das Gleichgewichtsgefuehl trainiert wie noch nie. Heisses Wasser in eine Tasse zu giessen oder dem Niedergang zuzustreben mit einer vollen Teetasse in der Hand, waehrend ushomi von 10 Grad Backbord nach 10 Grad Steuerbord rollt, bereitet inzwischen keine Schwierigkeit mehr. Hey, wir haben eben den letzten Tausender unterschritten. Noch 999 Meilen bis Antigua. Wenn das kein Nikolausgeschenk ist! Go, baby, go!
4th December
Position – N16deg30 W041deg35
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 172Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart)
Distance to Antigua – 1160 Nm
Tonights film – The Perfect Storm surfing us along, surfing as in surfing but in a 50ft yacht, it is fast and fun but requires a bit of thought and concentration. Last year Kevin managed to record 15.4 knots, this years best so far is 10.4. We have now started a book on our arrival time, it has got serious. Each person can buy time slots, if they wish they can sell them on if there is demand. Slots cost $1EC (20p or US 30cents). Everyone is devising methods of slowing or speeding the boat to make their slot. My monies on the back end of the 11 th , but Gerold has the safe slot of am on the 12 th .
Emails
Chris and mandy
Be Bold, be Ambitious, be Disciplined! Turn the GPS off for a few days and you will be Astro experts.
No
truth in the rumour that the England Cricket Team are signing Jack Bauer as
a fast bowler.
Stan the Man Nagorski (the doc in Belgium)
Hello All of You,
Only now because, my computer refused connection with your boat,probably he don't like sailing.
I wish you a very good winds,a lot of fishing and FUN with Andy.I hope to be on board in may 2007,long time to go. Special regards to Admiral Jerry,the best sailor beetwen lawyers and the best lawyer beetwen sailors.
Chris Horatio Nelson Oxby
What Ho, Snorkers,
Shore Based Nav Control (Yorkshire) here.
Sorry for the delay in reply, after Darrel's comments I thought I would pop off to the library and see if they had a globe or something I could look at.
Sadly, I got lost on the way home.
The white things are passing Christmas Cake shipments from China to Blighty, as we buy everything from there now.
(even Grandma Batty's Yorkshire Puds are now made by Mrs Hoo Flung Dung of Beijing).
The little waddling bird is probably Ellen McArthur in a party frock.
So, not happy with the current fix, I have checked my own GPS, which is the same except it is set for hot-air ballooning jollies rather than crossing oceans.
(Only real difference is that instead of the pesky little dots on the screen indicating lighthouses and sunken treasure and the like, it just tells you to land as you are near a pub that does hand-pulled ales)
Upshot is, you are in the Atlantic area, heading towards a crate of Wadadli at the old Jolly Dog Tavern, currently at Flight Level 350 (that's about 35,000 ft in old money)
However, I checked at the library again, and there is a 747 Heavy, Inbound JFK at your FL, so I am going to have to vector you over the North Sea for a time until we are less busy.
Can you climb to FL500 and maintain current heading. - Good news is there is a 200 kt Jet-Stream up there, so you should be singing sea shanties in the JDT by this evening.
Toodle-Pip.
ps - Andy, if you need more curry sauce, the milk-man usually has a couple of jars on his float, just leave a note out with your empties before you turn in tonight.
Sleep monster here ,just read the above email,got a big smile on my face until I got to the bit about going to the North sea,do we really have to? I mean it´s pretty hairy in the North sea,we could hit a bather off Skegness, and if you know the type of people who go swimming in the North sea at ´Skeggy´then you´ll realize we could do some serious damage to the boat. Although if we´re at 50,000ft with a 200kt jet stream I suppose we won´t meet many swimmers hey,could quite easily bump into some daft sod in a balloon looking for a pub though! Stranger things have happened at sea!! take us lot for instance!! As Andy has said we are rolling along,the surfing´s good fun and I´m all for speeding us up,as I´ve bet on the highly optimistic arrival time of Sunday(not that wishful thinking´s got anything to do with it!!)although there seems to be a conspiracy going on at the moment to slow us down! Andy and I, being the 2 tea drinkers on board,have a little competition going on to see if we can trick each other into making tea, things like ´did you see that boat next to the one called ¨PQRS¨´one way of keeping on your toes. He drinks an amazing amount of tea so I know all I have to do is keep quiet for a bit and he´s bound to put the kettle on. On board we have strong points in the cockpit to which we can attach our harness´s during night watches or very rough weather,so we don´t get washed over board,they have been affectionately nicknamed ´Ankleknockers´ as the height they are fixed at is directly in line with 99.8% of the worlds population´s ankles(the pigmy tribes of the Congo and obviously amputee´s are fine on board) I found out last night that another hazard has been fitted in the cockpit(MUM, Andy´s just come out the shower,sprayed some poofy perfume on and then tried to shove his armpit in my face claiming he smells nice,tell him mum!)as my ankle contacted the ruddy great lump of stainless steel,bringing instant tears to my eyes, I tried to raise my foot to administer a soothing rub(like your mum used to do when you´d just fallen over and skinned your knee) and my shin contacted the bottom edge of the new box under the table,lucky the sea´s a bit lumpy otherwise I think I´d have been getting out one of my chisels to do my ´Mr Wong´s(everything being made in China nowadays)matchstick manufacturing Co´ impression. Who said being at sea´s fun? Hell´s Kitchen you might have noticed has gone awfully quiet recently, I think the rest of the competition has thrown in their aprons big time. Andy´s having a bit of trouble,the other night when he cooked he had big problems shallow frying potatoes(an Englishman who can´t cook chips! I´ve seen it all now) and then last night he made another sausage casserole that turned into a casserole and mashed spud soup in our dog bowls,the sauce was just a little bit too runny,to say the least! Gerold has slated the great British King Edward potatoe(good job my Grandad´s not alive)after making a potatoe salad and blaming the spuds because they went all mushy after he overcooked them,then added a small cup of veggi soup to it????the mind boggles. Jerry´s still doing well with his biscuits though. And finally,Andy´s top tip for battling the lethargic ness that is creeping into the crew, he just shouts ´SQUALL´ then stands back and watches the watch keeper panic!! When he´s not being a miserable,grumpy bugger that is. Talking of which,Jerry´s getting locked in his cabin for the next 2 nights to guarantee the safety of the rest of us, full moon! Thats all for now,this is some daft sod signing off from somewhere in the Indian Ocean,dodging crates of Mrs Ping Tao Fu´s traditional christmas pud!!
P.S. Hello mum,hope your not too cold,sat in shorts and T-shirt here. Take care,lots of love,your son.xx
3rd December 2006
Position – N16deg25 W038deg46
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 168Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart)
Distance to Antigua – 1323 Nm
Tonights film – Tomb raider ´A racey adventure based around a rather plain looking Lara Croft.
J. SweWbeT Ax
SITREP
Yet another good day, with the forecast showing much the same for the next three days. Tentatively I am looking at feet dry on Monday 11 th or if we slow down Tuesday 12 th . Onboard bets have started!
