12/19/2011, Canaries to Grenada
We are in the final leg of our passage to Grenada. The air temperature is 82 and the water temperature is a very nice 80 degrees! For some reason the Sargasso seaweed just disappeared yesterday. It seems to live in a band that circulates around the center of the Atlantic. The water is becoming an amazing blue and we are starting to see those white puffy clouds that are associated with the trade winds. The wind has filled in for us at about 15 knots from the northeast. By midnight it is supposed to increase to 25 knots from the northeast. Our plan is to make it into St. Davids Harbor before sunset. We are in good shape as long as the wind continues to blow hard.
If you know Eric you know that he likes to fix things. When he is not fixing things then he is doing research to learn how to fix things. I have about 20 manuals on the boat to cover all the systems, instruments, and machinery. He has read all of them. Unfortunately we are running out of projects for him as we approach Grenada. I felt sorry for him yesterday as he completed the overhaul of the wind generator control unit. Unfortunately Eric forgot to put the break on after he was done. So when the wind came up, and the boom was near the blades, all you could hear was a battle of grinding and chipping of blades vs boom - the boom won. Not to worry - Eric to the rescue. He was up there in no time - had all the blades off, and then started the slow laborious process of filling, sanding and fairing the holes. I am not sure this project will last until we make landfall so we may need to break something else!
We listen to quite a bit of music about Azure II. The person at the helm always gets to select the artist with the approval or disapproval of the rest of the crew. As you can imagine tastes vary depending on the time of day and whether you are surfing down waves, or star gazing at night. I seem to lean toward some of the older rock bands, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and AC/DC. Eric likes the Dead and is a big Dick Dale fan. Jamie seems to bridge most gaps, but really likes Gary Hoey and JJ Cale. George has been going with the flow for the most part but plugged in his iPod for the first time yesterday. We spent happy hour listening to Bobby Daren and Marty Robins - I always figured him for an Elvis Fan like my good friend Hal Lynam
PS my next and last email will be from Grenada!
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12/18/2011, Canaries to Grenada
As we complete our 15th day at sea we are kind of getting ready to be there! The wind came up around midnight and we were able to sail until noon today. We were only making about 3.5 knots so the crew was getting restless. The captain gave Eric the stink potter option - and for some reason he said something like "put the pedal to the metal" - must be jeep talk.
We flew the spinnaker for about three hours today. Eric is getting pretty good at getting the spinnaker lines hooked up and ready to hoist. The spinnaker is in a sock which really helps to launch and collapse the kite. Launching the spinnaker in moderate wind is pretty easy because as the spinnaker fills the cone wants to rise to the top of the halyard. The real trick is getting the cone down when it is blowing hard. I have a bit of an advantage on Eric (about 80 pounds) so getting the kite to submit is easier for me. I told Eric to think of it as a rope climb. Jamie said it looked like Eric was kite surfing as he climbed about 5 feet up the rope before the kite collapsed. Maybe we will tie his feet to the trampoline next time?
Our current path will take us within 15 miles of Barbados. Most yachts stop for a few days to tour the Mount Gay Rum plant. I guess it is a bunch of fun and helps break up the trip to Grenada. Alas our schedule makes us push on. We are currently shooting to arrive in Grenada on the 20th in the evening. We have a reservation to haul the boat on the 21st, packing up everything by the 22nd. Then we have to load all our belonging into a crate to be shipped home on the 23rd, and fly home on the morning of the 24th. I guess we will just keep our watch schedule going to get all the work done?
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12/17/2011, Canaries to Grenada
The worst situation for 4 sailors is one that involves days of motoring. Alas we are those individuals, and are steady making progress. As you can imagine, we have had lots of time to reflect on the meaning of life and share stories on this trip. Some of the best stories are the personal ones: What was Jamies nick name as a child - rhymes with winky, who was that famous Bean that started Albersons, What was the name of that boat part that brought Eric and Jacky together? How many years did it really take Rodney to finish college? all of these stories are safe and sound with us 500 miles from Grenada.
Since we are contemplating the meaning of life, and have nothing else to talk about, we decided to compose a joke for all of you. We do appreciate jokes in return.. hint hint.
Three engineers and an accountant are sitting on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic and contemplating what profession God has. The Chemical engineer says the body is an amazing thing!, Look at DNA, proteins and amino acids; If you look at all the chemical properties of the body and all the things that it can produce - God must have been a Chemical engineer . The Electrical engineer said that God must have been an electrical engineer because he created the nervous system and all of the electrical impulses that go through body; he must have been an electrical engineer. The accountant said that he must have been an accountant because the body is like a balance sheet; you can input as many things as you want and always get the same output. The Civil engineer shook his head in disbelief - all of you have it wrong, God must have been a civil engineer; who else would route a sewer line through a recreational area.
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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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