Sadly this once beautiful three year old 80 foot Aluminum Jongert sailing yacht "Uisge Beatha" caught fire on the 14th June in Prickly Bay and was completely destroyed. The Flying Buzzard was commissioned to keep her afloat while investigations take place as to the cause of the fire.
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Sadly this once beautiful three year old 80 foot Aluminum Jongert sailing yacht "Uisge Beatha" caught fire on the 14th June in Prickly Bay and was completely destroyed. The Flying Buzzard was commissioned to keep her afloat while investigations take place as to the cause of the fire.
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The weather has been terrible here - very wet and windy so there are no Caribbean beach photos yet but they will come - I hope!! It seems to be the same story as other parts of the world - unusual weather patterns. It is the wet season here but the winds are supposed to be going down and the heat increasing with showers and sun shine
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It's hard work preparing a boat for the hurricane season - making it fast in the mangroves on Hog Island so a beer definitely helps the process. I first meet Rich (right) and his partner Misty on the river Guadiana about 2 years or so ago when they were crewing on the gaff ketch Rosa. Rich is going back to he UK so I offered to keep an eye on their yacht Armanella
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Jules and Mike have kindly provided a cabin on Flying Buzzard for me to set-up my main computer so that I can get on with processing my last 18 months of images, so is 'going to the office' for me
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Me at work on Buzzard feeling a little self-satisfied
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Mike and I went shopping the other day and we stopped off at this roadside 'fast food outlet'! Wow - the Jerk chicken was totally awesome, it was so good that we called by on the way back and had some more. He also does pork and that was fantastic - defiantly one of my future stop-offs. About £3.50 a portion.
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Later in the day Jules, Mike and I went out to have some drinks and had some sea urchin rolls, it's the row and yummy and a few other local dishes all very good indeed - love it.
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Mike and Jules who I first meet 9 years ago when living in Maryport, Cumbria. They had just bought and started converting the former Glasgow tug 'Flying Buzzard' - who would have thought that we would next meet-up in the Caribbean celebrating her birthday
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Birthday girl Jules looking relatively sober at this point
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Last Sunday Jules from Flying Buzzard had a birthday party that I was invited to - fantastic meat-balls that Mike came up with and other great food that guest brought along.
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Looking across Clarkes Court Bay from Flying Buzzard towards Hog Island with Warrior on the left amongst the other yachts
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Warrior at anchor in Clarkes Court Bay, I will be moving round to the other side of the bridge in the next few day, more sheltered.
The weather has been a little disappointing over the last week or so, regular squalls coming through with 25 up to 35 plus knots of wind and heavy rain but this should improve towards Monday. I gather that there are two seasons but not always well differentiated, the dry season February to June with small rain showers and the wet season July until January with plenty of sunshine but more frequent showers and occasional rainy days with no sun. There is very little temperature difference between seasons - 78 to 87F (25 to 31C).
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Jerry from the US who I am anchored near with his 2 poodles Tiller & Sparkey. I hope that I am as together as he is at 80.
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Prickly Bay looking across with Warrior just right of the red yacht and mast behind the marina office. Friends from the Maryport days who came out a few years ago in Flying Buzzard came round from their anchorage on Hog Island and took my out to lunch yesterday at De big Fish. We also took on some beers and on the way back came across friends on a catamaran and I was introduced to rum, coke & ice, got back to Warrior and collapsed in the bunk waking up at around 10pm. I am just waiting to hear the prognosis on the burnt out alternator, get it repaired and head round to Hog where I will be staying for the Hurricane season. Its Jules's birthday on Sunday so lunch then barbeque and lashings of rum type drinks. There his is a community of yachties and one of the nicest beaches with a beach bar - watch this space!!