Traditional Sailing
As you may have gathered boats and ships have come on a long way over the years. But basically we are sailing with the same sea´s and same winds that have driven mariners across the oceans for countless years. We do have a few comforts though, air conditioning, generator, engine, water maker, bread maker, toaster, electric kettle, microwave, convection oven and grill, home cinema, stereo, e-mail, satellite communications, washing machine, GPS, hot and cold water, showers, electric toilet, autopilot, shall I go on. These things bring their own problems though, they break. Take for example the 24V 100A alternator, it stopped working. After some investigation the problem turned out to be a bad wire to one of the brushes. So a period of low gloom, followed by the fix, followed by euphoria, followed by tiredness due to the emotional roller coaster. What if all of the electrics fail ? We actually have back up systems for every major system onboard, we can actually loose the use of any one item and still function normally, loss of two items starts the head scratching, but we would only loose the luxuries. The vessel would then become a standard sailing boat, much like most that cross the ocean. If we have full batteries and full water tanks then we do not require any form of charging for four days, this is with 24hr use of the autopilot and normal washing, showering, tea making etc.
Astro navigation for Aardvarks
In a galaxy far far away, or that is where my young pashwani nan (Goldilox) thinks we are after taking some sun sights. In fact on his second meridian pass (shooting the noon sun as it crosses our north-south line (meridian), he came up with a latitude that was only 15Nm out. So what you say. Well compare the Atlantic to ´Patels Indian Superstore´in Tamworth and our boat as a very small piece of noodle. 15Nm on our new Patels map would be about half the size of a frozen onion barjee !!!
Navigation Classes
In between doing Astro and fixing things I have been running a navigation course for Gerold and Jerry, they have both taken to it likes ducks to the Fazeley canal. One complaint though, I set a load of exercises the other day and both attacked the questions with gusto. The next morning the watchkeeper on the middle watch reported strange, furtive movement down below in the night, we thought no more of it. Later the next day when going through the answers it was discovered that Jerry´s paper was written in German, none of us knew he spoke the language, but the most amazing part was that he seemed at a loss to understand them.
Sleep monster here,MY HEAD HURTS !!!my secretary was writing for me as I was busy cooking a delectable Spanish tortilla,Andy slated it but I think yesterday really took it out of him,a sulking kipper is never a pretty sight,so I think it best if I don´t rub it in too much today,could come to blows! I am going to be very brief today as I´m in the process of doing a running fix on the sun and I just cant process any more information,if my mum was here I´d get her to clip Andy round the lug´ole for making me think so hard,he started on me at 8:10 this morning,I´d not even got round to scratching my bits,as blokes do when they get up in the early morning when I was assailed with Greenwich hour, angle,Local hour angle and a book so full of figures that it hurts your eyes to look at it. So I´m going to my bed and dreaming of my mum berating Andy for making her son think. Hasta.
Gerold here . Man stelle sich vor ein Amerikaner und ein Deutscher sollen gemeinsam eine Blinddarmoperation durchfuehren. Simpel. Erschwerend kommt hinzu,der Eingriff erfolgt “ferngesteuert” ueber Monitor durch zwei weitere, voellig ungeuebte Assistenten, die strikt den Anweisungen ihrer Chefs folgen. Was hat das mit uns zu tun? Nun, unsere gestrige “Operation Gybe” verlief in etwa unter diesen Voraussetzungen. Jerry und ich werden auf die Bank hinter dem Steuerrad verbannt. Wir sollen die Anweisungen untereinander absprechen und dann an Andy und Darrel weitergeben. Einziges Ziel: die ausgebaumte Genua von Steuerbord auf Backbord zu shiften. Na dann los! Die Eroeffnung verlaeuft glaenzend. Bei dem Hinweis, den Spinakerbaum ueber das Babystag zu hieven uebersehen wir den kleinen, fuer uns selbstverstaendlichen Hinweis zuvor den Toppinglift zu loesen. Mit dem Erfolg, dass wir Andy zum Trabanten des Vorstags machen und er dieses frei in der Luft haengend einmal umrundet, bis ihn Daerrel schliesslich am Hosenguertel packt und an Deck zueueck zieht. Der Rest ist reine Formsache. Die zwei Vorschoter bringen, wiederum nach genauer Anweisung unsererseits das Vorsegel richtig aus. “It wasn't brilliant but it was good!” ist des Skippers grosszuegiger Kommentar. Sehr vornehm ausgedrueckt!
Was hat uns das Ganze gebracht? Neben der Uebung am Objekt die Tatsache, dass wir seit gestern Mittag direkten Kurs auf Antigua nehmen. Jede zurueckgelegte Meile bringt uns also unserem Ziel auch genau um dise Strecke naeher. Hat sich also gelohnt.
Eine eigenartige Begegnung heute mitten in der Nacht (Wache 01.00 -04.00). Zwei helle Schatten (gibt's das ueberhaupt?) huschen ums Boot. Ich glaube an irgendwelche Mondlichtreflexe, bis ploetzlich einen halben Meter ueber mir, lautlos zwei weisse Voegel schweben, dort eine kleine Weile verharren nach mir spaehen und ebenso lautlos wieder davon segeln. Ein gutes Zeichen fuer den weiteren Verlauf der Reise? Ich gehe davon aus.
2 nd December 2006
Position – N16deg06 W035deg52
Course 274 just degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 155Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart)
Distance to Antigua – 1492 Nm
Tonights film – Saturday matinee – ´Live Football´ England V Germany (1966 World Cup Final)
- Evening Screening – Football highlights followed by, ´Love Actually´
J, LingYAMyD LAx
SITREP
We have Gybed, that is we have turned and put the wind onto our starboard (right, mum). We are now aiming pretty much at Antigua, the wind is in the east and should back into the NE in a few days. If this occurs then we will be on a very fast point, and if not, then we carry on as we have been.
Hells Kitchen
Lots to tell, Gerold and jerry have been producing food, that astounds us all, as they claimed not to be able to cook a few weeks ago. Soon someone must leave the kitchen . Yesterday was a bit of a disaster for me, I planned a bit of Sydney (his appeal was rejected) lightly pan fried in butter with a sprinkling of parsley, accompanied by pan fried potato cubes with freshly picked ´frozen´ minted peas! That was the plan. To start I part boiled the potatos, and whilst doing so received a weather fax, paying attention to the weather fax and not the food the potatoes over cooked and went a bit flowery. Doggedly I carried on but the wind had left my sails. The potaoes were finished in the oven, I have never had mashed fries, and then I over cooked Sydney, the peas were nice though. Everyone made the right noises but deep down I failed. I burnt my apron and went to bed a broken man.
Did You Know
A circle has 360 degrees, each degree is made up of 60minutes (normally shown as ´ ). Therefore 60 ´ equals 1 degree. Good so far. The definition of a nautical mile is 1´ of angle from the earths centre projected out to the equator. At the equator there are 360 degrees if we go all the way around. Therefore there are 360 * 60 minutes, which equals 21600 minutes, or (as 1´ = 1Nm (nautical mile)) 21600 Nm. The Sun passes every 24 hrs. Therefore it passes through 360 degrees in 24 hours, which means that it passes 15 degrees every 1 hour (360 divided by 24). 15 degrees = 15*60´= 900 ´ (minutes) or 900 Nautical Miles every hour. (Ok, for the picky few I have failed to take into account the eliptic). Now isn´t that amazing !
On a more serious note, with 26 toilet roll holders, 22 brillo pads, 4 washing liquid bottles and a roll of sticky tape you can make a 1/20 th scale model of the Thunderbirds ´Tracey Island´ . Now that is cool.
E-mails
From Mark the Cheesemaker (Sailed from Caribbean to Spain May 2005) Great to hear from you and that you are on the move and looking forward to reading about your exploits ........
My news:- Tumbleweed, my 1977 28ft Trapper 500; with myself and delivery crew arrived on the Tyne last Wednesday after a two hop voyage from Chichester - Lowestoft - Tyne in 36 and 33 hours.
