by Judy Handley | Feb 28, 2011 | Passage to Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 127, Year 6 Atlantic Passage, Day 23-Rodeo Ride
Date: Monday, February 28, 2011 (1730 UTC)
Weather: Squally AM, Party Sunny PM; NE 17-22
Air Temperature: 76 degrees F
Latitude: 07 44.605 N
Longitude: 050 37.747 W
Miles Traveled: 3204 + 1878 S Africa to St. Helena
Miles to Go: 708
Location: Passage from St. Helena to Caribbean (Grenada)
Yowsers! This Atlantic Ocean keeps throwing us curve ball after curve ball. By early morning the negative current returned and is now up to 2 knots against us. Then the winds turned more N’ly trying to push us more S’ly and that is not the direction in which we wish to travel. So we have sloppy, sloshing, swashbuckling seas pounding us right on the beam along with winds ahead of the beam and the negative current against us. The result is a rollicking, rough ride a little like riding a bucking bronco. I haven’t done that, but I can imagine. I don’t think we would normally be so affected by this, but after thirty-eight days at seas with hardly a day with calm seas, it is getting a bit wearing. I’m starting to dream of walking on a white sand beach that does not move beneath my feet and then sitting in the sun before walking again. I often walk on the beach but I never spend time sitting in the sun, but right now it sounds delicious. I might try it when I get to Grenada. It has been so overcast for most of this passage that Mark and I look bleached-out. Even when the sun does shine, we are protected by the dodger and bimini, so I’m craving that sunshine.
I baked bread today and made granola but that is as much as I could possibly do. It’s hard just to sit here. The change in the wind direction starting happening during the night so Mark had to go forward and take down the pole. We are now sailing with a double reefed main and double reefed headsail. We would be going over 7 knots if it weren’t for this current. We are still forging ahead at about 5.5 knots, so even though it is slowing us down the winds are keeping us going. The GRIBS show that we should have this for another twenty-four to thirty-six hours and then maybe the winds will go back more E’ly putting the winds more behind us again. That will be a bit rolly but nothing compared to his Rodeo Ride.
by Judy Handley | Feb 27, 2011 | Passage to Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 126, Year 6 Atlantic Passage, Day 23-Goodbye Negative Current
Date: Sunday, February 27, 2011 (1730 UTC)
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; ENE 10-15
Air Temperature: 80 degrees F
Latitude: 07 10.890 N
Longitude: 048 34.450 W
Miles Traveled: 3076 + 1878 S Africa to St. Helena
Miles to Go: 835
Location: Passage from St. Helena to Caribbean (Grenada)
Goodbye negative current, we think, we hope. Sometime between 4 and 5 am the current went from a knot and a half to only half a knot against us. And just in the last hour, it seems to have disappeared altogether. It could return, but we’ll be positive and think it is gone for good this time. Yesterday at this time we had slightly more wind and were going about 5 knots. Today with less wind we are going between 5.8 and 6.0 knots-much better. We had the first really clear night with lots of stars that we have had in days but early this morning it clouded over and we had squalls for about three hours. The squalls were mostly increased wind and changing wind direction with very little rain. It would have been nice to have more rain to wash some of the salt off Windbird, but that didn’t happen. Since 9:30 this morning, we have had a steady 10 to 15 knots of wind from the ENE. It would be a perfect sail if it weren’t for these seas. We are still being bounced around by two to three meter swells. Maybe Neptune doesn’t produce one to two meter swells in this part of the world as we haven’t seen that and the GRIBS never show anything but two to three meters.
I have a fish story from today, but unfortunately it doesn’t include catching one to eat. I was sitting in the cockpit on the midnight watch with my headlamp on working on my computer. All of sudden there was an eight-inch long flying fish flailing around on the floor of the cockpit. We have the side curtains down and I was sitting right up next to the companionway hatch, so how he flew in and landed right on my feet is a wonder to me. I tried to grab him to throw him back, but he was too slippery. I grabbed a rag that hangs on the steering column and was able to catch him with last and throw him back into the sea. I don’t know who was the most frightened, me or the flying fish. Mark is out on deck right now doing his daily walkabout and throwing over the myriad of little flying fish that accumulate on deck each day. Today the total count was 70. The other thing I saw last night for the first time was both the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper, the Southern Cross to port and the Big Dipper to starboard. I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing the Southern Cross much longer, but it has been a wonderful sailing companion. We’ll now have to start depending on the Big Dipper to guide us.