By the way if anyone is interested my son Thomas did a track of my crossing http://goo.gl/maps/wbDm9 (copy and past into your browser)
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I hadn't realised that I had lost a considerable amount of weight with the constant motion I must have burnt it off. The first day I landed ashore I felt slightly drunk and found it difficult to walk, my leg were all over the place. It was also really strange to hear my own voice it was like an old mans voice, slightly feeble - OK that's normal then - thanks
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My hands took a battering trying to get some forward motion and the constant wind shifts - looks like I've got something nasty. They look even worse today as the skin is pealing off
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Well folks I must now hold the record for the longest Atlantic passage from the Canneries to Caribbean @ 42 days. The lack of wind and direction was the problem. April is known to be an unpredictable month so it could be said that this might have been expected. So why did I go in April, it was just the logistics. I had been preparing for this for 6 months but finances being the main influence on all things it took some time to get it together. I was ready in early April but the weather wasn't and it was April 8 when I finally left Morgan, Gran Caneria. I had checked the weather 5 days in advance on Ugrib and all looked good with northeaster's forecast exactly what I needed but it was not to last. On reflection I could have taken the conventional route down to the Cape Verdas before making the crossing proper, I don't know if it would have made a difference.
From the very start the wind seemed very unpredictable and had no guts to it obviously it was the trades dieing away slowly. I spent numerous days just drifting along at 2 to 3 knots when I should have been making 5 or more, then the wind would drop altogether and I was just left bobbing around in mid Atlantic pleasant at times but frustrating. Then it came from the very direction I was heading in and that's no good for a sailing boat, southwest, west, and southeast. The wind also had no weight to it so I was not able to tack into it. I was up and down with the sails, trying different combinations getting one working and then the wind would change again, my hands started having blisters on blisters. Under these conditions I was also restricted in the use of my main sail, as the boom would be thrown from side to side even with a preventer the sails then backing and then refilling making an unnerving thwack and not kind to the sails. Twice I changed course for the Cape Verde islands that were 500 miles downwind thinking I could go there and wait but that would mean 1000 miles extra and possibly finding myself stuck there for the hurricane season so I just gritted my teeth and went about.
Once again I had been becalmed for over 6 hours 1,200 miles from Granada, I could see the black based wind clouds in the west so I switched the on the engine and motored for about 5 hours towards them. Shortly after turning the engine off the front came through with torrential rain and wind after which I was running under boomed out headsail making 5 to 6 knots and covering 115, 118 then 120 miles a day. This was the trades re-establishing themselves on May 10, a month after me leaving - in my part of the Atlantic anyway. The down side to this point of sailing was the rolling. In down wind sailing there is no force in the sails holding the vessel steady you are like a pendulum and also at the mercy of the seas coming up behind you swinging you around. Every thing you do is a physical effort so tiring especially when it goes on day after day. You are not able to put anything down as the moment you do its whisked away. The motion can be so violent at times that the only thing you can do is wedging yourself into a corner or just go to bed. Even Moggs found it frustrating and gave me some withering looks as if to say what are we doing.
After getting the wind back I did no touch the sail again for the next 10 days until I headed into Prickly Bay on Monday 20th May at 6.30 am
Moggs coped with the experience remarkably well and became very boat wise following me around when I was doing something and as soon as I said its going to be noisy he would disappear into the cockpit. He used the anchor stowed on deck for protection and got very excited when we started catching fish and would always have the first taste as I prepared them on deck. At night he went on fish patrol collecting some of the small flying fish that landed on deck and after playing with them as cats do ate some. He started bringing his catch in and executing them on his bed which I objected too but he soon got the message and did the deed in the cockpit, the down side to this that in the morning I just had to watch where I put my feet because of the corpses. On a couple of occasions there were some sizable ones which I fried for breakfast and we shared but he does seem to prefer them raw. By the way they are delicious but not much to them.
I did have a few problems. The alternator stopped producing electricity the second week out so I lashed the petrol generator to the aft deck and that charged my batteries. When running down wind the Wheel Pilot can use a decent amount of juice especially when Warrior was yawing so the solar panels weren't sufficient. The raw water pump for the engine started screeching, obviously a dry bearing so I just kept pumping oil into it from time to time not that I used the engine until I jot to the other end.