Dictated by Darrel (I´m a secretary now)
FAO Chris Horation Nelson Oxby
Re your Google earth position off New Foundland,
I have been taking sunsights and have us nowhere near New Foundland, I get us in the Tasmanian Sea, but what are the big white floaty things with the little birds that are black and white and waddle everywhere and look like nuns
.
1 st December 2006
Position – N16deg49 W033deg19
Course 260 degrees True, Distance last 24hrs 158Nm
(The daily distance is the distance between each days 1300 (1 O´Clock) fix on the chart)
Distance to Antigua – 1634Nm
Tonights film – The DaVinci Code
J, IMYMD LAx
SITREP
And on it goes, another good day with more to follow, or so we believe. The wind is in the east and we really want it to move into the northeast, but no ones complaining here.
Astro Navigation for Aardvarks
It started a long, long time ago. Latitude can be measured from the Meridian pass of the sun, that is when the sun passes overhead each day at noon. Longitude poses a bit more of a problem. The Royal Navy Mediterranean fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell had been relieved and were sailing back to Britain. They believed that they were well to the west of the English channel and were aiming eastwards for the channel approaches and home. A sailor stated that he believed that the fleet was further north and east than believed, sailors were not allowed to learn navigation due to the dangers of mutiny, the rating was hung. The fleet was indeed further west and north than believed and in poor visibility hit the Scilly Isles. The butchers bill was horrendous, 1600 men perished and Cloudsley Shovell himself, having made it ashore, though half drowned, was killed by a local woman scavenging for gold, jewelery and money from the dead and dying. The Admiralty were horrified at the loss of a whole fleet, not just a ship, and announced a prize of 20.000 pounds (I think) for anyone who could determine a means of calculating longitude at sea. There were many suggestions, a series of anchored ships across the Atlantic using semaphore to pass on midday at Greenwich. Taking two pups from a litter and taking one of them to sea, keeping the other at Greenwich, the pup at Greenwich was to be hurt at noon each day and it´s twin at sea would supposedly bark at the same time! Two main contenders appeared the Royal Astrologers, who believed that the stars and moon held the key, and a poor clockmaker called Harrison. Harrison devoted his life to building an accurate timepiece that could go to sea. Captain Cook took one of the early models on his voyages and was impressed with the result. Here should end the story, but the Royal Astrologers were a powerful body, who were expected to succeed, therefore Harrison was denied the prize. His chronometers started as large, boxed devices that were delicate machines and that the Admiralty claimed unsuitable. His work decreased in size until he made H5 (I think, someone correct me if it was H6, please). After a lifetime spent doggedly pursuing a Chronometer and hence Longitude, Harrison was recognized as the winner and was awarded, the prize. That makes Harrison the father of longitude and possibly Britain's future supremacy at sea. The book Longitude tells the story better than me.
Today we use a casio, but other than that it is exactly the same as they did way back then. Not a lot has changed. For those of you who use GPS, great, Columbus would have jumped at the chance to have one, and we would be fools to sail without one, two. But there is a magical splendour to shooting (to quote Cunliffe) ´the ghostly galleon of the moon´.
The Big Fish
We work a system on board that dictates that who ever is on watch is responsible for fishing and hence lands the fish and claims it as their catch. We are all fish lovers so have not really caught much (anything in fact), that is until this morning. Gerold hooked something and the line ´zinged´(Jerry word) and Gerold leapt into action as the remaining three of us leap to the anchor locker up front. Gerold had hooked a wild Tuna (wouldn´t you be wild with a gert big hook in your mouth). After a tiring fight Gerold landed Sydney (we named him) a Skip jack Tuna, who happened to have a large family and an extensive network of friends. Tuna are bloody fish and soon Gerold was covered, as was the cockpit. I have elected myself as butcher and cook, as no one else seems to want to do it. Tonight is the first of a few Tuna nights. To cap it all Jerry announced that he was doing lunch, tinned tuna sandwiches.
Onion Alert
We appear to be out of onions, anyone seeing our onions please let us know, do not approach as they are dangerous. Going to nip out later and buy another bag or two.
Gerold here .Wow! Seit zwei Tagen schleppen wir die Hochseeangel hinter uns her und irgendwann musste ja wohl auch ein Fischlein anbeissen. Dies sollte dann justament zu meiner Wachzeit geschehen und so kam ich, welch Anglerglueck, zu meinem ersten grossen Fang auf hoher See. Ueberraschenderweise dauerte es nicht allzu lange, bis ich Sydney, den Skipjack Thunfisch in der Naehe des Hecks hatte. Schon von weitem sahen wir den glitzernden Koerper, gezogen von der starken Schnur, ueber die Wasseroberflaeche flitzen. Andy tippte zunaechst auf einen Dorado. Es tut ein bischen weh, diesen Prachtkerl seinem Element zu entreissen, zumal das An-Bord-Hieven mit einem Enterhaken doch recht blutig verlief. Nun ja, Sydney verhilft uns zu schaetzungsweise zwei bis drei nahrhaften Mahlzeiten. Bin gespannt, was Andy daraus zaubert.
Wir sollten uebrigens mal rasch beim Gemuesehaendler vorbeischauen. Noch nicht mal die Haelfte der Strecke ist zurueckgelegt und wir haben bereits alle Zwiebeln und Tomaten verbraucht! Darrel meint Mittel und Wege zu kennen wie diesem Mangel abgeholfen werden kann. Vielleicht weicht er auf Muesli aus!? Na gut, wir werden sehen. Jetzt aber an Deck und den Fisch ausgenommen. Extra Gruesse in diesem Fall an meinen Lehrmeister Walter Franke!
Sleep monster (Goldilox) here, Sidney the tuna isn´t the 1 st fish we´ve had on board,but he is the 1 st we are going to eat. We have had a lot of flying fish on deck in the mornings,poor little things,all dry and shriveled up and very dead,pretty rare in Milton Keynes and I´ve run round getting rid of them quick before the H&SE visit in the mornings and quarantine us all for bird flu. We´ve also had a locust on board,as we arrived in La Gomera we received a nav warning on the weather fax informing mariners of a swarm of locusts,we thought nothing more of it as dry land and alcohol were very close at hand. As we left La Gomera Andy and I were discussing the size of spiders in Devon and Cornwall (as you do) and how neither of us are great fans of creepy crawlies when I looked over my shoulder right into the two blearly eyes of a monster locust,I swear this motherlover was 4inches long and giving me the eye,being a hard ass sailor, I leapt half way across the cockpit,nearly giving Jerry a coronary(Andy with 1 st aid sachtel and adrenalin injection at the ready) swearing at said locust profusely,giving everybody a good giggle. Jerry the Korea and Vietnam vet leap t into action and drove it of the boat. I´ve had a 2 nd death defying moment the other night when i stepped into the cockpit(very dangerous sitting in this cockpit minding your own business)to start my watch. As discussed Andy can talk quite a lot,especially if he´s sat on watch for 3hrs with nobody to talk to,jesting with him, the other day I´d said to Jerry that what I do is because it´s dark I put my earphones in,turn on my music and sit there nodding and replying to Andy when I reckon the timings right. This particular night as Andy got up to go to bed he purposly lent into me and stared, I automatically checked behind me to see if there was a ship in sight and looked round to find him even closer,staring. After a few seconds he says ´you haven´t got your earphones in´and stomps off to bed. Chuckling to myself I do turn on me c.d player, lean back and the next minute I felt a strong blow to my left shoulder and movement near my leg,I look down,once again leap across the cockpit(I´m getting good at it)and find a flying fish flapping about. I did the right thing and stamped on its head(not really,I collared it in my jumper)and threw it back in the oggin. Andy´s finished butchering the tuna and is at present jumping about the saloon in his swimming trunks flexing his pigeon chest clutching a knife between his teeth,claiming to be a pure hunter gatherer! Its a picture!!He says he now wants to be known as ´Andy the tuna slayer´,or just ´Andy´ to his mates. Funny that because I always thought a slayer was someone who killed things,not someone who hacked away at a fish thats been dead in the cockpit for four hrs. Oh well we live and learn. Thats all for now campers.
