Atlantic crossing, 27th november to 15th december 2012
21 December 2012 | St Lucia
heather manfredi
CROSSING THE ATLANTIC WITH THE ARC
27TH NOVEMBER 2012
I awoke early to the sound of rain, too excited to go back to sleep I got up and made tea and savored the calm before the storm (literally). Checked the wind direction and yes, finally it was from the NNE as promised.
There was a huge air of anticipation in the whole marina. Everyone up early and doing those final jobs and last minute stock ups (did I say beer??)
After breakfast Luca and I walked and scootered to the marina office to return keys. "good luck" and "fair winds" wishes were echoing all around the 240 odd boats and easily a thousand people within the harbour.
On the way back to our boat Luca spotted Tamarisk, our pals from Ibiza who were also going to cross but not with the ARC. Jason popped over for a quick farewell and update of his plans, such a nice guy.
At 10.30 we started our orderly procession from vela Latina marina. 27 catamarans to leave in a 30 minute window and only a small exit. No problem though, we were all very well mannered about it.
Soooooooo exciting, nerve racking and emotional at the start line, the sight of all those boats, our new friends (and their dogs) all making this amazing trip. 10 minute gun, 5 minute gun and then START!!!!!!!!
Off we go, keeping to the coast despite the gusts - we have handled worse than this! Cameras clicking, much waving of hands, last shouts of good luck and "get the drinks in" and then the boats became distant specks and gone!
We all stayed up on the flybridge so that the boys, Simon and Graham could get to know the boat. Sails in the goosewing arrangement which we reefed by the afternoon as the gusts were a bit frisky. We set some limits in stone so that the crew had guidelines for reefing and we all knew what to do. Dinner cooked, watch system sorted and a movie for the kids. The funnel effect between the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife was a bit nasty and the kids became sea sick despite taking medication. Then, horror of horrors, the autohelm packed up, hydraulic fluid all over the port engine bay. This was not good. Captain decided we should head for a marina in Tenerife to make the repair. This of course means going back right into the wind, we switched the engines on and alerted the ARC office of our predicament. Can you believe it, wind speed of 35 knots on the nose, gusts of 47 knots. It was absolute hell for 5 hours. I truly thought we would come to harm. Both kids were afraid and sick and the only place they were relatively okay was in the covered cockpit that was being regularly doused with sea water from the waves going over the top. The boys took it in turns to hand steer through this hell, an hour max each was enough. New small leaks appeared in the boat, in clothes cupboards and bedroom hatches. All of the fruit and veg boxes that were stacked in the cockpit fell over and could have been dangerous had someone been nearby. Our beloved coffee machine, as well as many other objects in the salon and galley, went flying, I did not have enough hands to catch in all or deflect as things went flying through the air. Even the experienced sailors were throwing up. As I write this, I would happily go to the airport and not continue. Briefly I have fallen out of love with this life. I know I will be fine once we get to the marina, but right now I want to go home and I want my mum!
ARC Day 2 28th November 2012
3am arrival in Tenerife due to our autohelm problem, hydraulic fluid all over the engine bay. Need to get that repaired before continuing. A very full marina but we found a place on the commercial dock, had a toast and vegemite break and strong drink then hit the sack. Up early to find a mechanic. The wind is still very strong and with very little sleep I was looking longingly at the departing flights overhead.
Plenty to do while we waited for the mechanic who has been promised for today. A bit of damage, the trampolines had come off from the holding bolts with the sheer force of the sea yesterday, 2 leaks in the interior to fix, restraining cords put on the coffee maker, printer, vegetable racks and numerous other appliances that went for a tumble. We also had to wash and dry all the fruit and veg that had been soaked by the sea water coming into the cockpit sides. After that the kids and I went to find a pharmacy to get some industrial strength sea sickness remedy for them as the ones we have clearly are not man enough. We are in Amarilla apparently. After the walk and hard work of the morning I was feeling a lot happier about setting off again, but anxious about getting the repair done in time. Last time we had some marine work completed in Spain it took 10 days! Luckily the mechanic turned up in the afternoon, replacement part was fitted and unit tested as much as we could on the dock. By now it was evening so we made the decision to leave early tomorrow morning, just in case there was still an issue, it would be better to deal with it in daylight.
