30 Nov - Porto Grande

As we were sort of passing, we pulled into Mindelo Marina in Porto Grande in the Cape Verde Islands for more fuel. On the way in we spoke to a couple of other ARC yachts who gave us information on how/where to get fuel after hours. That sort of friendship has proven commen with our contact with other ARC yachts all along the way. It was only a short stop as we were on our way within a few hours having taken to chance to have dinner together.

 

This afternoon Ben decided to do some deck cleaning. To be fair the decks needed a clean. The trouble was that with some of the hatches open there was a certain "ingress" of water into one of the aft cabins meaning an early bath for a couple of sleeping bags. Oops! Philip was a close call from asking for the Mr Grumpy T-shirt

29 Nov - Slap, slap, slap

What a night! The winds picked up and with it the sea state. Now, Moulin Rouge, our trusty steed is an excellent cruiser, well appointed and with all mod cons. The trouble is that there are certain sea conditions (wave sizes) and directions we go, relative to said waves, that Moulin Rouge is not too comfortable with. In fact it became very tedious for a few hours and with the knowledge that those conditions were likely to last for 5 or 6 more days we had to tack to the south to stop the boat being shaken apart! Even that change of direction didn't help but we had to slog it out for 24 hours ... working to the south as best we could ... on a line roughly towards the Cape Verde Islands.

28 Nov - Mark and Ben go fishing

Mark and Ben went fishing today and the rest of us guessed they got a bit more than they anticipated! Ben compared the weight of the monster with his bag which weighed 20 kg. Slogging ahead the wind picked up and sailing became "uncomfortable"! That's the main reason for the delay in postings.

27 Nov - Not what it said in the brochure

19:13.123N 25:10.200W

{GMST}19|13.1230|N|025|10.200|W|busy day|Sail change{GEND}

 

Back at the Guildford seminar the appealing north east trade winds seemed the idilic conditions to sail across the Atlantic ... but it seems no-one booked the right conditions ... our guess is for upwind sailing for several more days jet! Still it's lovely conditions so no-one is complaining. When Chris wished for more wind he was reminded to be carful what he wished for and he rapidly modified his wish to something rather more specific like a force 4.

 

Last night was a busy one for all the watches with sails changing sides, the pole going in and out, the engine going on and off and everyone generally being fully occupied. Whether our efforts paid off will be revealed in the noon positions.

 

Philip and Colin have been planning the route to allow for weather patterns for the next few days. They said it was all planned but a dice was spotted beside the chart table.

Nov 26 - The cooking contest starts

Chris has continued to fiddle with the sails. He calls it fine tuning and in the fickle winds it has probably done some good. The winds dropped overnight - a bit more of a drop than predicted - so we have had to motor for an hour or so.

 

Last night Chris started the Moulin Rouge cooking contest. Essentially, although we put a menu together - that was only to make sure there is enough food on board ... and does not actually suggest the sequence things will be eaten ... not the way the various items will be brought together. Last nights' creations started off being "chicken something" ... but as we had eaten all the chicken it became "chicken surprise" and was made with finely ground beef. Not being outdone Ben and Colin produced French bread pizzas for lunch, finished off with home made chocolate chip cookies.

 

It turns out than Ben's first sun sight was within a couple of miles of the GPS position - well done Ben. The trouble is that knowing where we were 4 days ago is not really that much use so Ben has now embarked on another mission to try to get an updated position (hopefully today)..

 

Since out last report fishing has continued. A 4.5 kg Dorado was caught mid afternoon by Mark and Ben. Later in the afternoon Philip attended to the reel and wished he had read the instructions as the mission to reel in a whoppa let another 400 metres of line OUT for Mark to reel back in.

 

Philip's question of the day is "where have 250 yachts gone to?)

 

And many thanks to the correspondents who answered the question of "do dolphins sleep" (Kay) ... and for the weather routing suggestions from Yachtmaster Don.

25 Nov - Filleting fish

21:51.970N 21:40.897W

{GMST}21|51.970|N|021|40.879|W|Filleting fish|Filleting fish{GEND}

 

The last 24 hours started with the chance of being quite dull ... but rapidly changed! Initially we had to motor, as with less than 3 knots of wind we were going nowhere. The overnight watches started to get some excitement with poor visibility for a time then the wind building (but from the west). We are now close hauled ... I thought it was all supposed to be downwind!