From an unidentified source
In cockpit conversation last evening our retired USN crew member mentioned that when he retired in 1989, the Navy gave him a disability rating of 10% hearing loss. ( Probably from having all those F-4.s launching and landing on an aircraft carrier flight deck just above his head .) He says that when he converted this into a veteran´s disability (For income tax purposes veterans disability payments are untaxed), he received a confirmation letter from the government confirming that he had a disabilty rating for psychosis. If this letter is correct, and we have no evidence to the contrary now, we may have an impending problem onboard. It would explain the fact that during the night we sometimes here loud yells coming from his quarter berth with expressions such as, ¨”He Haw, ridem cowboy”, “look at me, I.´m sailing”, “howdy stranger”, “slap leather, mister”, “take em dead or alive,” “I´m from Crawford Texas and I speak only with God”. We´ll watch this situation. For now there doesn´t appear to be any danger. As a precaution, however, Darrel is fashioning some restraints.
From the crew – Does this mean that someone is walking around America who is Psychotic, with a disability pension and registered for deafness?
30 th November 2006
Position – N17deg29 W030deg40
Course 260 degrees True, Distance last 24 hrs 150Nm
Distance to Antigua – 1767Nm
Tonights film – Dead Calm
J, M ??WITofY Ax (just learnt how to do that!)
SITREP (or situation report)
We have had light winds and expected a low mileage over the last day, instead we have done well, the crew have grafted and I studiously monitored progress and weather from my cabin.150 miles in a day averaging 12-14 knots of wind is good for me. The wind is back and as we hoped we are beneath the lighter winds, the weather ahead is promising 15-20 knots of wind for the next three days and we should progress well. We have seen on the weather fax that the low moving north east is joining the one in the north Atlantic, standby for wind and rain up there.
Routines
I have briefly mentioned watches, these organise the day, but routines fill the day. The easiest trap to fall in out here is to sleep too much, use up all the Zzzzzzzzzzzz in your matress and then be unable to sleep. To that end we split the day, naturally enough into night and day. Night is for sleep. The 0700-1100 watch keeper, has (in my view the best watch), first comes sunrise, a mystery in itself out here. Put a pot of coffee on and relax for half an hour. The heads, cockpit and galley are cleaned during this watch. This is also the best time of day to do the dobhying (washing). 1100-1200 is a short exercise/instruction period followed by lunch. 1300-1500 is further instruction and any outstanding jobs period. 1500-1700 is books, siesta etc. At 1700 Jerry carries out the ceremony of Dr JohnnyWalker and sundowners. A neat way to say good bye to the day. Just before sunset itself is dinner, dress optional. 1900 is either heads down, look at the stars, or film time. And on it goes.
Emails
From Tony Locke (Sailed last November to the Caribbean) Morning campers...
What a difference a year makes...I've just looked up last year's log entry for the corresponding date and Andy/Jerry will remember the bombardment we suffered at 6am in the morning from mini tropical revolving storm 'Doris'!! 175 miles in a day...a year ago the only thing doing 175 miles was the wind!
As I told you, I've got a mate doing the ARC in an HR36 and I've just checked the ARC website to see how they're getting on....only 110 mile run yesterday
From Rod Smith (sailed this May from the Caribbean and should be on now) Whatho Spotty, sounds like you are missing my culinary skills as there has been no mention of the 'fatty fry up' yet, something that I know will be sadly missed. Its very strange to read the blog rather than writing it, it seems somehow unreal. I understand you have wired up the 'Rod Smith Memorial Head' and a jolly time is being had flushing rather than pumping, I look forward to trying it out.
When you are more certain of your arrival time, leave a message on my mobile and I will check it every day from the 7th onwards.
Good sailing, be safe.
From Chris Horatio Nelson Oxby (Sailed in the Caribbean last winter)
I think you are in th'atlantic.
Checked on Google earth and I can see you just off Newfoundland..... mind that whale
Wrapped Knuckles – Had an email from Chris and Mandy in Lanzarotte, Chris is definitely an old hand, when Noah mentioned building a boat thing Chris slapped a draft chit in for it. (Another ex submariner). If time had permitted we were to stop over on the way down, sorry guys, ran out of time, next year.
Modern technology , see photo of Gerold having a traditional ´shower´on the stern, I forgot to mention we have a water maker, showers and hot water.
The sleep monster here again,to continue our merry tale. My brain is just about cooled down to normal temperature having found out why G.P.S. Is so popular with todays sea faring folk,thats right I´ve been playing with a sextant. I have taken my first ever Meridian pass today,if I close my right eye I can still see the sun,and having gone through the equations until smoke pored out of my ears. I think if our electronics failed I´d rather dead reckon until we hit Brazil,or Africa?? Saying that it is fascinating and rather more exciting than sitting around all day. I was only 25miles off our position,considering I was expecting to put us in the Indian Ocean somewhere,I was pleasantly surprised.
The British contingency on board have been initiating the colonial into the gentle art of British culture. This involves the use of as many expletives as possible in each sentence, tea drinking and conning crew members into making the next round,and of course Great British cuisine. Rod´3 bellies´Smith will be very pleased to hear this involved the preparation and consumption of a mammoth fry up for lunch yesterday by my good self, bangers,bacon,fresh mushrooms,fried sliced spuds,eggs and of course baked beans. This was followed last night by Jerry cooking pizza. These are the famous pizza that up until last night had the ability to clear the saloon,with the crew either becoming instantly busy or dragging out their grandma´s reciepe for anything but these bloody horrible pizzas. Jerry surpassed himself last night by adding polish sausage and extra cheese,unfortunately in trying to cook both at the same time he placed one on the shelf directly above the oven flame,6mins later theres black smoke billowing out of the oven all the same we divided it up,ate it and kept a much closer eye on the other one in the oven,which he cooked to perfection. Jerry sits on watch with Andy and after dinner I was asking him how he manages to put up with being talked at for 3hrs,he was actually retired due to a hearing deficiency,so Jerry´s still sane,to a point. I have to finish now as the kipper wants to send of the blog. But i will leave you with Jerry´s definition of a Texan,its a Mexican who didn´t make it to Oklahoma!! Hasta manaña.