ARC day 3 Thursday 29th November
At 6 am we left the dock and sadly disturbed the people berthed on the fuel dock as we wanted the tanks to be as full as possible. Once out of the marina, we put the boat through some tight turns to test the autohelm, so 3rd time lucky we set a course for st lucia!!!!!!!
A big sea was still there but at least it was with us this time. Kids were fine with the new sea sickness pills. We had some interesting patches of acceleration through the far west canary islands and then our last sight of land for a while. Mixed emotions really, but having put the new crew and the boat through a rigorous test 2 days ago, I was confident that we can take anything the Atlantic wants to throw at us!
Chilli Cat is back in the game!!!!
ARC day 4, 30th November 2012
We had good night watches, paired up for now with 3 hours on 3 off and single watches in daylight hours. We are delighted to have simon and graham with us, great sailors and great company too. Good to see that they like playing lego as much as the kids do! It must have been on my list of requirements!
2 lovely rainbows today, sea state and wind decreasing slightly. Didn't get much sleep as usual with the time between watches but I will get into the rythmn of things soon.
ARC day 5, 1st December 2012
Pleasant night shifts with Simon, minimal sail adjustments as the current conditions prevail, 18 to 23 knots with occasional gusts and rain.. we heard from some of our buddy boats, all in front of us and doing well. Did some cooking as the bananas were looking a bit brown, banana bread was the popular choice! My electronic scales do not work on board so it was a bit of guess work but judging by the fact that the banana bread was all gone that same day then it must have been okay!
Put a wash on as things dry well in the cockpit, just the 30 minute cycle when the generator is on, its enough to freshen things up and keep us pleasant company.
The kids made an ARC collage each, we also did some maths and reading then prepared lunch and supper in advance. Today was a lovely fresh bright and sunny day. The kids, simon and graham all had a mega lego play in the cockpit in the afternoon. I feel that we are settling into a routine of being at sea now. Some people might think it impossible to live like this on essentially a small boat for possibly 3 weeks but there is always plenty to do and we are lucky to have so much space on Chilli Cat too. My evening watch was very black with amazing stars.
ARC day 6 sunday 2nd december 2012
A full night without a watch, what a lucky girl I am!!!
I now do 2 watches, one at lunchtime and another evening one, after which I prepare the thermos flasks and snacks for the boys during the night. I also have full responsibility for the galley, teaching,internal cleaning and the kids so not much rest time really but I am very grateful. The weather is heating up, the cabin was hot and humid ...time to ditch the duvets and just have a sheet.
Got up early and joined graham for the remainder of his shift then cooked breakfast for my crew, eggs, bacon, sausage, fried bread and tomato. Prepared lunch and dinner and did some school work with the kids. English today and a spelling test with the application we use on the I pad. Still strong winds, 18 to 20 knots with occasional gusts of more.
Arc day 9, 5th dec 2012
We have spent the last 3 days making some good headway and trying our best to catch up with the fleet. the wind has settled to a respectable 16 to 20 knots, and we are getting our weather info regularly from Bruce and it has served us well. A couple of course changes and of course plenty of sail configuration changes to suit the conditions (why does the wind always change on my watch???)
The boys are doing 2 and a half hours on and at least 5 off as I do my lunchtime and evening watch. This leaves me free to attend to the kids and do some schooling, activities etc to help them pass the time. It also means I can concentrate on galley duties and make sure the crew are all well fed and looked after. Food is a big deal on the crossing so its important to get some variety as well as nutrition.
