12/16/2011, Canaries to Grenada
Today was a sad day on Azure II. It is not that we hit a whale, tore a sail, or ran out of beer. No, it is much worse than that. At 10:00 UTC, 707 miles from Grenada, with 10 knots of breeze from the west - we engaged the transmission. A true Zen sailor's nightmare - we have now joined the ranks of the stink potters. The crew and I have always made fun of the other cruisers on the morning net that had reported that they were "motoring" in 8 knots of wind. We can make 4 knots of boat speed in 8 knots of wind, I would say. No, it was the wind direction that killed us. If Venezuela was our destination we were right on target - but we would not be home for Christmas. So we traveled 2000 miles under sail, as distance from San Francisco to Hawaii, but now we are stinky.
The good news is that the squalls are gone and it is a beautiful day! Sargasso seaweed has returned and dots the horizon with gold. Since it is so flat we will take the opportunity to make some water and do some laundry. Washing up will be a good thing for George - he has been wearing the same shirt and shorts for 5 days! The water temperature is 78.6 and the cabin temperature is 81.
Since it is so flat we will have a double movie night to boost the crew moral.
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12/15/2011, Canaries to Grenada
We had a close encounter with a boat last night. They appeared on the horizon at about 10:30pm as a dim light on the horizon. Jamie called them on the radio to confirm that they saw us since it appeared our courses would cross. They explained that they had left Las Palmas on the 29th of November and were headed to Antigua. Wow that is four days ahead of us! We crossed with about 200 feet to spare and bid each other farewell. After a half an hour their light was gone as they drifted over the horizon. Such is life in the pond! In twelve days we have seen 2 birds, some flying fish, several dolphins, something that looked like a whale shark, and these guys - that's it.
We have entered a zone of low pressure that is standing between us and rum. This tropical disturbance is not very strong, but contains very squally weather with winds from 10 knots to 30. We shook out our 2nd reef to give us some more sail area and are trying to point. If any of you have sailed a catamaran you know that pointing is not a preferred point of sail. This weather is supposed to last 24 hours and then return to trade winds for the rest of our passage. All things considered we were able to make 189 miles and are 760 miles from Grenada.
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12/14/2011, Canaries to Grenada
We had the most remarkable Zen experience last night. Imagine this; you are surfing down a wave at 11 knots listening to AC/DC with the spinnaker up. The catamaran feels like a Porsche at that speed as you are focusing on hitting the next wave as it goes by - or in the words of George Surfer Bean - Linking waves. The waves are about 10 feet tall at their peaks so there is lots of fun to be had if you hit it right. Then out of the corner of your eye you see something jump. I ducked at first fearing a wayward kamikaze, but to my surprise they are too big. Then it happens again right in front of the boat - mind you I am surfing down a wave at 12 knots at this point. 10 dolphins jump at exactly the same time from the top of a wave and land in perfect unison in the trough of the next. Like something out of Marine World, they did it again. I screamed to the crew to come on deck! Now mind you that I have seen lots of dolphins from Fiji to Turkey, but never have I seen so many jump like this. A few of our new finned friends decided that surfing our bow wave was more fun than the dinner they were chasing, so they hung around for a bit. Eric Warren Miller Mears took this opportunity to grab the fish eye and race to bow to get some footage. Then, if that was not enough Eric lies on his back on the trampoline to get some good shots of the spinnaker. The trampoline is a great place to lie while you are at anchor, but mind you we are doing 11 knots now. Then as if all good deeds cannot go unpunished, he was greeted with a full frothy eruption from below - That will look great at the iMax. Luckily he put on the waterproof housing before he ran forward.
I am happy to announce we have a winner for the best joke award by unanimous decision - courtesy of Kim Bean - who is also an accountant! 3 engineers and an accountant, sailing in the middle of the Atlantic, stare dejectedly at the broken generator and scratch their heads. The civil engineer says, I think we can fix this thing if we build scaffolding and lift it out. The chemical engineer says, I can mix these ingredients from the galley, use my process drawings to pipe it over to the generator, and then blow it up. The electrical engineer says, we have to re-wire the whole electrical panel and re-solder all the connections. The accountant says, you are all making this too difficult. Amazon has one on sale with free super-saver shipping. Now, tell me what is the mailing address here?
PS. we are 950 miles way from Rum and Cokes!