29 th November 2006
Position – N18deg35 W028deg22
Course 240 degrees True, Distance last 24 hrs 160Nm
Distance to Antigua – 1912Nm
J, LingYED Ax
Another good days sailing, the seas are getting flatter and the wind is dropping slightly. We are still at good speeds but watching the weather. There is a low to the west and north of us, it is moving north east, away from us and looks set to join the low system north west of the UK. Standby. The effects for us is that the low has reduced the trade winds 300Nm (nautical miles) to the west of us and hence we need to keep getting south to keep the good winds. When Jerry was told of the low he had a flashback to the tropical revolving storm (briefly to become a Hurricane) from last year that we sailed through, it took much persuasion and promises of chocolate to get him out of his cabin again. To any one worrying, look on the National Hurricane Website and you will see we are good
In a Galaxy Far Away
Yesterday it was noted that Gerold gave Darrel a fright whilst cleaning the heads (toilets) whilst wearing only underpants and rubber gloves. More news has come to light on the subject. Old Master Jeri, a Jedi master of repute was practicing his Jedi mind control tricks and summoned Gerold to strip off, don rubber gloves and clean the heads! Whilst on the subject of the Jedi´s and the force, Old Master Rod felt that the force was strong in young Darrel, but Old master Jeri warned against his training “old, too much he is”, he stated. Master Rod was determined to harness the force in young Darrel and made him his ´Pashwani Nan´ learner, on Rods sudden and unexpected departure he made me, his pupil of old, the young ´Pashwani Nan´s teacher. Old master Jeri has warned me “Dark side, seek him it will”.
To be continued
Hells Kitchen – Urgent
Last night saw Gerold cook a German/Hungarian goulash. His preparation was fastidious, and cooking a joy to watch. The only problem was that he misunderstood the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, the chilli content was more consistent with Ranjeets Chicken Phaal in the famous Tamworth Indian restaurant the ´Ranjeets Wreck Tum´. The upshot for us lovers of spicy food was a delicious meal, the downside was the queue for the heads. We are all now on 20 second standby for the heads dash, and as a safety measure have inflated ´Betty´ the automatic pilotess. To that end we would like to place an add for a ships Chef, to join immediately or sooner. All applicants please send CV´s to S/Y Ushomi, somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
An Apology – We have had complaints that the photo of Jerry annoying fish has upset children, I unreservedly apologise and insist it was a stunt and no fish were actually present or have ever been present.
Gerold speaking . Glaubt nur die Haelfte all dessen, was der skipper ueber mich erzaehlt. Tatsache ist, ich hab der Mannschaft den Unterschied zwischen den Gewuerzen Paprika- und Chillipulver traenenreich nahegebracht. Wenn schon kein Paprikapulver gestaut wurde, warum sollte ich dann auch nicht einfach Chillipulver zm Wuerzen verwenden und zwar eins zu eins. Der Erfolg war garantiert (s.o.). Wie sich Ungarischer Goulasch a la Gerold auf den Rang unter den Sternekoechen auswirken wird bleibt abzuwarten. Trotz allem, das muss man diesen Englaendern lassen: Selbst in ungewohnten Situationen bewahren sie Haltung. Mehr noch, sie zollen dem (in diesem Fall) Brandstifter Anerkennung fuer seine aussergewoehnliche Leistung!
Zum Tierleben. Nein, hier an Bod gibt`s keine dieser feuchtigkeitsliebenden, nichtsdestotrotz ungeliebten treuen Begleiter des Menschen, wie Asseln etc. Ich meine die Tierwelt um uns herum oder besser unter uns. Was wir bis jetzt zu sehen bekommen haben sind immer wieder Schwaerme von fliegenden Fischen, auch Schulen genannt. Rechts und links vom Bug tauchen sie urploetzlich auf und schwirren 30 oder 40 Meter ueber die Wasseroberflaeche bevor sie eben so schnell wieder abtauchen. Ein Schueler muss seine Lektion nicht gut genug gelernt haben. Zur Strafe liegt er nun an Deck, er hat sich heute Nacht wohl beim Fliegen verschaetzt.
Gestern Abend ueberquerten wir den 20. Breitengrad, die magische Linie zum Passatwindguertel (ohne diese zu zerstoeren, wie Andy meinte). Fuer mich so etwas wie der kleine Aequator, denn bis zum echten “great circle” werden wir nicht gelangen (Antigua liegt auf dem 17. Breitengrad).
Danke fuer eure e-mails. Es freut mich immer, Neuigkeiten von daheim zu erfahren. Gruesse an Helga und die Jungs und an alle Frende!
The sleep monster here,having just woken from a wonderful deep sleep I find myself on a 50ft lump of plastic with 3 nutters in the middle of nowhere!I did try falling back to sleep,but alas it wasn´t a dream,as the whistle on the kettle proved,natural born tea drinker that i am. I´m alittle unsure of all this dark side stuff being banded about today,granted,given the choice I´d give up my belated training in a jiffy for a burn around the galaxys in the millennium falcon,and I may not return until I´d been done for speeding in the most distant parts of space,but I don´t reckon this makes me a likely candidate for the next sif lord!!A bit of ageism going on,pick on the young dashing one,not my fault I don´t wear knee length black socks with my sandles(think it might be a navy thing?)So to the cooking,yes Gerold did a wonderful job last night,funnily enough nobody was cold on watch last night,just a wee touch enthusiastic with the chilli powder,but excellent for a man who claimed he couldn´t cook 2wks ago. Jerry´s turn tonight. Andy still believes I actually made the curry out of a carton the other night,it´s a little trick of mine if I get asked how I´ve made it, so we now have a bet on,50p if Andy can find a shop that sells curry in a carton in between here and Antigua! We are all due to start a study period shortly,the boys practicing their nav and me getting a grip on celestial navigation,or as i like to think of it ´don´t drop the sextent in the oggin you muppet´. Yesterday saw Andy explaining to Gerold and Jerry the concept of a great circle line,using an orange as a teaching aid,this led to an afternoon of drawing on fruit,good job nobody can see us. Thats all for today folks,dark side my arse. All this Jedi talk and guess who´s the only officially registered Jedi of the lot of us,just wish I´d not forgotten me light saber,they wouldn´t be so cheeky then,and
28 th November 2006
Position – N19deg47 W026deg07
Course 250 degrees True, Distance last 24 hrs 173Nm
Distance to Antigua – 2030Nm ish
J, WoutYIamL Ax
A cracking twenty four hours, best days mileage this trip. We are starting a gentle turn to west, but will continue to head south, there are light winds ahead and by getting further south we should get better wind, but more distance. It´s a balance of speed and distance.
Watches – we require a lookout for 24 hrs a day, we therefore split into a one in three watch system. This means that each person stands a watch and then has the next two watches off. The watches are as follows, starting at 0700 (7am) 0700-1100, 1100-1500, 1500-1900, these are the day watches and are four hours in length, they are followed by three hour watches through the night, 1900-2200, 2200-0100, 0100-0400, 0400-0700. Simple. This system ensure that each person does not have the same watch each and every day. It normally takes 4-5 days for everyone to settle into the routine but once there time flies.
Hells Kitchen – For lunch I baked a homemade Sun Dried Tomato and Parmesan loaf of bread, served with cheese, olive oil, tomato, and cucumber! It was a hit and established my deserved place at the top of the leader board. Tonight was to be Jerry but Gerold got to the freezer first.
Cheers for the mail to all those who have sent, especially the ´old hands´, Tony, Stan, Mark and Rod. Not forgetting Chris Horatio Columbus Oxby (I have the hat).