We were feeling a little envious of the other boats claims of plenty of fish caught (no photographic evidence to back this up though !!) so we decided 2 days ago that enough was enough, we were going to catch a fish today! About 5 pm the line started whirring, we were so excited! It was a dolphin fish, part of the dorado family. Luca correctly identified it and started reeling him in. a perfect size for dinner for 6 but first we had to deal with the messy business. Graham expertly held him in our newly purchased fishing gloves and I administered a fairly lethal dose of cheap vodka into his gills (and a little into his mouth) and he drifted off. With our sharpest knife I (yes, me ) sent him to fishy heaven, graham and I then chopped his head off and hung him over bucket in the dinghy to drain, waiting for charles to fillet him. Stored him in the fridge over night and had him for lunch yesterday with parsley and onion butter, garlic potatoes and spiced French beans! Not bad tucker for a boat almost half way across the pond. We are so happy to have Simon and Graham with us on this trip, and grateful to Sam and Lila for sparing them - thank you girls. They are great company as well as knowing what to do with Chilli Cat. They joined the racing division of the ARC in 2010 but sadly had to divert to Cape Verde islands so we are all very keen to see st Lucia!
Bringing the lego was such a great idea as we are all getting a lot of fun out of it in downtime. Generally we do some school in the morning but if it gets above 20 knots it doesn't work as the motion gets to the kids if they are concentrating on books. We have made craft things out of whatever we can find on the boat, very inventive we can be at times. Yesterday we were plagued by flying fish. One managed to fly through the cockpit door and land on top of the generator housing, stopping finally on grahams fleece . they are sadly, very stinky fish and quite amazing. On my evening watch I saw a couple try to make it right over the boat, one made it and the other floundered around and eventually slid off the back . later, on simons watch he was nearly hit in the face by one!
The weather report today is for a 24 hour patch of higher wind than we have had with some gusts but passing through by Friday morning when the wind becomes northerly. This will be uncomfortable for a little while and we will reef right down and use one engine if necessary through the night to help us as the angle is not a good one for us. Currently we have the main sail down to 1 reef and the head sail reefed in a little too. Its about getting there safely and as comfortably as we can. Our generator has been playing up for the last couple of days, ever since we did a course change. The boys have checked it over, and there is no obvious problem. Charles changed the filter this morning, and it ran okay after that so fingers crossed.
ARCDAY 10 , Thursday 6th December
Well, we were promised rainstorms and we have them! A lumpy wet night and we have until about midnight tonight until it eases, so all we can do is try and dodge the worst and keep on course. After our night heading to Tenerife, we can handle anything! Kids are fully dosed on anti sea sickness, and its too lumpy for school work so we will do some fun stuff about the windward islands so that they have some knowledge and expectation when we arrive. I have to say that the pictures of golden sands, turquoise waters and sunshine are helping me through the day.
Still it could be worse, as Simon commented, at least he had a piping hot shower after coming off watch and myself, I have just frothed up a cappuccino so lifes not too shabby. Making the hot drinks to fill the thermos flasks last night was amusing in this sea, took 2 goes and a lot of spilt milk but we must look after the night watch boys with their hot chocolate and tea requirements.
We are getting close to our halfway point which is terribly exciting, we will celebrate once this storm has eased.
Simon reported another vessel out there last night, a cargo ship that passed .4 of a mile from us............I don't know, all of the atlantic ocean and we get that close!!!
ARC days 10 to 12 Saturday 8th December
The frontal system has passed now, that was interesting! Gusts up to 35 knots, torrential rain and then completely calm (but still raining), before gusting up again. We all came down from our watches soaking through and by day two, even the wet weather gear and boots were soaked on the inside too. Luckily we have the cockpit area to hang the wet stuff up but the whole boat was by now resembling a sauna. The cabins were humid and sticky as it is just not possible to have a hatch open in these conditions. But as of yesterday morning, we started the day with sunshine and blue skies. Washing machine was busy trying to de salt our clothes and the drying lines were in full service. The best bit is that we have now celebrated being half way across the Atlantic ocean, amazing!!!! We had a wager for fun to see who would guess the closest time. I won! Guess it must be because I am such a fab sailor now!!!!!!! (not) It was just charles and I on watch at the halfway point which was lovely, a happy half way moment for us.
We celebrated this landmark yesterday with a pizza dinner, the kids made pizza dough with me and put some menus together. They are being very creative with their time and whatever resources we can find. The grown up kids all had a drink to toast this special moment. Sadly, the boat oven does not get hot enough for a good pizza but they were very acceptable with a small glass of red.
