19 December- The crew depart - our last blog

The first of the crew departed today - Philip and Mark set off after a farewell lunch so that they will be home in time for some work before Christmas and then some time off over the Christmas and New Year break. Colin leaves in a couple of days with Andy and Chris remaining on board for a few more days to have Christmas in the sun.

 

There was some doubt about Philip and Mark's flight due to snow in the UK causing many flights to be cancelled.

 

It does not seem possible that it was 5 weeks ago when the crew all started to arrive in Las Palmas ... and how far we have all come in that time ... and remained friends too!

18 December- Crew R&R Part 2

With Ben away with friends and the crew of another ARC boat for the past few days, the remaining crew of Moulin Rouge continued to the next part of their R&R (i.e. holiday in Saint Lucia).

 

A private boat trip with snorkeling at 3 different locations along the western coast of the island, with visits into Marigot Bay, Castries, Anse La Raye, Canaries, Anse Chastanet, Soufriere and Jalousie (between the Pitons). An excellent time was had by all. Andy's diving (belly flops) were generally given a 1 out of 10 whereas the scenery and the boat crew were voted 10 out of 10. We were shown many sites which have been used as film sets including Dr Doolittle and Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

Tonight is the ARC prizegiving ceremony which basically marks the end of the event ... after that the crew all start to make their homeward journeys over the next week or so. Colin is offering the rest of the crew the use of the Mr Grumpy T-shirt as he does not want a repeat of his outward flight!

17 December- Crew R&R

After a couple of days working on the boat tidying things away and even oiling the decks ... we were ready for some time off. In essense we went out for lunch .... at an exclusive 5* boutique hotel with just 33 rooms ... the most excellent buffet lunch and all drinks included. The favourite cocktail seemed to be the East Winds Dream ... a cocktail seeminly based around rum ... with coconut , half a banana and grenadine "blended in". For the rest of the afternoon we simply sat and watched the world go by ... with Andy having to be surgically removed from his laptop when it was time to come home. Hobie cat sailing was enjoyed by some ... all agreed it was an excellent day out. The time was made even better by the attentive staff at the East Winds Inn ... and Andy and Chris are even thinking of revisiting on Christmas Day.

 

Andy was pleased to see that his fame and heroism saving the rest of his crew made the papers ... not the Sun or anything like that but rather the more important Dorset Echo. As always some editorial licence seems to have been employed ... the rest of us are thinking of factually correcting the article!

15 December- We have arrived

14:05.252N 59:54.241W

{GMST}14|05.252|N|059|54.310|W|We have arrived|We have arrived{GEND}

 

We made it !!! We arrived at 18:06 just as it was getting dark. In fact after 3185 miles at sea it was a close finish between 5 or 6 yachts who had shadowed us all the way from Las Palmas. Within minutes of arriving we had our welcome drinks from the St Lucia tourist board and were then off to a crew party withing the hour! Philip cannot remember when he got back as he had to check Mark returned safely. Chris cannot recall how he came back so wet but friends on another boat asked about the swimming pool .... a bit of theme is developing. 

 

Looking back to our first blogs it hardly seems possible that we were about to embark on such a trip with all the experiences on the way. Our photographs will tell some of the story ... but our memories of the trip will be with us for a long time! For now we have some time in St Lucia before some of us return for Christmas - leaving Andy and Chris to enjoy Christmas in the sun!

 

It does seem funny listening to Christmas music in the restaurant ... with little Christmas decorartions on the tables ... and a temperature well in the 30 degrees C!

 

14 December- Do not open at sea

14:05.252N 59:54.241W

{GMST}14|05.252|N|059|54.310|W|Do not open at sea|Do not open at sea{GEND}

 

60 miles to go.

 

Anyone who has been on a yacht will have seen the signs saying "do not open at sea" beside hatch and window openings. All of us on the ARC will have been doing this of course as it is taught that waves can come in and flood the boat or at the very least spoil your day. Well ... we have proof that it is not water but in fact fish that are to be feared. Last night Mark went to bed in his usual position on the saloon berth and ... shock revelation ... left the hatch above him open. Within seconds a beast from the deep (a flying fish) took advantage of the opening to effect an entry into the boat and a deflection off the hatch to land on an unsuspecting Mark. As on his previous encounter with a flying fish Mark remain fully composed and Ben ejected the beast back to it's more usual environment. Ben decided that he had already had enough to eat so turning the fish into sushi was simply too much effort!