The sleep monster here,lacking somewhat in what I crave most(while at sea anyway)SLEEP!To a Hell´s Kitchen update in a moment.I have been on the 04.00-07.00 watch this morning,waking earlier than planned due to the swell rolling me around my bunk,having watched the sun come up just after 07.00 i handed the watch over to Gerold and stayed up ´shooting the breeze´ with Gerold and Jerry,going to my pit at around 09.00,just as I was nodding off while reading a book,I was handed a cup of tea by the resident tea monster(the kipper)who having been trained by her Majesty´s Royal Navy to swill tea,can drink the sacred brew for England at international competition level,when he´s not busy kicking it around the cockpit by the cupful,so there I am in my bunk,rolling around holding onto a cup of tea,when I look up to see a sight I hope not to see very often in my lifetime. Gerold had very kindly taken it upon himself to clean the heads(toilet)and shower,harmless stuff you may think,but Gerold had decided to undertake this task in his Y-fronts while wearing rubber gloves rendering me sleepless with fear of him wandering the vessel dressed like this!!
So Hell´s kitchen,yes Andy has baked bread,very nice to it is. Only he told us he´d been kneading bread in the cockpit on his watch,only to leave the packet of bread mix out on the side! Deceiving us all I´m sorry to admit folks. While I´m at it I might as well admit that we´re nowhere near the Atlantic,but are actually sat on the good yacht ´Ushomi´in the Milton Keynes boating lake,which has been kindly drained by the local council,because we all suffer from sea sickness and the Health and Safety Executive insisted the council comply with our wishes. So last nights effort by Andy was a rather shameful chilli out of a jar,he´s hung his head low and taken away all the major cooking implements,leaving us with a spud peeler and an apple corer to prep food with(of course we could climb down the ladder and retrieve all the utensils from the mud at the bottom of the boating lake,but I feel that wouldn´t be taking the challenge seriously enough,and besides the H&SE have warned us not to go anywhere near the mud in case we contaminate the whole of the south west)it´s Gerold´s turn tonight,a goulash is in the offing,his last meal,cheesy pasta with a tom salad,which he claims takes his wife 20mins to cook at home,took him 2hrs,now that he has to manage with a spud peeler,we may be having dinner at breakfast,we shall report tomorrow. Young Jedi sleep monster Darrel signing off for now,somewhere in the Milky Way(according to Jerry´s G.P.S. I wish he´d read the instruction manual).
Laundry officers Report – To date no underwear has been received though Gerold handed in two pairs of Leiderhosen yesterday. Laundry will be closed due to the feast of St Scrubber for the next 24hrs.
27 th November 2006
Position – N21deg28 W023deg56
Course
235 degrees True, Distance last 24 hrs 125Nm 
Distance to Antigua – 2164Nm ish
J, EDILYM&M Ax
Ships log Stardate 271106
If anyone has a good idea where we are could you send it to us via e-mail please.
We are nearly in the top of the trade winds and are still having a beautiful sail, glory be. We are getting very light wind periods at night, not all night but for decent periods, these have lowered our daily distance for the last two days.
At the moment we are sailing at 7.3 knots and I hate to say it, under Genoa alone. I stated yesterday that we would be rolling about and loosing lots of speed if we sailed without a mainsail. Well,,,,,, yesterday we were being pushed due south and I wanted some west in our course, also our point of sail required quite a lot of effort (Gerold could not read his book on watch) so as a teaching session I demonstrated the traditional method of trade wind sailing with a spinnaker pole and no main, just the genoa. Once rigged we did roll a bit but boat speed crept up to a healthy six knots, and obviously the course was far better. After 10 minutes the mutinous rabble called the crew realised that this method required little effort from the watch keepers and we all agreed that the roll was not so bad, so here we are under genoa alone. Humble pie is nice with custard.
Hells Kitchen update, Darrel has hidden the big cooking pot, anyone having a spare please send to S/Y Ushomi, somewhere in the Pacific. Last night was Jerry´s turn to cook, a very palatable and well presented Chicken Curry, it was well received and enjoyed by all. Later it was discovered that Jerry bribed Darrel to cook for him, not only that but Gerold assisted !!!! The show goes on.
Gerold here. Nach einer etwas unruhigeren Nacht gestern, bei der wir entweder zu stark nach Westen oder, nach Aenderung der Segelstellung, nach Sueden abgedraengt wurden, setzte Andy fuer diese Nacht die ausgebaumte Genua. Machen eine gute und vor allem komfortable Fahrt. Segeln macht Spass, wenn's vorwaerts geht! Die See ist wie ein riesiges Wasserbett, auf dem jemand herumtrampelt. So entstehen regelrechte Huegel und Taeler. Seltsam, wenn du mit dem Schiff bergauf segelst. Die Hoehe eimal erreicht surfen wir volle Kanne hinunter. Tolles Gefuehl!
Im Wettbewerb um die Kochmuetze mit Stern fuehrt fuer mich seit gestern Abend Darrel (Sorry Andy!), der ein hervorragendes “chicken curry on rice”auf den Tisch brachte. Rezept habe ich fuer zu Hause mitgeschrieben. Wirklich exzellent.
Im uebrigen, das Schiff ist ein Platz zum Wohlfuehlen. Sehr gut ausgestattet nicht nur was die Sicherheit anbelangt, sondern auch den Komfort (watermaker, Autopilot, Zusatzgenerator, Gefriertruhe). Dazu, bis jetzt, ein entspannter Tagesablauf, der etwa um 10 Uhr beginnt. Eine Unterrichtseinheit durch Andy, Lunch, Ruhen, nochmals Durchspielen von irgendwelchen “Scenarios”, Lesen, Dinner, Beginn der Nachtwachen (19 Uhr). Nun hinein in den Passatwindguertel!
Gruesse an Helga, die Jungs und Omama. Geburtstagsgruesse an Hans!
Jerry ,
There is one situation on board on this Transat that Ushomi has not encountered in the past. It has been learned that one member of the crew, an English speaking gent, but not a Brit, has a long standing issue with the abstract concepts involved in interpreting the meaning of the numerals and hands on a clock. In order to inform him, for example, that the time is 9:00 AM, we have to tell him that this is when the small hand is on the 9 and the large hand on the 12. Fortunately, he can tell whether it is AM by looking to see if there is daylight outside. So far this has not caused any insurmountable problem with his watch standing. ANON.
Darrel here,bugger knows who ANON is but he´s not been standing a watch so he´s in trouble when I catch up with him!It´s almost knives at dawn time on the cooking front,the bunch of philistines were treated to chicken curry last night,nobody dare ask which tin it came out of so I didn´t have to fess up that it was actually out of a carton. They were all very quiet while eating it,anybody with children will understand what I mean,and Gerold made some very complimentary remarks when he´d licked his plate clean,much to the kippers annoyance. Andy is getting a touch big for his apron,especially when the fact that he asked me how to cook tuna pasta on the way down to the canaries is taken into consideration!! I´ve come to the conclusion that this lot are spoilt,the last time i sailed over the Atlantic (at least thats where we think we are,Jerry hasn´t had his G.P.S. Out for a few days) the vessel had no fridge,no shower and a bucket for a toilet(a very nice bucket i may add,it had a seat and everything) and here we are deciding what movie to watch tonight! I´m not sure about all this book reading though,it´s 14:20 starship time and I´ve not even looked at my book. Gerold´s won the booby prize for the day,he was at the computer when we took a vote on who´s watch we turn the clock back to compensate for passing into a different time zone,being a democratic boat we all get a vote, Andy voted for him,the outcome after all the votes were counted is that Gerold gets to stand an extra hours watch. Democracy at its best folks!!Andy was cooking tonight,but I think he´s wimping out and letting Jerry cook instead,tune in tomorrow for the update on Hell´s Kitchen Pacific,or where ever it is we are!