As the winds were calmer we tried the parasailor for a while yesterday . charles has been great setting up the lines and blocks in various places to maximize performance. By the evening though we reverted to the white sails, just as we were doing this Luca caught another dolphin fish, this time it did not slip through Charles,s hands!!! Cleaned, gutted and in the freezer within an hour...the team works well on chilli cat.
On the evening watches it was bliss to just have a fleece on over shorts and t shirt. I am not brave enough to put the water proofs away yet! The wind was very weak and a bit all over the place all night so it was our slowest 24 hours so far. Very tempting to flick one engine on.
ARC day 13, Sunday 9th December 2012
Yummy dinner last night thanks to our fish catching skills. Luca and I were just prepping the dinner when we mentioned that there was only just enough fish for the 6 of us when lo and behold we landed another dolphin fish! From swimming in the atlantic to in the pan in an hour. Little side dishes of coleslaw with the veg that are holding up very well and some garlic potatoes . Luca was in charge of the dinner with just a little help from me(!) its good to give the kids the responsibility so that they can understand whats involved and get some skills too.
Wind has eased a lot and we had our slowest day to date, just 142 miles. Being Sunday, it was cooked breakfast morning. I find it amusing that I am cooking breakfast, doing a couple of washes in the machine etc and I am on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic!!!!!!
At last, at midday the wind kicked back in with a little rain, warm rain, to get us back up to speed. Now under a 1000 miles to go and we are placing bets for arrival date and time. Regardless of time of arrival we are promised a welcome committee with rum punch in Rodney Bay marina. The kids have made me promise to wake them if its at night time.
The generator had been playing up again, 3 days after a filter change. An inspection of the fuel showed us the problem, contamination in the fuel. Charles , with the help of Graham, rigged up a filter system to hopefully clean it and we can make a feed from a jerry can to the generator. Our concern now is for our main tanks too. Hopefully we can use the sails all the way but there will be the occasional need for engines.
The kids came up on watch with me yesterday evening, looking for shooting stars and checking out the constellations with a great ipad application!
Tuesday the 11th December, ARC day 15
No sail changes needed for a few days now, Chilli Cat just keeps trucking on in the same direction bless her, and the wind is right behind us at a steady 12 to 18 knots with the very occasional blast more. Lovely and sunny and watches can be spent with a paperback topping up the tan whilst tweaking the sails with a big toe. These days are going a little slow, we are not close enough to land to get too excited or blasé about that, but far enough away from our halfway point to have stopped celebrating that. We are keeping up the school in the mornings, not many kids will be able to claim that they learnt equivalent fractions In the Atlantic ocean! Its been a long time for the kids now and they are getting scratchy with each other so I am pulling out all the stops to keep them stretched. They have been really good, but I see them looking out of the windows desperate for a glimpse of one of the boats of our new ARC pals. Luckily there are lots of activities planned in St Lucia so there will be plenty of time for re unions. I would love to be a fly on the wall when all of the kids get together and compare stories and hear their version of the crossing!!!!
As it has been over a week, we are into repetition of food. I am trying to keep it interesting and we bake a cake or introduce something else every few days. The part baked bread is a big hit and makes the boat smell wonderful in the mornings. I have stored a lot of food in the forward crew cabin so we call it "going to the shops" when I pop down the hatch with my shopping bag and come out with assorted goodies. You have to choose your time though and make sure a wave doesn't soak you or the cabin contents!
Charles has worked out a great fuel filter system up on the forward seating well. He looks like he has a little moonshine operation going on up there! Clever him though as it is doing the trick. No fish for a couple of days now, they are getting wise and sneaking off with our lures! Really fancy some fresh tuna and we are stocked up on soy sauce and wasabi in anticipation.
Luckily everyone is in great health. We are very fortunate to shower daily (luca would have been happy to go the whole trip without though!!!), I also make sure we have a clean tea towel and dish cloth daily just in case any bugs are around. The fresh produce is still holding up well. Said goodbye to the cucumber yesterday as it was turning a strange yellow colour. The potatoes have never been the same since the dousing in sea water at 47 knots, so we had a little veggie burial at sea today. This whole trip is a very interesting exercise in re cycling. We have a gash bin for all food stuffs, tea bags etc that can go over the side. As we are so far out at sea we are allowed to sink cans and bottles too. That really leaves plastic which we flatten and store for our arrival in port.
