Day 12 - The killing I
Posted On Friday, 4 December 2009 at at 14:52 by Kapten IngerupDay 11 - ETA improvements
Posted On Thursday, 3 December 2009 at at 13:48 by Kapten IngerupPosition: 1200 UTC N 019° 27' W 036° 46'
We are now experiencing a period of light winds resulting in a striking decrease of average speed. Cantare is not a light wind boat, she is an overloaded heavy lady who needs some rough winds to drive her competitors out of the ARC race. In these light winds the competitors teasingly put up their spinnakers and parasails and quickly leave us behind. However, in heavier winds spinnakers and parasails must be taken down and they are struggling with their genoas and gennakers while the heavier winds fill our butterfly sails perfectly and we are increasing speed. To increase the speed in slack winds I have tried the hair drier a number of times, not that effective though. Unfortunately, our drier is a small one used for travelling. We need one of those more effective driers used at the hairdresser's! So now we have come up with another idea of how to improve our ETA in St Lucia: Hitchhiking with a tanker or a cargo ship. Yeah, I know we said we hadn't seen ships in ages, but yesterday morning they suddenly appeared and forced Emelie to change course and give way while Maria and I slept through the busy morning. We are also aware of the fact that large vessels normally wont follow the trade winds but taking the shortest route. So the chances of bumping into another heavy cargo ship or tanker might not be that overwhelming. But we are on the Atlantic Ocean and anything can happen! While waiting for our hitchhiking objects to arrive we try to cure restlessness in the best way we can. I am trying to learn more Spanish with the intention to be able to communicate in Spanish with more people than the bartenders. At the moment I am on the "una cerveza grande por favor"-level.* Emelie has found a sudoku book and is totally absorbed by it. Maria is going to break the world record in the category: number of books read in shortest time. Over and Out! /First Mate Sofia
PS. Our friends on the sail yacht
Starfire who had rudder problem have fixed their rudder and are now continuing towards St Lucia! DS*una cerveza grande por favor = one large beer, please = en stor stark, tack.
Day 10 - new influences
Posted On Wednesday, 2 December 2009 at at 18:00 by Kapten IngerupPosition: 1700 UTC N 019° 32' W 035° 19'
Yesterday was one of those fantastic days. We were doing great speed, there was not a single cloud in the sky and Cantare handled the waves perfectly. Making it a lot easier to move around in the boat. We also after several days of loneliness spotted a boat on the horizon. Not that there is something wrong with our little world, but it is always nice with some new inputs. They seamed to get closer and closer so we got curious and called them up on the VHF. It turned out that it was a Swedish/Danish family doing a one year Atlantic circuit. They were very friendly and we talked for a long while and decided to keep in touch. It's funny how we are on one of the biggest seas and still live in such a small world.
It was not only above sea level that we saw new things yesterday. Maria also spotted a whale. Unfortunately I and Sofia were down in the saloon when Maria screamed so we never got to see it. Hopefully there will be more chances later on. But I could settle with dolphins though, whales are a bit scary.
Since I'm used to things happening constantly around me back home in Sweden, at this point I start to get a bit hyper active. To get rid of some energy, I spent the whole afternoon yesterday baking bread. This is very unlike me. I hardly know how to cock an egg. Surprisingly the bread was very tasty, even if I didn't follow the receipt. I guess there is hope for me too.
We finished yesterday with some cosy and sincere girl talk in the cockpit , over a glass of water and delicious mashed potatoes. Lovely! Lots of love! /Deckhand Emelie
Day 10 - Busy day
Posted On at at 14:57 by Kapten IngerupDay 9 - Living on the Atlantic
Posted On Tuesday, 1 December 2009 at at 14:44 by Kapten IngerupPosition: 1200 UTC N 019° 56' W 033° 03'
Today we noticed an email that was sent to us yesterday by the ARC Rally Controll. The subject line read; Starfire rudder loss. Further we could read about how an ARC boat had diverted to assist the non-ARC boat Starfire, which is believed to be a Sadler 25 with two male crew members. We then realized that we know this boat, we met them in Las Palmas. Their yacht was to small to enter the ARC but they sneaked in on almost every event anyway. We began to think about their options, the rudder was snapped in half. Since they are further south and less west than us we figure they will go to the Cape Verdes.
What would we do if it happened to us right now? I think we would try to work something out and continue, with the double headsails we are sailing very balanced so I think we could have done it. But we all hope it will not happen. So far we have been lucky, no big problems at all. We have lost one screw that holds the DuoGen tower attached to the generator, but I found another screw in my toolbox that fitted and secured it with tape. We also have some water intake that we have to monitor and bail out with regular intervals. The water is pushed into the boat through the anchor box drain (which is under the waterline nowadays), we really can't do anything about that except eating our heavy food as quick as possible. My crew also complains a bit about the Serrano leg that bangs against the mast all night long, especially since they found out that they don't like it. I'm the only one liking the taste and I know they count the days until they are allowed to through it overboard.
Except for these minor problems everything is splendid in our little world. Cantare takes the Atlantic waves with grace, although we sometimes hold our breaths when we see big evil looking waves approach she always manages to take them in a good way. Her being heavier than normal seems to increase the stability. Monitor has been steering constantly since day 2, we use the light wind vane and have come to the conclusion that Monitor steers straighter than us without getting tired or hungry, great crew member with other words. The double headsails are fantastic, we don't have to do much with them and the fact that we can reef in a few minutes makes it possible for us to sail without preventive reefing during the nights. So far we have been doing a 24-hour average of 122 nautical miles, that exceeds my expectations, we have had winds between 5 and 12 m/s. But we do roll from side to side a lot, as some people said we would when they heard about our two headsails on the same furler. Funny though, in light winds we tend to roll more, bigger waves and a strong wind keep her steady. If I wake up and the boat rolls heavily I think wind increase, but when I pop my head out in the cockpit I realize that the wind is weaker than before and the swell that is left makes us roll. I think other boats with other sailplans roll as well, maybe a little bit less. Anyway we are glad to have a simple and non chafing (haven't found any chafe so far) solution that's easy to handle when there's only one person on watch. DuoGen keeps our batteries charged, we have almost too much power and when we don't run the watermaker it is possible to switch over from economy to normal on the fridge and keep it around 0 degrees. The watermaker works as it should, we run it every second day and then we produce around 20 litres of water. We have decided to allow ourselves a fresh water shower every Sunday, especially good for long hair that starts to transform itself into natural dreads after a few days. If we wash it once a week we might not need to shave it of when we reach St. Lucia.
We have many books left to read, a few more episodes of Sex and the City to watch, lot's of food to eat, plenty of fishhooks to loose, many waves and stars to look at and lots of time for interesting conversations. But I have started to notice some restlessness among the crew. Today we start our 10th day at the Atlantic, we are getting closer to halfway champagne, some of our friends are already halfway, but I think we will need around 3 more days. I feel no restlessness at all, but I'm the one of us that loves to read books, I like almost any book I read and get swept away in no time. If you are to fully enjoy ocean sailing I think you need to find a good way to pass time. /The Captain
