Jules
18/04/2009, 11 19'N:56 56'W, 300 Miles to the Caribbean

We're nearing the end of our Atlantic crossing with less than 300 miles to go. It's strange that not so long ago a 300 mile trip would have been something in itself (like from Maryport to Lands End) now it seems such a short distance and we're almost tasting the cold Trinidadian beer! We should start seeing a few more ships as we approach the main north/south shipping lanes going from South America to the North, so far we've only seen about three in two weeks.

It's 4.20 a.m., 27 degrees in the wheelhouse and Mike and I are on watch (both up at the same time for a change), there's hardly any moon and cloudy so it's almost pitch-black I'm not so keen when it's like this, it's hard sometimes to get your bearings when there's no horizon. Still, only another hour or so and it'll start to get light.

The weather's been a bit changeable. We've had a few light showers and some heavyish seas but nothing too bad, the wind hasn't been strong enough to put the sail up. Luckily all the weather has been from behind, the bad news with that is that we've been wearing the exhaust fumes at times.

We've been busy banging, chipping and sandblasting and yesterday the first paint went on the inside of the bow - quite amazing what a lick of paint will do!

Still haven't seen a great deal of wild-life, except . Mike caught a dorado (as no doubt you'll guess from the photo). The colour was beautiful, iridescent blues, greens and yellows with a large deep blue green spotted fin on the back, Shows that they're out there, just not jumping onto our hooks. Talking of jumping, the flying fish continue to visit us, the latest one actually coming in the bedsit hatch and landing behind the couch. Luckily Mike was in there at the time, otherwise I guess we'd be wondering what the smell was.

We're all starting to get a bit tired now. Split watches and working in the heat aren't a good combination for a tropical vacation but I'm sure some shore time will make up for it. We're aiming for Port of Spain which is the capital and by all accounts quite a largish city, larger than anything we've been to for a few months anyway. Hopefully we'll be able to sort out our injectors while we're there and get water, filters and of course beer.

Today is Andrea's birthday so we're planning a special home-made burger lunch in his honour.

The next blog, all being well, will be the first one of our Caribbean odyssey . and it will be coming your way soon!!

Love to all .



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Comments [13]

Jules
13/04/2009, 12 26'N:45 08'W, 900 Miles from Trinidad

Yesterday we made the half-way point, around 3 p.m. . not quite sure which time zone! (Easter Sunday apparently, although no-one knew it at the time.)

We didn't have too much of a party in the end due to always having to be on watch, but Mike and Mic had fun and gave the Pastis a hammering that they're probably regretting today.

It's hot and sunny, a little too hot for doing much outside although we all did an hour of deck work this morning. Unfortunately, after lifting it on to the top deck the compressor is playing up so we've only managed to do about half an hour of sandblasting. And the computer started to overheat . luckily we just happened to have a replacement PC power pack in the hold (doesn't everyone?) and Mike's managed to fix that. The up side was that Andrea got Tsunamis 99 (electronic navigation chart/plotter) up and running on the lap-top so we now have several back-ups should anything (else) go wrong.

The generator on the engine has gone from being 3 phase down to only two phases, which means if we need the hydraulics or the crane we have to start up one of the other gennies. The 2 phases we have are providing all the domestic we need, but don't you just love it? This generator was one of the very few things that we bought brand new and we've had nothing but trouble with it, but then again it was made in China. Ah well, c'est la vie (and no I'm not learning French!).

Had a little bit of excitement this morning when the radar's three mile alarm started beeping. Suddenly, after seeing nothing for so long, there was this really big thing showing up directly behind the boat, I went outside expecting a some kind of big boat to be close by but couldn't see a thing . it turned out to be a rain cloud, first real rain we've had since leaving Las Palmas, we had about 30 minutes of it, but it didn't really cool things down much.

The wind is now almost directly behind us which is good for the speed but not so good for the exhaust which, since we had the fuel problem in Cabo Verde, has been sending out black smoke (a real disappointment after being one of the cleanest exhausts in Maryport). The injectors are plugged and we need to get them cleaned but can't do that until we get to Trindad at the earliest. At present there's a thin film of black sooty oil over everything the smoke touches, including us!

Still no tuna. Just over 900 miles to land. Still hanging on in there.

Love to all .

Comments [12]

Jules
11/04/2009, 13 01'N:38 04'W, 900 miles from Cabo Verde

As I write this It's 4.30 a.m. and in seven hours we'll be coming up to six days at sea. All's going well, the swell's quietened down and so has the wind; the day before we had the front sail up but now there's not enough wind. What wind there is is coming more or less from behind so we're not rolling so much and continuing to make good progress (averaging 7 knots at present).

I've just fed Nellie . again (her appetite sure hasn't changed much). Everyone else is asleep and I'm sitting in the wheelhouse on watch. The moon is shining down, not quite as strongly as the other night but enough to light our way. The full moon was quite spectacular and shone a silvery path across the water to our boat the whole night. It set directly in front of us during our watch at around 6 a.m., just as the sky was starting to lighten in the east. (Unfortunately I won't be on watch for any more sunsets or rises as yesterday we decided to go onto GMT. We were running off three different time zones - GMT, Cape Verde and local - which was getting a little confusing.) Now we get up at what was 3 a.m. which means that it's Mic and Marie's turn to see the changing colours of the sky.

Yesterday we hardly saw a cloud and even Marina the sun goddess was feeling the heat. Apart from Mike who always finds something in the engine room to keep him occupied, there isn't a great deal going on. I've read just about all the books I have and have been reduced to Lynda La Plante, my French and Italian not being up to novel standard. It's too hot to lay outside (and almost 30 in the wheelhouse) so today we're going to start doing the final prep work on the decks so that we can get them painted while we're en route. At least it will be in the shade so shouldn't be too bad, and it will give us something to do.

We're still not seeing a great deal of wild life apart from flying fish, and we've only seen three other ships, and one of them was merely a light bobbing on the horizon for a few hours. Actually we did see a gannet that was circling the boat swoop down and catch a flying fish in mid-air which was pretty amazing to watch. Whoever said bird-brained, has obviously never seen this bird at work (home), letting the boat scare up the fish for it's food source, not the first time it had done it either.

Mike had a tuna on his line yesterday - great excitement - only it managed to get off just before he got it onto the boat (it was really big, just like all the ones that get away!).

Strange how disconnected (not sure that's quite the right word, maybe 'separate' would be better) you sometimes feel. I have no idea what's happening at 'home' - wherever that is. Our life is just the Flying Buzzard and thousands of miles of ocean. I haven't seen an English newspaper or the news since Las Palmas (over two months ago) although, having had to change money in Praia for the fuel I know that the pound is not worth much and the US dollar has risen quite a bit, which I guess speaks volumes and is quite a good indicator of what's happening in the world. Marie was listening to the French radio in Praia the day we left and heard something about a North Korean missile launch . let's just hope nothing drastic has happened in our absence.

At some point tomorrow we should reach the half-way mark and are going to have a mid-Atlantic party . everyone welcome, just get yourself here!

Love to all .

Comments [6]