I managed with food and water the only thing I ran out of was cooking gas however I have a camping cooker for emergencies such as this so just put it on the gimballed cooker and it did the job.
In conclusion, I needed to get going otherwise it would have been early next year before I could get away again and the most important thing I got here safely.
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One of the Darado I caught and are absolutely delicious
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I just don't believe it
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I know it looks like a monster but it's my monster
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You can't see what I can
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I have it Rog
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Moggs loved finishing off the porridge in the mornings
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Moggs loved being in the marina and making friends, he makes people smile because of his friendliness and the antics that he gets up to a common remark is "I wish I had a cat like him". He adopted Leo, Margau and Samuel spending a lot of time with them and whenever he went missing he would be found on their yacht. When we left the marina he really missed their company as well as Steph and Andrew and the freedom of the marina, I felt very guilty taking him away to the confines of Warrior, he defiantly sulked for the first couple of hours.
Sunday 7th, still in Gran Caneria. We had to stay as the wind went round to the south and west so no good for the crossing and no go for the Cap Vered's. Headed for Cement Bay on the southwest which was perfect as the wind came up very strong and it gave Warrior a very sheltered anchorage. We left yesterday afternoon (Saturday) for Morgan further up the coast where I will shop on Monday morning to restock on the food eaten over the past week. The intention is to leave on Monday morning as the conditions look good. Because of the predicted wind direction we will make a heading for the Vered islands and when things look good make a heading more west.
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We left Las Palmas at 6.30 am and the forecast looks good north 12 - 14 knots in-fact not quite enough wind later in the day but it will ease us back into sailing. We are having a great down wind sail with sunshine and a cool wind. Moggs has found his shelf in the forward cabin and is sleeping. I think his rational is that when he wakes up we should be back on the pontoon and seeing his friends, he will be disapointed. I should make the first way point for the passage at about 2 pm and then that's it next landfall the Caribbean.
At about 5 pm the wind just dropped away completely, flat calm so decided to anchor for the night at the south end of Gran Caneria at Perto de Pasito Blanco and see what tomorrow brings. Moggs is sulking I think he knows that he has left the civilised world of the marina and has gone to sea again, he doesn't know that his adopted French friends also left today.
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I am just doing my final shop for my next passage. It's a little more challenging than my last two, Portugal to Morocco (Rabat) and Morocco to Canary Island, 200 and 450 miles respectively. On the 28/30 of March I will be heading across the Atlantic to the Caribbean some 3,700 miles and should take between 21 & 28 days. It's been dubbed the 'milk run' because it's relatively easy compared to some passages.
My daughter Gemma and her partner Charlie have bought me a Spot GPS messenger enabling some of you to track my progress on Google Maps. I have sufficient water and food for about 50 days. I also have a hand operated water maker that I purchased on EBay just in case I should need it!
The usual strategy for the crossing is to head southwest towards Cape Verde Islands or just north of them to catch the North Equatorial Current. Over the last few years this current has come further north enabling yachts to go straight across saving time. After the storms that we had a couple of weeks ago the current had moved back south but it seems to have established itself further north again enabling me to head straight across from Gran Caneria to Prickly Bay, on the island of Granada, that's the theory anyway
Very close by are some very good friends Jules and Mike on their converted Glasgow Tug 'Flying Buzzard'. We first met in Maryport, Cumbria when I was living there and it will be great to meet up again.
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This is where I am heading for
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The Juan Sebastián de Elcano is seen leaving Las Palmas today being escorted by a flotilla of yachts and two tugs. She was built in 1927 in Cadiz, Spain and is now a training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy. She is a four-masted topsail, steel-hulled schooner. At 113 metres (370 feet) long, she is the third-largest Tall Ship in the world.
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Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival is one of the oldest and unique festivals of the Canary Islands. For over five centuries the city has celebrated with masquerading, tomfoolery... and flesh. This is this years Drag Queen winner.
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