SailBlog

Departed Mindelo marina at 2.30 GMT on 7th Jan. According to the chart plotter we had 2107 nautical miles to go. We settled into a watch system with both of us up during the day and a night watch system of 3 hours on 3 hours off from 9pm to 9 am. Ian has fitted a Hydrovane wind vane steering system to Reflexion which has its own little paddle rudder and will maintain a steady course relative to the wind direction (so, if the wind direction shifts so too will the boat heading). We prefer this system over the more common autopilot which attaches directly to the boat�'s main steering and can steer either a fixed course or a course relative to the wind. Main reasons are the autopilot is constantly whirring away from its electric motor and, of course, the considerable power drain through running it 24 hours a day. Also, more chance of electrical problems. The first few days were spent settling down to the new and strange routine and sleep pattern as well as a couple of days of quite bumpy seas with a big swell from the North colliding with wind driven waves from the East. Certainly not blog writing weather nor a time for producing any culinary masterpieces in the galley. I have read articles written by sailing versions of Nigella Lawson (British Kitchen Goddess) in which they describe all manner of fancy meals. Don�'t believe all you read. Trying to stand up without launching across the galley into something hard is hard enough without having to worry about the finer points of delicate seasoning and whether the crème brulee has done what crème brulee�'s are supposed to do in the oven. What you want is a couple of simple re-heatable meals made onshore and brought onto the boat for the first couple of days and thereafter restrict your cooking ambitions to single pot creations. With a two burner stove (one permanently occupied by w histling kettle), a small counter top (permanently tilted at unnatural angles) simplicity is the key. Not to talk about trying to do the washing up. It is becoming more common to have water makers on board but we do not enjoy such luxury. Therefore water is to be strictly rationed. We brought enough bottled water to provide around 4.5 litres per day between the two of us and then the tanks hold 375 litres. No regular showers for us. A flannel wash every few days is our limit but, nevertheless, a mighty treat when it is your turn. I decided to invest in a satellite phone in order to be able to download weather files (GRIB files) and be able send emails back home and, of course, be able to speak to Irene at home who would be worried sick while I was away. The set up I opted for was as follows; an Iridium extreme 9575 phone, a Redport optimizer which acts like a local W I also iFi router and has a built in firewall which restricts traffic to only those emails and weather data that you specify. Without this you would have your laptop trying to send all sorts of update files in the background which would use up all your limited bandwidth. I got an external antenna which mounts onto the rail and gives a far better signal and allows you to use the phone below deck where it does not see the sky. I also subscribed to Extremetrackplus (through my phone service provider SatPhoneStore) which is a web tracking site that records your position via data sent from the phone. I have to say it is working very well. Iren e certainly appreciates being able to hear my voice and get the odd (highly compressed) photo.