 

Andy heroically went for a swim to check under the boat after some vibration was reported. Nothing was found and as we are not planning to motor until St. Lucia we are happy. Sail trimmer Chris set the boat up as though racing around the cans and we are making excellent progress towards our waypoint to the north of the Cape Verde Islands ... by which time we hope to have found some north easterly winds.

 

Ben and Mark caught a fish which they "think" is a small Dorado. Dealing with the fish entertained them for some time (in excess of an hour and a half).

 

Then there was the water issue. Basically dear reader, the water maker has been used daily to fill one of our tanks. We know it is full when it overflows which is checked a while after Walter has been pressed into service. Philip became concerned when despite adding water to the tank the level kept going down until it was empty. After an investigation it transpired that we were using water from the reserve tank and thus Walter's efforts had been in vain thus far. With some ingenuity the reserve tank was filled from the currently very full tank ... and Walter then spent a few hours filling the in-use tank.

 

Who said the day was going to be boring?

24 Nov - Do dolphins ever sleep

Having seen quite a few dolphins the profound question of "do dolphins ever sleep" has been posed. That question was overshadowed by Philip's  question of what do dolphins do all day anyway? The family of dolphins that surrounded us for a while certainly seemed to be having fun ... perhaps that's all there is to it.

 

A new way of waking up Mark has been discovered. The recorded noise of a screaming reel played near his ear has so far succeeded every time.

 

Ben is still doing the calculations after using the sextant on Monday and has managed to pinpoint our position to the North Atlantic. Colin has suggested that a little more accuracy may be in order and Ben is hard at work once more. After a hectic night watch Andy is still asleep.

23 Nov - The one that got away

It's day 3 and we have worked into a sort of routine ... eat ... sleep and then repeat. Amongst this there has been some watch keeping to check that Ray keeps his eye on the ball.The night watches have been great for star gazing, the sea is the deepest blue and there actually are fish in the ocean.

 

Early yesterday evening the fishing line started to spin. Mark heroically dived into action to wrestle with what was evidentially a huge monster which would feed us for a week.After what seemed to be an hour or more, but was more probably a couple of minutes the monster was lifted on board. This beast was quickly identified as a Barracuda and a huge one at that measuring all of 18 inches long. Ben was quite keen to turn it into sushi but the consensus was to throw this baby back as there are plenty more fish in the ocean - hopfully it's mum. Barry as it became nicknamed swam away.

 

This morning were further allegations about the one that got away which were confirmed by the loss of the lure. If anyone finds a fish with our lure can they please fillet and freeze and we will collect it in St Lucia.

So where are we then?

26:11.191N 16:28.753W

{GMST}2811.191|N|016|26.697|W|Where are we?|Ben with the sextant{GEND}

 

Horrifed at the loss of land Ben decided to work out where we are using the sextant. Using the "rapid" sight reduction method he may work this out by the evening. Andy found that by changing the heading he could make the boat go much faster than anyone else .... the trouble was that this new heading was towards Africa rather than the Caribbean. Philip and Mark spent much of the morning working out how the new fishing reel works ... they did think about waking up Andy for guidance ... Ben and Colin are considering running a sweppestake on how long it takes to catch anything. Dinner last night  - bit of a team effort - was bangers, mash and beans. This was widely acclaimed and has set the challenge for the daily cooking contest.

 

We now have a new crew member on board called Ray. Ray is an excellent helm and has eaten none of our food. We are not sure whether we have to register Ray with the ARC guys ... we have not been able to find his passport and have warned him he may have to stay on board when we reach St Lucia. Walter the water maker been busy making fresh water and is now having a rest as Andy complained the noise was keeping him awake.

 

Leave St Lucia to port

28:7.612N 15:25.526W

{GMST}28|7.612|N|015|25.526|W|We are off ...|The start{GEND}

 

We are off ... the sailing instructions say leave St Lucia to port ... so our next waypoint is just short of 3000 miles away.

 

Our team are working well together. Mark and Ben excelled at shopping (so can go again). Chris is now relieved as Andy has washed his socks (at last). All of Colin's lists have been completed and Philip is relieved that his credit card cannot be used whilst we are at sea. 