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12/13/2011, Canaries to Grenada
The big winds and big waves have now started to moderate but the squalls have increased. The main is still down since we have plenty of wind from the east. The boat really likes sailing without the main as long as you are going downwind. We put up the spinnaker today to get a bit more speed during the daylight hours. We did 180 miles in the last 24 hours and are 1145 miles from Grenada. Eric is driving right now in a downpour as the rest of us take refuge below. The temperature has risen to 79 degrees in the cabin and the water temperature is at 75 degrees.
Last night was calm so we went back to watching a movie after dinner. George picked Quantum of Solace for our evening entertainment. Jamie made his famous pasta with red sauce - a boat favorite. He spices up a couple of jars or Ragu with some sautéed garlic and onion, chili powder, a touch of sugar, and a splash of red wine. Man it is sure tasty.
We have been fortunate to have a bright moon at night for the last week. It is really nice to be able to see at night instead of using a flashlight. The moon has brought up an unusual number of flying fish all around us. We walk the decks every morning to throw them back overboard. Several Kamikazes have flown right into the cockpit and hit something before landing on the floor. No one has been hit yet, but we have a ways to go.
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12/12/2011, Canaries to Grenada
We crossed the halfway point today on our way to setting another great 24 hour run - 192 miles in the last 24 hours with 1300 miles to go. Our new territory has brought other obstacles to the table- squalls! Unfortunately squalls only come at night and bring 40 knot winds and driving rain. Since squalls rotate opposite of the prevailing wind you get some really fun wind shifts that go full circle as they pass.
We have been traveling at 8 to 12 knots for the last two days, and I have to tell you it is not natural. We have the constant vibration of surfing with the sound roaring waves all around us. Eric caught the mother of all waves this morning. Jamie and George were in their bunks forward and I was making coffee. Before we went over the falls I could hear the sound of a freight train approaching us from behind. Then the boat was thrown straight up in the air and we tipped forward as if to jump off the high dive. The boat felt like it was free falling straight down, down, down into the abyss, that is, until we hit the wave in front of us. The jolt felt like we had collided with a Greek fishing boat as we plowed through the wave and it broke over the cabin top. I guess this is how catamaran's pitch pole I thought. Needless to say I got a few grounds in the Peets coffee this morning. George and Jamie likened the experience to walking on walls.
Eric brought a very cool HD video camera that has a fisheye lens on the trip. It is the kind of camera that you can strap to the back of a race car or on your helmet. So far he has taken some spectacular footage of us surfing our way to the Caribbean. Some of the best shots are from the bow before we surf down a wave. We will get RJ to edit the video and post it to Utube when we get back. Maybe Warren Miller will pick it up? I can see the title now Into liquid with three engineers and the accountant ...
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12/11/2011, Canaries to Grenada
Well I guess I jinxed us with the Otto discussion. The waves and wind have built up to a point where old Otto cannot keep up with the sea state. So we have been taking turns hand steering every two hours. Our new 24 hour record is 203 miles and we are 1511 away from Grenada. It just occurred to me that I have never gone over 200 miles on a sailboat in 24 hours...yahoo! Tomorrow we get to have our halfway party as we get even closer to the Caribbean.
In order to keep the boat sailing safely we have set up a watch schedule to sail day and night. The night schedule is the most difficult. Since we have four guys we have divided the shifts into 2 hours on and 6 off. The Civil has the 12am to 2am, the Accountant has the 2am to 4 am, the Chemical has the 4am to 6am and then the Electrical. We have been very fortunate to have winds from our stern for most of the trip. Our Automatic Identification System (AIS) is our best friend at night. All commercial ships transmit their position over the airwaves and their position shows up on our chart plotter. So far we have seen very few ships, but we are always watching.
The good thing about going this fast, other than getting to Grenada earlier, is that we are having a competition for who can get the most miles in 2 hours. The Civil smugly had the record until the Account edged him out with an astounding 18.2 miles. That is an average of just over 9 knots. You can definitely water ski behind Azure II right now. The bad thing about going this fast is that we can no longer comfortably watch movies. We had a run of 6 nights in a row where we would watch a movie just after dinner. So far we have covered Animal House, Into Liquid, and others as we swap movie night choices. I am sure Captain Ron will make an appearance before the end of the trip.
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