Todays picture courtesy of Reuters, Gerold in his
26 th November 2006
Position – 23deg00N 022deg17W
Course 195 degrees True, Distance last 24 hrs 140Nm
Distance to Antigua – 2256Nm ish
J, LNIDIWWY Ax
Update, the weather is good and we are sailing at good speeds (7-8 knots), the wind is in the north east so we carrying out a series of gybes to get us into the trades, a gybe is where we alter direction by passing the stern through the wind and putting the sails on the other side, why? The wind is blowing steady at 15 knots directly in the direction that we wish to sail in, we unfortunately do not easily sail dead down wind, it is possible but makes for a rolly polly boat and slow speeds. We therefore set the wind off the back corner of the boat and thunder along in comfort. The net result is greater distance (because we zig zag) but also greater speed, if we are careful the greater speed far out ways the greater distance and we arrive earlier !
Hells kitchen update, I cooked a sausage casserole last night and served it on a delicious bed of creamy mashed potatoes, it has been voted the best meal to date (25% voting turnout). That leaves Myself at the top of the leader board, Gerold second and Darrel third, Jerry up tonight. I like this.
Today I washed my briefs, an intricate task involving a bucket, powder and hot water, I washed rinsed and because it was easy, hung everything on the downwind side. My washing is now covered in tea, coffee and porridge! Moral of the story, either hang out upwind or after breakfast.
The kipper complained that my meal was a bit too tomatoey,(lightly fried chorizo with peppers,onions,mushrooms in a tomato sauce and fresh parsley,served with rice and peas) this was due to the fact that the cartons of tomato puree had gone walkabout and were hiding themselves so i had to use tinned plum toms,always too juicy because not only is the tin full of juice but so are the tomatoes,so to the kippers effort last night. Before i go any further and berate ´Mr egg and chips´ I would like to say that I appreciate any meal I´m given at sea,possibly with the exception of Jerry´s green angel delight stuff and the kippers cold left over porrage! As to his lordships sausage casserole,very tomotaey,in fact more so than my last effort because it was quite watery,although i was surprised to find out that he´d added some dried herbs!As for the ´creamy mash´??I would say it was just verging on lumpy,if it wasn´t for the watery sauce it would have been quite dry. Funnily enough none of us was aware that Andy had been casting votes. Tonight I´m cooking chicken curry for us and seeing as my efforts aren´t appreciated,chicken skin and bones for the kipper(done in a light watery tomatoe sauce)Having said all that I´m taking great care not to flick cigarette ash all over Andys washing, why he´s hung it on the shaded leeward side, only neptune knows,kippers hey!!!!
We
are heading in a generally south direction and eating up the miles.Antigua here
we come(well more like Cape Verdes here we come but you know what I mean hey.)
Hasta for now. 
Last Comment – so there you have it the knives are drawn and the giblets are flying, the upshot is that we are all eating well, but I have hidden the cookbooks and the tomato puree. Andy
25 th November 2006
Position – 24deg19N 020deg03W
Course 230 degrees True, Average speed last 24 hrs 165Nm
Distance to Antigua – 2370Nm ish(see below)
Jane, ILYMED Ax
Wahooooo, we are flying along at 7-8 knots and the wind is perfect at NE F4. We intend to use this to push us down to the trades and then we will start clipping off the distance to Antigua. The sky is blue and the nights are clear, the evenings are quite beautiful. At present we are seeing quite a lot of shipping, once we turn more west they should dry up and we will have the ocean to ourselves at long last. On any trip if you can get a good start then the rest falls into place, we have had a good start, so fingers crossed. There have been very few hurricanes this year and the trades have set early, a pointer to the good conditions is that lots of vessels have sailed already and with sailors being a cautious bunch I need say no more.
Hells Kitchen update, Darrel cooked first night and produced a good meal, last night was Gerolds turn and I hate to say it but Darrel is second at present. I cook tonight, the upshot of that is that I get to practice my medical skills in the morning. On the medical front everyone seems incredibly healthy and when asked how they feel reply much too quickly that they are great, I eagerly await my first patient with my first aid satchel at the ready.
Gerold here. Wir rauschen durch die Nacht. Seit gestern Abend haben wir die Segel gesetzt und es ist eine Freude zu sehen und zu spueren wie ushomi anspringt. Bei 15 -16 Knoten Wind (apparent) macht sie ueber 8 Knoten Fahrt die Nacht hindurch. In der Koje hindert mich das Leebord, extra noch von Daryl angefertigt am Absturz. Was fuer ein Unterschied zur vorigen Nacht, als wir motorten. Geschwindigkeit und Entfernungen werden relativ. Wir ueberholen eine Yacht und brauchen dazu nahezu die ganze Nacht! Blickst du nach oben zur Mastspitze, dann tanzt diese zwischen den Sternbildern von Orion und dem Siebengestirn hin und her. Lichtjahre!
Mein persoenliches Erfolgserlebnis, was die Kueche anbelangt, hatte ich gestern Abend. Kaesnudeln mit viel Zwiebeln zeitgerecht und schmackhaft auf den Tisch gebracht. Dazu Tomaten- und Gurkensalat. Danke Helga, Danke Rosi fuer den Crashkurs “Einfache Gerichte”!
Im Bordunterricht heute spricht Andy ueber Bewusstlosigkeit, Herzstillstand und Erste-Hilfe-Massnahmen dazu. Er kennt sich bestens aus und hat auch die notwendigen Hilfsmittel an Bord. Trotzdem, wir wuenschen uns nicht den Ernstfall!
Daryl steht unter der Dusche und stoehnt vor Schmerzen, oder? Nein, er singt!
Gruesse an zu Hause, Gruesse ins Allgaeu!
Darrel
Mr sleepy head here,I have decided to not excel at the cooking,one because this bunch of philistines don´t know good food when it´s put in front of them but most importantly,after careful consideration,I realized that if I end up as the only person on board I will probably sleep past Antigua and wake up when we run aground at Cancun! Jerry has verified that we are in the Atlantic, using his G.P.S., he wants to know what kind of lake it is exactly, a big blue one is my guess. He was the first to use the newly installed electric toilet,after being told of nasty accidents involving dangely bits,he pushed the button to flush and let out a little squeal,which had us all roaring with laughter. I am amazed how much of an incentive to be extra careful and not hurt ourself´s Andy´s first aid satchel is turning out to be,the best preventive medicine I´ ve ever witnessed! Andy the kipper,has just plotted the daily fix and informed us that we have just completed a run of 165Nm´s in the last 24hrs.Trucking!!
Kippers last note, floggings due to start tomorrow, morale is way to high.Gerold has just admitted that his meal took two hour, where as his wife normally makes it in 20 minutes.
24 th November 2006
Position – 26deg25N 018deg25W
Course 220 degrees True
Distance to Antigua – 2400Nm ish
Jane, MYLx
The story so far, we are now one day out of La Gomera and settling in. Our course is basically SW, although not heading towards Antigua we are getting further south to pick up the North East trade winds. The trade winds have set in early this year and at present are extending up to 20 degrees North, that means for a speedy trip. Antigua is at 16 degrees North but in probability we will sail further south in order to guarantee that we stay in the trade winds, the key to any trip is the further south we go the more distance we sail but if we go direct and hence a shorter we are in danger of loosing the wind, a balance is called for.
Our watch system ensures that at all times we have one person ´on watch´, that person is responsible for the safe conduct of the vessel during that time, if they are not happy they tell me and we sort it. The better the guys, the sounder I sleep. At present I am sleeping like a baby.