 

60 miles to go so it's just a cross channel trip to go now. We should arrive in the evening tonight or early morning. Philip is still trying to triple count the 4 hours time difference so that we arrive before we left. 

 

Andy had his bi-annual wash yesterday. It was a little assisted by the rest of us depositing his washing on his sarong (a towel) whilst he was wearing it. This was quickly followed by a salt water rinse. There are threats of Andy walking the plank when we arrive in St. Lucia -  this may follow the "kissing the ground" ceremony.

 

 

 

13 December- So near and yet so far

14:08.388N 57:05.513W

{GMST}14|08.388|N|057|05.513|W|So near and yet so far|So near and yet so far{GEND}

 

With what should be just a short distance to go we should be able to see land soon. Relatively speaking our 230 or so miles seems a short distance but  we've actually come the best part of 3000 miles and won't see land until we are 30 miles away. Timing our arrival is also proving difficult as that rather depends on what we do about time zones. The best idea so far is to change the clocks on arrival so that we get longer in St Lucia and less time afloat. Philip is tending to use the 4 hours change multiple times in the attempt to further shorten our journey. 

 

Last night was somewhat frustrating as the wind dropped. To make progress we had to have the engine on but to make sure we have fuel to motor into St Lucia we can only go so fast ... too much speed and we could run out of fuel before we get there!

 

It's been another wash day today ... Mark started it and Philip followed ... Ben is in the washing queue. Unless Andy washes the towel he has been using as a sarong for the past 2 weeks we will have to fly code flag "B" on arrival in St Lucia (carrying hazardous cargo).

 

Ben and Colin have been making bread and chocolate chip cookies ... they won't last long.

 

As always our correspondents have come up trumps with answers to our questions. However no-one has got even close to the correct solutions this time. The questions ... with correct answers ... are shown below.

 

Q. Why are pirates called pirates?

A. They just aaaagh ... (this needs to be said with a pirate accent to be fully appreciated).

 

Q. What is a spar-lash?

A. It is the noise the anchor makes when it hits the water .... splaaaash.

 

We've been at sea too long as these jokes which Colin caught everyone with on day one are still funny.

12 December- Cravings...

14:10.744N 55:05.800W

{GMST}14|10.744|N|055|05.800|W|Cravings|Cravings{GEND}

 

Having spent a couple of weeks on board a boat, our stocks of fresh goods and treats are now finally running short.  Selection is reduced, but there is still a good couple of week's food available if we are brave enough to venture into Tesco's.  Alibondegas are not holding quite the same excitement for dinner as they first were and we are all now starting to think of our first meal when we hit land.  Talk of ice-cream and strawberry cornetto's rate highly, Chris is looking forward to sampling the local rum punch and cocktails.  Philip has found a restaurant that apparently serves 32 ounce steaks - one of his first challenges when we arrive is to book a table!

 

We have observed that Andy has been a bit up-and-down in his performance, and if you look at the attached photo you will understand as we did when we made this discovery - he is now declared as the master snaffler!

 

Last night passed by without incident with good speeds being achieved, we are almost considering revising our arrival times, but we still do have a lull in the wind ahead of us, so we do not wish to get too ahead of ourselves.

 

We do have a couple of questions for our correspondents and we would be interested to hear your input and responses on these two questions:

 

1. As we are approaching the Caribbean, the question has arisen; why are pirates called pirates?

 

2. What is a spar-lash?

11 December- The night of a thousand squalls..........

14:13.022N 52:57.726W

 

Following the commands of more canvass yesterday, speeds crept up as the day went on.  The sail plan consisting of a reefed headsail and full main set up in a wing and wing configuration performed well and was surprisingly stable.  Moulin Rouge may not be a boat for going up hills, but she certainly likes to go down hill!!

 

A meal, again prepared by Ben, was well received by a full compliment of crew on deck and thoughts of completion of this Oceanic task held spirits high.  Discussion then turned towards how good the quality of sleep will be that night with the stable nature of the boat and relatively calmed seas - All looked good for the night ahead......