We are still praising the decision to bring lego, as its diversity is allowing many creations from the kids with every passing day they become more ambitious.
ARC day 17, Thursday 13th December
AS I look at our RAymarine display, its just 250 miles to go, THAT'S 250 MILES TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can almost smell the land and rum if I try. We have had another yacht in our sights for the last 24 hours but are not able to identify him on AIS but we think it is another ARC boat. Now that we are closer we are expecting to see more vessels so no nodding off on our watches or getting too deep into scrabble on the ipad!!!
Its hot and sunny, the parasailor is up and doing its job beautifully. The wind looks to back right off now as we get closer to journeys end so our plan B is that we will all jump in with a line and swim Chilli Cat into harbour! I have placed a bottle of the bubbly stuff in the fridge in anticipation of our arrival and we are all quietly excited now (some of us not so quiet!). the mornings still give us a few flying fish to throw off the decks, that is now luca,s job to inspect the decks. Stayed up on deck last night with charles after my night watch to lie on the sunbad and gaze at the stars. They really are something. There was an amazing shooting star with such a visible tail. Its lovely and cool up there too. We have been reading up on st lucia and associated islands to plan our route. Just ideas at this stage, we don't want to wish the time away. We favour heading south of st lucia ( after taking in Martinique), looking at the other windward islands and then onto Aruba, Curaco and Bonaire before tucking into Cartagena in Colombia and our onward passage to Panama. Lots to read up on first and we will enjoy talking to others in the marina who are heading off too as its great to share ideas.
I still cant quite believe that I am going to be seeing a carribean island on the horizon in just over a day. Mentally I am still in the Med and heading to Sardinia or one of the other islands we visited. Its been an amazing experience and I can rationalize my fears of the first night now. All of the build up and preparation and investment looked like it was coming to nothing. That, combined with the awful conditions was enough to have any girl reaching for her rescue remedy! (Must say though, I am desperate for a long walk and ,or, swim.)
Friday the 14th December
Wind very light now and we are seriously looking forward to landfall soon, but at this rate it will take forever. With our fuel problem we cant risk using the engines. The parasailor is doing a great job though and its such a lovely motion. Looked at the screen this morning and another boat there on AIS, who should it be but yacht Sirius! The other anglo/aussie family, travelling to Sydney in the same time frame with 2 kids. How amazing is that? We were thrilled to get on the radio and have a chat with Carolyn and Andrew and the kids loved talking to Sophia and Cameron and comparing notes on how many fish they caught and how many dvd,s they have seen!
Saturday 15th December.
There it is, st lucia. It was there on the horizon, land ho!!!!!!!!!!!! Not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes, good old chilli cat and crew. That said it would still be about 3 hours until we were across the line so had to keep busy cleaning the boat inside. We did put an engine on last night and charles, bless him, slept with one ear open waiting for it to fade out but she did not let us down. 5 miles from the finish we radiod the arc office in Rodney bay, "ARC office, ARC office, this is yacht Chilli Cat, we are 5 miles from the finish line" yay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
St lucia looks amazing, green and lush and dotted with great beaches. We then turned around pidgeon point and saw the finish line. A dinghy with a photographer came out to snap some pics of us, we had Luca up in the bosuns chair at the first spreaders and the rest of us with the biggest smiles in the world. The horn sounded and we were officially there, we did it, we crossed the atlantic ocean in our boat, with our children. 2700 miles.
Coming into the marina, james on Intrepid Bear had arranged a place for us on the family pontoon and it was so lovely to see our friends waiting for us. Champagne from John and Lizzie, rum punch and a fruit basket from the st lucia tourist board and a steel drum welcome . jumped off, dry land at last.
Thank you to our families and friends for the support and love that has made this dream possible.
Chilli cat over and out for a while xxxxxxx