23 rd November 2006
Position – At sea, little bit south of La Gomera
Distance to Antigua – still rather a lot (2400Nautical miles ish)
Jane, ILUAx
The time has come the walrus said !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are now under way and heading SSW towards the trade winds where we will turn right. The weather is perfect and we are scudding along 6 knots, beautiful.
This morning we went to the church where Columbus had his last blessing before sailing, there was a small service with just 4 nuns in attendance, it was quite magical. Last year we went to the church but it was shut, then we were informed we were in the wrong church, not so this year. Jerry had qualms about going as he stated that we were blessed last year and ended up in a hurricane, he seems to have a thing about sailing into hurricanes, I can therefore state that we will be doing absolutely nothing exciting this year.
Had word from Norwegian John, he is on Asanti and anchored in the Cape Verdes , a planned stop. Vince is at sea on Summer Breeze having left Lanzarotte on Monday. Eric on Ocean Viking should be half way across by now.
Gerold here. “Nachdem der Admiral nun Wasser, Holz und Fleisch an Bord genommen hatte lichtete er endlich die Anker und fuhr am Donnerstag, dem 6. September, mit seinen drei Karavellen von der Insel Gomera ab.” So weit ein Auszug aus Kolumbus' Schiffstagebuch. Welche Parallelen zu unserer Situation! Gestern Abend noch luden wir zwei Trolleys voll mit Proviant und karrten diese quer durch die Fussgaengerzone zum Boot. Nicht ohne nochmals in der Lieblingsbar, die wir hier schnell gefunden hatten, einen Einkehrschwung (mitsamt den vollbeladenen Einkaufswagen) zu machen. Was fuer ein Bild! Ja und heute endlich faehrt Andy mit seinen drei Crewmitgliedern von der Insel Gomera ab. Er ueberlaesst es dem Unerfahrensten unter uns das Kommando zum Ablegen zu geben und das Schiff aus dem Hafen zu steuern. Was fuer ein Gefuehl fuer mich , auch wenn es nur bis zum Tankpontoon geht. Daryl uebernimmt und, kaum aus dem Hafen, folgt uns ein Delphin. Wenn das kein gutes Zeichen ist! Also dann, gute Reise ushomi! Ich gruesse Helga und meine Jungs, Omama und alle Freunde zu Hause!
22nd November 2006
Position – La Gomera, Canary Islands
Distance to Antigua – rather a lot (2400Nautical miles ish)
Ties us, back and ready to go, a little late but ready at last.
Kippers bit
We were due to sail from Sotogrande (home port) on the 8th November, God in
his wisdom delayed us, but more of that later. Apologies for the late start
of the blog but we lacked a cable that connects the computer to the sat com
phone, basically the computer needed to know where the phone was ! I spent 3
days typing in ´it is next to you´, but this did not seem to work.
Thanks to Rachelle at OCENS in the good old USofA, we have had the necessary
kit delivered to us here and bang, it works.
We happy few are Andy (myself) the kipper, I will lead this merry bunch from
my bunk. Next is Jerry, a retired US Naval Captain who served in a rifle platoon
under MacArthur in Korea and then went on the GI Bill to begin and complete
a law degree. He then rejoined the US Navy as a JAG officer and retired a Captain.
He sailed with us last year when we went hurricane hunting and has made me promise
not to do it again. Next up is Gerold, a German gentleman who is bringing some
continental flavour to the boat, I have managed to get England's 1966 world
cup final victory over Germany on DVD, we will play it regularly. Last up is
Darrel, those of you who know Sotogrande will know the Darrel and Dizzy show
(dizzy is his aptly named dog), unfortunately or fortunately Dizzy is not on
board, she is with Jane, my wife. A mention needs to be made of Rod Smith, he
joined in Sotogrande but took ill and spent a week in hospital, private room
with only CNN news, and pretty nurses for a week. He is now discharged and well
but obviously has been unable to sail, those who followed the blog in May will
recognize his name as he sailed back from the Caribbean with us. See you in
the Caribbean mate (he is flying over), thanks for my cabin back and get well
soon. Hi to Stan the man up there in Belgium, our regular doctor/surgeon if
we need advice, he is Polish, in a Belgium hospital who swears in English, do
a huey Stan, (in English that means lets tack).
On passage we intend a few events, everyone has had cooking lessons so we will
be doing ´Hells Kitchen (Atlantic), our budding chefs will cook in a moving,
wet environment and the rest will shout and swear at them, character building
stuff, obviously the worst chef gets kicked off each week. Another planned event
is ´Pin the tale on the Shark, a slight twist to the popular children's
game.
Kipper Andy (He thinks he looks like Johnny Depp)
Jerry
It´s indeed a pleasure to be back aboard Ushomi Although we´re presently
in the marina at San Sebastian, LaGomera, thanks to Andy´s dogged pursuit
of an American marine supplier and his computer expertise we now have the Internet
along and an outstandingly kept boat to sail on.. I´m looking forward
eagerly to the crossing and hoping that my ancient mariner body is up to the
task. Soon we leave these warm climes for the even warmer climes of the trade
wind parallels and Antigua.
Jerry.
Capn. Jerry (US Navy)
Gerold
Andy told me I could write in German, so I do. Hier ist also das Greenhorn unter
all den Seebaeren hier. Ein Freisstellungsjahr in meiner Taetigkeit als Lehrer
erlaubt mir mal was ganz anderes zu tun. Unter meinen Vorlieben “Berge”
und “Wasser” entscheide ich mich fuer letzteres. Die Informationen
aus der homepage von ushomi nehmen mich sofort gefangen und schnell ist ein
Kontakt geknuepft zu Andy, der mich ermuntert, mich auf das Abenteuer einzulassen.
Kaum an Bord fuehle ich mich wohl unter den erfahrenen Crewmitgliedern. Die
ersten Erfahrungen der Bordroutine sind ebenfalls schon gemacht waehrend des
ersten Schlags von Sotogrande nachach La Gomera. Dazu gehoert wohl auch die
Erfahrung der Seekrankheit, die sich weder mit Pillen noch mit Ohrstickern verhindern
laesst, hoechstens verkuerzen. In meinem Fall auf einen Tag. Gut so. Es war
aber auch heftig, den zweiten und dritten Tag auf See: kurze, in meinen Augen
schon recht hohe Wellen, in denen das Schiff heftig stampfte. Inzwischen macht
es mir nichts mehr aus und ich blicke dem naechsten Schritt erwartungsvoll entgegen.
Gerold
And finally to my good self Darrel(minus dizzy,who i think would enjoy being
on board,chewing her way through the main sheet!) As only Gerold speaks German
i´m personally wondering what he´s just said about us all! I think
I´m possibly the only one who may reach Antigua,if the hell´s kitchen
rules are strictly adhered to,as I´m the only one on board who knows how
to boil an egg, without referring to a cookbook! Still, if this is the case
at least I´ll not run out of teabags! Jerry´s presently on deck,checking
our position on his hand held G.P.S.; he reckons it should be a bit cooler,as
he´s got us just off Greenland at the moment! Must have gone to the same
nav school as my parents,who can't find Antigua on their 14inch globe,even with
the aid of their magnifying glass,and asked me how was Teneriffe!. I have been
practicing Rod´s Jedi mind control technique while ashore, with little
effect, so I obviously need to concentrate harder. As this Death star is almost
fully functioning it must be time to hit the Atlantic. Signing off for now:
ship´s dogsbody,Darrel.(although I can´t say I´m happy about
being lead anywhere from Andy´s bunk, have you seen it !!!)
Darrel & Ship's dog: Dizzy