 

We did sumise that there should be another class in the ARC - the Lymington sub division. We have met so many friends from Lymington especially Nick and Guy from Force 4, (Nick must be the Lymington drinking champion). We also met Richard from the Royal Lymington. Other friends we have met included David Glenn and the team from the WCC. Most importantly thanks go to the barman in the Barabordo whose internet connection was pressed to it's limits!

20 Nov - Are we ready yet?

With the Skipper's briefing done we guess that means that we are nearly ready. At least we hope so! Even the generator got an airing - after all we need to make sure "movie night" goes ahead. We already have the popcorn and "The Perfect Storm" ready! 

 

The next question is which way to go ... south until the butter melts and then turn right seems to be the favourite at the moment. Presumably the ancient navigators who came up with this did not have a refrigerator.

 

The forward cabin (now known as Tesco's) looks impressive and the food layout plan means there is a chance we can find things again - failing which there will be some strange food combinations.

 

Team dinner tonight then early to bed.  'Early' will be interpreted by everyone on board in a differnent way - but an early morning is likely to follow anyway...

19 Nov - Shopping and Jobs Day

It's hard to believe that there is anything we have not already shopped for ... but the list continued today with the fruit and vegetables. Then that has to be packed away ... always remembering we have to find it sometime! As if we were not busy enough we had a visit from some mast riggers claiming some work needed to be done at the top of the mast. A phone call to the mast manufacturer in the UK confirmed nothing needed to be done. Whatever their "game", it didn't work. Ben and Andy had mast visits to check equipment and put some padding on the spreaders. Colin and Philip set to with the computers ensuring we can remain in touch whilst at sea. Ben was horrified to find that his iPhone did not have a Spanish translation "app" that worked in the basement of the supermarket. Chris spent ages lubricating virtually everthing that could be lubricated and acquired some more gas cylinders ... phew ... a busy day!

Crew Training

With the traumas of travel forgotten Wednesday was spent at seminars and provisioning the yacht ... including the acquisition of a fishing rod in the hope of catching dinner. This it is considerd could as an enhancement to the yacht emergency food regime.

 

In the evening we undertook some crew training in late night watches, The easiest way to achieve this was to go to the crew fancy dress party.

And now there are 5

As preparations continue, Ben arrived early evening yesterday - all travel plans worked. Colin arrived just before midnight after a journey which he described as the journey from h---. Colin appeared to be "rather irritated" and did an excellent rendition of Victor Meldrew - now being the first wearer of the Mr Grumpy T-shirt. Chris, Andy and Ben endured the full story of the events as they unfolded through regular text messages.

The early arrivals

Andy, Chris and Philip are now in Gran Canaria and the boat is due for it's safety inspection between 11 and 2 today (Monday).  All should go swimmingly, we hope that the inspector cannot read what the signalling flags spell out.......... there may be trouble if they can :-S  First dinner out for Andy and Chris was a rather poor McDonalds, but the challenge of ordering food in Spanish made things interesting.

 

Never trust Chris when he says he is 5 minutes away in a foreign place, he is more likely 45 minutes away.  Chris has now been banned from Naviguessing!

 

Andy and Chris have managed to walk across the island too - don't tell the rest of the crew, but they managed to do it at the narrowest part - major achievement as Andy had no shoes on...........

 

Next search is for fishing lures and some suitable footwear for Andy!

---

Fw: Getting ready for the off ...

{GMST}28|7.612|N|015|25.526|W|Getting ready for the off|Las Palmas{GEND} 28:7.621N 15:25.562W

 

With just a week to go the first of the crew arrive in Las Palmas this weekend. Andy and Chris first, followed by Philip. Colin and Ben arrive on Tuesday and Mark on Friday. Although a lot of provisions were put on board when Moulin Rouge was in the UK, fresh provisions are still needed along with the obligatory impulse purchases which are not uncommon in supermarkets. The temptation could be avoided if Tesco delivered to Las Palmas!

 

The ARC organisers have arranged numerous useful seminars and presentations which will inevitably interrupt the final preparations. One presentation is about setting up your sextant ... which is highly relevant as we plan to navigate using one to confirm that the GPS is correct.

 

There will doubtless be the obligatory social gatherings which we will be compelled to go to ....