by Judy Handley | Feb 26, 2011 | Passage to Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 125, Year 6 Atlantic Passage, Day 22-Under 1000 Miles to Go
Date: Saturday, February 26, 2011 (1730 UTC)
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day; ENE 12-18
Air Temperature: 80 degrees F
Latitude: 06 49.303 N
Longitude: 046 30.106 W
Miles Traveled: 2947 + 1878 S Africa to St. Helena
Miles to Go: 958
Location: Passage from St. Helena to Caribbean (Grenada)
At one time, a thousand mile passage seemed enormous to us and the completion of the 3000 mile passage from the Galapagos to the Marqueses was a true milestone in our lives. But here we are 4825 miles from South Africa with yet another 958 miles to go and it is no longer the big deal it once was. We simply take things one day at a time. There will definitely be celebrating when we reach Grenada, but for now we are settled into the daily routine of eat-sleep-read-eat-sleep-read-write a little-work a little-eat-sleep-read. Since Windbird has been basically sailing herself, there has been very little tending to sails. It is not a very exciting existence, but it certainly pleasant enough. Some sailors refer to crossing the Atlantic as “crossing the pond.” Simon Winchester in his book “Atlantic” finds it a bit demeaning to refer to this great body of water as a pond. I don’t find it particularly demeaning, but the Atlantic in no way resembles a pond. Ponds don’t have three meter swells that constantly rock you back and forth and negative currents that hold you back, and we still have both of these plaguing our trek to the northwest. We thought we were out of the current for a short period last evening, but then it came back even stronger. We now have a knot and a half against us, so if we are sailing at 6.5 knots we are really only going 5 knots over the ground. That has been our average today although right now I’m looking at 4 knots over ground when the boat is moving at 5.5 knots. We are still kicking ourselves for not consulting the Pilot beforehand. This is one of the hazards of using electronic navigation. It is wonderful, but you still need to consult your pilot guides for basic routing information. Lesson learned. The next time we are going to cross a pond, we will most definitely check the Pilot Guide.
We are elated that our experiment with the freezer has worked. A few days ago we lined the sides away from the cold plate with bags of vacuum-packed rice to serve as insulation and we stuffed the top with a polar fleece blanket in a stuff sack sealed in a plastic bag. It took four days for the temperature to go down far enough for us to feel confident that everything was solidly frozen. We opened it late yesterday to check and indeed everything is frozen solid. And upon closing the freezer after messing about inside it, it took only an hour for it to get back down to temperature. I was so afraid I was going to lose all the meat in the freezer which is still as full as it was when we left Simon’s Town. We have used only a couple of bags of chicken thighs that were not completely frozen and about three 1-pound bags of ground beef. We had some meat in the top of the freezer when we left Simon’s Town and we bought some pork sausages in St. Helena. Otherwise we have been eating fresh veggies turned into curries, cabbage stews, and beans and polenta. Notice the absence of fish on the menu. I’m still waiting for that fresh addition. If we collected and cooked all of the flying fish that are landing on our deck, I guess we could make a mighty big fish stew. We’ve never had such numbers of these little guys, and some not so little, land on Windbird. It is now a daily task to walk around the deck and throw the dried fish overboard. They obviously jump onboard at night and by morning they are stiff as a board. Some people eat them, but I’m not that desperate YET! And while on the subject of sea life, I’ll mention that until four nights ago we had not seen any bioluminescence in the water. Usually when on passage at night, the water is twinkling with bioluminescent creatures, but not so for us in the South Atlantic. The bioluminescence and abundance of flying fish happened at about the same time. We also started seeing lots of Sargasso weed (or something similar) in the water, but we have left that behind.
So, how are we faring on the countdown? This should have been “six days to go”–but at this point it looks like we are still seven days away from landfall in Grenada. The miles covered in a 24 hour period have gone from 160-165 nautical miles (nm) to 116 nm since this time yesterday. If we can go no faster all the way, it will take us another eight and a quarter days. But at some point we hope to shake this negative current and get back to our former speed. The Captain is saying seven more days, so I’ll go with that for now.
by Judy Handley | Feb 25, 2011 | Passage to Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 124, Year 6 Atlantic Passage, Day 21-Sloooow Goooo
Date: Friday, February 25, 2011 (1730 UTC)
Weather: Overcast with Sun Peeking Through; ENE 12-18
Air Temperature: 80 degrees F
Latitude: 06 28.136 N
Longitude: 044 35.940 W
Miles Traveled: 2830
Miles to Go: 1072
Location: Passage from St. Helena to Caribbean (Grenada)
Today we lost some of the wind, the sunshine, and added a negative current. So our Grenada countdown is temporarily stuck with still eight days to go. The negative current came on strong in the early morning hours and seems to have subsided for now, but the seas are still big and the winds are staying in the 12 to 14 knot range a great deal of time which, coming from behind is not moving us forward very fast. We made 140 miles in the last 24 hours instead of 160 to 165, but if the negative current doesn’t return, we might be back on track. Mark just poled the headsail out and already we have gained a knot or so of speed.
When the negative current so rudely presented itself, Mark consulted the Atlantic Ocean Pilot and sure enough there is counter current right where we are. The Pilot shows that it could continue for another 300 miles or so, but the location is based on an average over many years. I’m hoping we just skirted it and left it behind. We’ll just have to wait and see.