 

Following dinner, the crew separated to perform duties, some cleaning up after dinner, others headed to their bunks to try and grab a few extra minutes of sleep before the impending morning watches.  Chris returned up to the deck after completing duties to Sit with Mark, who pointed out the top boat speed that had been reached whilst people were down below - Moulin Rouge was going for it and had reached 11.5 knots under white sails!!  and one of those sails was reefed!!

 

The crew settled down for the night, Chris kept Mark company on his watch, then Mark reciprocated, it was at about 10pm when the sun had just about set when Chris was trying to encourage Mark to reef the main for the night - Mark took some convincing as the quicker we go, the sooner we get to St Lucia!  Mark was eventually convinced and the main sail was reefed to the first reef, when all was set, Chris noticed the boat speed was still 10.2 knots and that it would be necessary to put in the second reef to slow the boat down for the planned quiet night of rest. The second reef went in and the speed reduced to a steady 7.2 knots accelerating a further 1.5knots each time Moulin surfed a wave!!  This was going to be a good mileage night!

 

At 11pm, Chris handed over the watch to Colin saying that the second reef was in, the boat was stable and a fair turn of speed was being achieved, Chris then settled down into his bunk to rest although he was still 'on call' until 1am.  Colin came down to check the radar and Chris commented that he would keep an ear and eye open in case any assistance was needed.......

 

Twenty minutes later Andy mutters that it is starting to rain as he closed the aft cabin window, Chris then got up and donned his lifejacket to check the status.  Once on deck, Chris finds Colin who points out a very dark cloud on the horizon and tracking in our direction, this did not look good, the Radar showed a picture of a bright pink blob that was growing and heading our way.  After some further monitoring that first squall did move away from us, and we were relieved, but somewhat confused about it northwards movement as this was contrary to what we had been told.

 

This was the first of the squalls of the night and there were to be more.  Chris re-settled down in his bunk and then it was obvious from the sound of the water outside the boat that things were picking up again, Chris donned his lifejacket again and headed to the deck, by this point, Philip was already awake and monitoring the radar for further squalls.  Another was here and had about 28 knots of wind across the deck and a resultant boat speed of 13knots - smashing Mark's earlier record of 11.5 knots.  The stable sail setting had to be disturbed and the main sail had to come down.  After quite a fight, the sail did eventually come down, as did the speed, now stabilised at about 7 knots with no main and a further reefed head sail - all that could be seen to the horizon were further dark patches and potential squalls - we knew this was going to be a wet night for all watches....

 

Not a single watch got away without being hit by a squall this night, but all that we had to do was ride out the mini storms.  The sail plan was solid and responding well and not overpowered for the strong gusts, but Chris was very happy to see the sunlight as the sun started to rise at 9am this morning - things always seem better in the light of day.....

 

Ben managed to sleep through all of the high winds and sail changing earlier on in the night, but he did get a good soaking whilst on watch in the morning, so he can be forgiven...... 

 

The theme for the morning was consistent with watch keepers trying to hide as far under the spray hood as possible to get out of the worst of the rain whilst looking out through the plastic windows - we are looking forward to a drier period without showers, but we do expect more precipitation over the next couple of days.

10 Dec - More canvass fast!

Following an urgent communication via carrier pigeon from Monroe, Skipper Philip commanded that more sails be rasied or we will be stranded and our arrival at St Lucia was guaranteed to be delayed.  The urgent communique recommended continuous 24 hour flying of spinnaker as well as any other availbale piece of sail to muster speed and distance before the wind is due to drop on Tuesday next week.

 

Following this communication Skipper stepped into immediate action when he saw the log and GPS reading boat speeds of under 6 knots. c'mon you Scury sea dogs or it will be the cat fer ye...........  A frenzy ensued with spinnaker on deck along with some slight disarray which then developed into a respectable 7.5 knots sailing wing and wing with full main and a slightly reefed head sail for balance.  Pace really is of the essence or we may have to motor our way to the finish as the winds are due to die on tuesday next week.

 

Reporting on from Dinner last night, the Curry served by Messrs Barltrop and Barltop was very well received by the crew, Colin had the tamed down version of rice and chicken - getting in the Carribean mood already... Ben cooked two batches of bread yesterday, the comment on the first batch (not wishing to offend anyone, but he phrase is: Aye-yay-aye - Bread-shmead!!!  Barely risen but kept us quiet.....  The second batch was well coloured, but again sat a little heavy - practice isneeded here, i think part baked is in order for the next few days.