On a positive note, the pulled muscle in my arm is fine now. It is truly amazing how fast the human body can repair itself.
by Judy Handley | Feb 24, 2011 | Passage to Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 123, Year 6 Atlantic Passage, Day 20-Big Blue Atlantic
Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011 (1730 UTC)
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day; ENE 14-18 & 18-22 Knots
Air Temperature: 80 degrees F
Latitude: 05 59.396 N
Longitude: 042 20.179 W
Miles Traveled: 2689.59
Miles to Go: 1219
Location: Passage from St. Helena to Caribbean (Grenada)
Mark was staring off into the great beyond when I asked him what he was thinking. He simply said, “It’s a big ocean out there.” I had to laugh at the understatement. Yes, indeed, it is a big, blue Atlantic Ocean. Well, at least it is blue when the sun is shining. The 6,000 miles from South Africa to the Caribbean would be like getting in your car in New York City and driving round trip to Los Angles going only 6 miles an hour. Day after day all we see is this ocean stretching as far as we can see in any direction. On stormy days, the gray clouds fade right into the gray ocean-the color of modern Navy battleships. On sunny days the ocean is a deep blue meeting a horizon dotted with white puffy clouds and a lighter blue sky above. Some days we have a brilliant blue sky, but the further north we get, the hazier the sky. We are still battling with big seas. The seas are about three meters, but some are much bigger and they cause Windbird to lurch from side to side. Yesterday after writing the log I was headed down the companionway steps with a load of laundry and other items in my hands. The boat lurched and I couldn’t hold on and went flying to the floor below. Thankfully nothing is broken but I pulled a muscle in the one arm that held on the longest. In talking with Mary Anne on Traversay about this on the radio sked this morning she said that you really do have to be at the top of your game every minute when out here on passage and she is right. One wrong move can be disastrous. Mark warns me constantly to climb down with hands free and then have him hand me things, but I always tell him I can handle it. Well, I couldn’t handle it yesterday and have learned my lesson. I’ll not be climbing with a computer in one hand and books in the other or an armload of laundry anymore. Mark’s pulled muscle is recovering and mine already feels better. Lucky this time.
We continue to have wind moving us forward at about 6.5 knots. We have periods of 14 to18 knot winds alternating with periods of 18 to 22. That means adjusting the course a degree or two one way and then the other. Because of the lower wind periods today, we have the headsail out full again, but the main remains double-reefed. Eights day to go.
by Judy Handley | Feb 23, 2011 | Passage to Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 122, Year 6 Atlantic Passage, Day 18-In Tribute to Quest
Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 (1730 UTC)
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; ENE 18-22 Knots
Air Temperature: 80 degrees F
Latitude: 05 27.632 N
Longitude: 039 42.920 W
Miles Traveled: 2528
Miles to Go: 1379
Location: Passage from St. Helena to Caribbean (Grenada)
When we sent last night’s log, the emails started coming in telling us that Jean and Scott Adam of Marina Del Ray in California, along with their two crew members Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle from Seattle, had been shot and killed. We were shocked and saddened. What a tragedy. We didn’t know Jean and Scott well, but we had visited on each other’s boats and had attended a couple of social gatherings in American Samoa together. But with world cruisers, once you have met you are life long friends. It might be a year or two or three or more before you see each other again, but when you pull into an anchorage where there is a boat you have met previously, you feel like you are reunited with good friends. So I know, that like us, all of the world cruisers who came in contact with Jean and Scott are mourning their senseless death. We mourn with our fellow cruisers and our hearts go out to Jean and Scott’s families and friends and to those of the other two crew members who were also killed.
With Jean and Scot Adam of Quest
In November of 2009 when we returned to Malaysia, we had made a decision to change our planned route around to go around South Africa to instead go through the Red Sea. While we were home in the summer and fall of 2009, seeing those grandbabies precipitated the change in direction. If we went through the Red Sea we could have been in Turkey by May or June of 2010, almost a year ago, and would have been within easy reach of flying to see family again. We knew going around South Africa meant more than a year and a half without traveling home and that just seemed too long. So we bought all the cruising guides for the Red Sea and the Med and started the serious planning. We knew crossing the Gulf of Aden was going to terribly dangerous but all of our friends were going that way and we had all planned to travel in convoys and hoped that there was safety in numbers. Then we got an email from Tom Hastings, Tom Hastings, Captain of the US Coast Guard in the Maritime Liason Office in Bahrain. His one question stopped us in our tracks and changed our minds. “Who are you going to designate to negotiate on your behalf if you are taken by pirates?” We couldn’t possibly ask one of our children or one of our brothers or sisters to do this. So we sold the cruising books to friends, bought new books for the trip through the Indian Ocean and around South Africa, found new friends headed that way, and here we are. It has been fourteen months since we made that decision and it will be two more months before we see those grandbabies, but we are certainly glad we made the decision to take the longer route. Most of our good friends did make it successfully through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea and for that we are most grateful. There are still good friends that will have to make this decision, and in light of this most recent tragic hijacking, I sincerely hope they will take the southern route. Good friends, Jean-Pierre and Colette of Safina, made the decision to go to Japan and take the Great Circle route back to the West Coast of the US. They are from Montreal, so they will have to go back through the Panama Canal to get home. That is also a long route, but a much safer one in today’s world.
We continue to move along at a fast pace although the ride is getting increasingly rowdier. The seas are about three meters and they toss us around a bit, but we are fine except for a couple of potted plants that spilled all over the cockpit last night. This morning we put a double reef in the headsail, and we are still averaging 6.5 knots. As the day progressed, we started getting a positive current, almost a knot. Nine days to go.