 

Finally, meetings continue to run into the late hours about what to do with regards to the time zone issues.......  If a decision is not made soon, we will follow the sense of the skipper and just have four extra hours of Shore leave in St Lucia - the saga continues.........

 

A waxing gibbus moon - what is it? BS or fact????...... we need your help and access to google and wikipedia! Colin guarantees that it is real, we are yet to be convinced............

9 Dec - Riding along on the crest of a wave

With the ups and downs of the past few days and some of the mountainous waves that have made us all to aware of our small cork-like size spirits on board are healthy.

 

The Moulin Rouge experience has been a little more tense over the past couple of days with appetites having their ups and downs just as much as the waves. We have all learnt that when feeling good; eat well, when feeling not so good and a cup-a-soup will suffice take advantage that it is still a food input.

 

Andy feeling a little under the weather and Chris feeling tired from a couple of watches on his own we jiggled around the watch pattern which brought about a change and now thepossiblity of 2 hours on and 8 hours off rather than our previous 3 hours on and 6 hours off.  A night of these renewed watches as well as a calmer sea state seem to have raised spirirts with a more rested and upbeat crew now counting down days to go.  Andy was also seen on deck this morning by more than one crew member - it cannot have been a mirage!!!!

 

There is one matter that we as a crew have failed to get on top of, possibly due to the innumberable options available to overcome this problem, perhaps some external input from you readers may be able to help us come up with a suitable solution?  The matter in question is the matter of time zones; crossing from Las Palmas Gran Canaria to Rodney Bay in St Lucia does take us through 4 time zones, so we do need to at some point put back our clocks, the question is when?  Currently sitting at Longitude of 46 degrees and 59 west hvaing not altered the clocks, we are having the sun rise at about 830am and setting at about 1930.  Philip currently likes that idea of not chaging the clocks until we reach St Lucia which will give us a further 4 hours when we arrive and therefore give us 4 hours less at sea - some of the crew can also appreciate this point.  Colin has explained the logical solution of running back one hour for every 15 degrees of flongitude travelled - to date this solution has not been adopted........

 

Weather so far today has resulted in beautiful clear blue skies and a renewed vigour to release an extra foot of headsail - a foot is enough for now, we should not reveal the full headsail yet!!!  A longer wave length is certainly helping the boats motion.

 

Ben is in the process of making bread and conversation about dinner tonight is already underway, results of both of these will be revealed in our update tomorrow...........

8 Dec - 1000 miles to go

17 full days at sea, numerous watches have been attended and a great many learning points have come up from various 'opportunities' that have arisen on board Moulin Rouge, but a particularly good milestone was reached today.  We now have less that 1000 nautical miles to go to get to St. Lucia, so we have well and truly broken the back of the 2700+ nautical mile passage.  A similarly important second rite of passage also passed today, we had sailed off of one chart and onto another, so when sitting at the nav station, the end really is in sight.

 

After a tiring couple of days sailing in challenging conditions, emails from home and these little achievements help to make us realise that this rollercoaster ride does come to an end....

 

A further matter we have come to consider is how important it is to be specific when wishing on shooting stars - simply requesting more wind can be a dangerous wish if boundaries are not established early...........

7 Dec - It's only a shower

Water, a life source, a friend and also at times a foe.  During our time on board Moulin Rouge we have certainly seen a lot of water, in fact some days, we see nothing but those of us on board and water, but this night we were all to experience a new phenomenon.......

 

Chris and Andy had settled down for the 9pm to 12am watch and all was appearing to be quiet, so Andy let Chris have an easy night and relieved him from his watch.  Ten minutes later a call from the deck and Mark and Chris were on deck having donned lifejackets to find Andy in a Squall with sails backed and 28 knots of wind from nowhere howling through the rigging.  Philip sprung to action activating the Night sun deck lamp and all set to trying to tame the sails in the challenging and torrential rain conditions.  Andy was prepared in full waterproofs, Mark was wearing his pyjama trousers, whilst Chris was wearing shorts.  Comments were made subsequently that although cold rain, it was fresh and as refreshing as a shower.  Subsequent to the squall passing by, Chris and Andy restored the sail plan with second reef mainsail and full headsail for the following watches.  During the squall, Andy did also manage to help provide some shelter for a little sea bird that had landed on board.  The bird was seen by some later watches still on board, but we now assume the rested bird has gone back to join its friends.

 

Following this first Squall, Andy and Chris both completed the watch scouring the horizon for black patches that could be the next Squall.

 

Colin and Ben were woken for a watch change at midnight and managed to avoid a soaking by tactically manoeuvring past two further squalls then handing over the watch to Philip and Mark at 3am.  Mark and Philip were hit again by a couple more squalls and after two changes of clothes were relieved by Andy and Chris who were led to believe they were just exiting a squall under headsail.  Chris and Andy sat in that squall for 2 hours trying to escape its clutches by increasing speed, decreasing speed, altering course, but could not escape its grasp.  Philip remained up monitoring the radar seeing this ever growing squall.  The final successful tactic was to slow the boat down to about 1.5 knots and let the squall overtake us.

 

Ben and Colin were not to be let of scot free in this catalogue of soakings.  They resumed watch from Andy and Chris at 9am and then endured  almost three hours of driving rain as we headed south away from the Squall zone.

 

All in all an epic night - special thanks must be noted for the valiant and consistent work of our seventh crew member Ray, who we feel this passage would not be possible without...........

6 Dec - Out of the blue

When sitting attentively on night watch, quietly minding your own business and counting 'Z's whilst at the same time poised to spring into action to avoid squalls the last thing you expect is to have to deal with the 'beast of the deep'.  Mark was rudely disturbed with a sucker-punch aerial attack this morning in what can only be described as a violent and pre-meditated aerial fishy attack.

 

The 'Beast of the deep' a monster specimen of flying fish has been described by Mark to approximately 1.5m long and 6lbs in weight similar to the size of of an Albatross when wings are deployed.  Mark wrestled the beast to the deck on a battle of will before trying to release the fish back to the wide blue yonder.  The fish had other plans and escaped Mark's grasp on two occasions before finally being released.  The threat of further fish attacks are ever present and we have raised the FAA (fish attack alert) status to orange.

 

Subsequent to the attack and trauma, mark was insturcted to clear up the fishy mess by Philip before they completed their watch.  This action was greatly appreciated by all following watches that night.

5 Dec - Andy goes to bread school

The opportunity presented by finding Andy on deck at 0900 this morning was one not to be missed and he was given an enforced session at bread school. For "operational reasons" Ben finished the bread making process and will doubtless claim any credit if it comes out well ... or deny involvement if it's not too good.

 

"The bird" as it became known yesterday eventually got fed up with our company around 2100 and flew off without even a thank-you. Presumably it was off to another ARC yacht we could see in the distance to entertain them as it had done us. Whilst we worked with the spinnaker in the afternoon it eventually found a supervisory location on the coach roof where it could see everything that was going on but also be relatively out of the way.

 

A passing ship yesterday allowed Colin to align the radar properly. Until then the blobs on the radar screen did not actually allign with the location of the vessel indicated ... which makes avoiding them somewhat tricky. During this exercise Philip attended an advanced DSC radio school session to call the ship to make sure it had seen us. We all guessed the call was really because he wanted someone sensible to talk to for a few minutes.

 

Many thanks to our weather routing advisor - Don. You're a great help confirming our reasoning and also making us think! There will be a drink at the bar in St Lucia for you ... you'll be there won't you!?

 

4 Dec - Strangers in the night

The last 24 hours have been a continuation of our daily routine ... which basically involves eating and sleeping. For some of us there are watches to do as well ... and our time is broken up a little with bread making and sail changes from time to time - patricularly when Chris is on watch and keen to get every last bit of power from the sails. Mark is currently cleaning the decks, Philip is supervising, Ben is doing more sun sights with Colin supervising and Andy is ... you guessed it ... asleep!

 

Just when Philip thought he had mastered bread making, Colin introduced a new trump card of specialty breads. Today for lunch we have rustic parmesan and sun dried tomato rolls ... they are in the oven at this moment.

 

Last night Andy was woken during his watch to the sound of flapping wings. A fairly large bird had decided to travel with us for a while and is still here over 12 hours later. We are not entirely sure what it is but it seems more likely to be migratory and simply having a bit of a rest. Philip offered it some porridge but it declined ... the rest of us guessed it's natural diet to involve a higher proportion of fish. If any of our correspondents know what it is we'd be interested to know ... maybe an Egret?

 

Much of our fresh foods have been consumed now. We still have some oranges which are doing well ... a few apples too. The melons lasted almost 2 weeks - we should have got more of them. Dinner tends to involve some creativity with the "chef of the day" having a look in Tesco's (that's what we call our food store), and deciding from there. The choices have been pretty good and with Dyson (aka Andy - when awake) and Hoover (aka Ben) there is never anything left.

 

The idea of granting ourselves a public holiday seems to have lost momentum as no-one could really decide what benefits it would provide ... but movie night with popcorn and soda may not be far away.

3 Dec - Spinnaker training

Chris continued the spinnaker training throughout the day. Some people got up for this, some listened from the comfort of their bunk, providing appropriate encouragerment from time to time.

 

The only aspect Chris did not cover during the daytime phase of the training was the bit where the spinnaker is lowered and normal less exciting sailing conditions are resumed. We had planned to do this first thing this morning as the forecast was for the wind to remain steady and around 12 knots or less overnight. Well ... that was the plan. However around midnight, with the wind increasing to 23 knots and a boat speed over 10 knots ... with ONLY the spinnaker up ... and in pich darkness ... it became apparent that the next phase of the training was due. Deck flood lights on so we could see what we were doing and everyone came on deck so they didn't miss anything. Chris first put the rest of our sails up (this creates and bit oif a shelter for the spinnaker) then a racing spinnaker drop as we continued to drift along at 9.5 knots. With full main and jib Mark and Philip took their watch until 0300 trying to match Colin and Ben's 10.1 knots ... and almost succeeding!   

 

We have been doing some forward planning and it looks like we'll be home for Christmas as planned despite the relatively light wind conditions. Christmas present requests should be made in writing stating the recipients age and any preferences. We'll even bottle some sunshine. Christmas present wishes should be very specific as we have learnt our wishes on shooting starts needs to be! Lolly ... any specific wishes? 

2 Dec - Busy busy

It sounds as though our cancellation of 1st December worked well as we didn't get any of the chilly weather currently being experienced back home in the UK. No snow here ... it's HOT! We've had a good 24 hours sailing and currently have the spinnaker up in 12 knots of easterly wind. Excellent! We have seen a few ships and yachts but that's a relative term with one or two a day.

 

Our night watches have been good fun since so far from land there is no light pollution and shooting stars can be counted at 5 or 10 an hour.

 

Philip has been making bread under Colin's tuition, Mark is learning spinnaker trimming from Chris and Andy has got up for a few minutes. Ben is working on more sun sights. It's all been very busy.

 

Having canceled 1st December, more by accident than design, and having 31st November instead ... we are contemplating having a public holiday in a few days time. We cannot quite decide when this will be and it may not happen at all as we cannot work out what the impact of such a public holiday would be. Maybe Andy works on public holidays as it's double pay?

31 Nov - Wash Day

15:17.145N 28:07.576W

{GMST}15|17.145|N|028|07.576|W|Wash day|Wash day{GEND}

 

It was Ben's fault really. At least, he is the youngest member of the team anyway so on that basis alone it must have been his fault. In any case he started it ... washing clothes that is. This was followed by Colin, Chris and Andy and even Mark ... only Philip to go! The clothes line is the guard rail of course so the mission is to get to the clothes line with the now clean clothes AND the pegs whilst still holding on. Chris came to the rescue with a new technique which involved getting to the clothes line with the pegs attached to the legs of his shorts. This is presumably where the term "peg leg" comes from. If it hadn't been Ben's fault then it would have been Andy's as he was asleep! It was also Ben's fault that today is the 31st November. We decided that this was a nicer date than 1st December. Tomorrow will be 2nd December - in our own little kingdom 1st December just does not exist.

 

After a bit of a motor from Porto Grande in the Cape Verde Islands it's been great downwind sailing. Morale is good and a routine has developed on board. We have been tracking alongside another yacht for the past 2 days. We have tried to call them but no response ... we are guessing they are not doing the ARC or they would have answered. As it just looks like a Norwegian boat we are guessing that the skipper's name is Erik.

 

Cold at home? We are having lunch at the moment - in the main saloon out of the sun - it's hot! Ray is on watch for the time being.