Daily Log for Sunday
Day: 59 at sea
Date: December 28th 16:00 UTC
Distance from Oakville: 6066 nm bearing 314
Distance from NY: 5766 nm bearing 313
Distance from Cape Town: 1092 nm bearing 114
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 124 n.m.
Latitude: 28 17.587 S
Longitude: 001 46.207 W
Boat Speed: 4 - 6 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: #2 jib overnight #4 reef main, just taken to #2 reef
Barometer: 1028.2
Beaufort Scale: 4 - 5
Sea State: 3 - 6 ft
Weather Conditions: cloudy this morning then clouds dissipating to clear skies
Wind Direction/Speed: South 12 - 18 knots
Temp: Air: 21 C
Cloud Cover: overcast this morning now clear
Greetings from Sunday on the ocean,
Today we are working on our quisine and our supplies to get us to Cape Town. It looks like we will not starve too much - luckily Mr Mahi Mahi helped us out with some left for tomorrow. The beer is down to the last 8 cans - the level of stuff in the fridge is very low so it is onto the canned goodies.
As you can infer there is not much going on here - it's a waiting game as we get to Cape Town - time for some new books to read, and don't talk to us about laundry!
The waves are coming at us 45 degrees off the starboard bow making for a bumpy ride in the fresh breeze. Snoozing conditions are not particularly great, but no one is whining.
Cheers
Your crew
------
From Doug S...
Another day on starboard tack with the same heel angles. Winds have stayed the same so could not get any Southing in, try as we might. Tried reefing the main and tightening sails to the max but still can't even keep a straight East course.
Stui reported variable wind direction overnight like I had the night before, but on my shift last night wind speeds were up, so much easier. Winds coming back up now (13:00 boat time) so I'm sure the #4 reef will be going back in before dark.
Not a lot happening today. Everyone seems tired after 5 days on this heel and bouncing around into the waves. Hard to sleep through the night. Cooling off some. Jackets needed except for the mid day sun.
Using what food we have now, so this morning I made Mr. Noodle, with some Campbell's chicken noodle soup thrown in. Filling at least. Stui made corn beef hash on some of John's newly baked bread. That was tasty. On the dinner menu is a fish chowder with the last of our Mahi Mahi.
Still hoping for the winds to clock Westward. Maybe tonight or tomorrow.
Otherwise all is well and we keep truckin East. :-)
Cheers! Doug S.
Day 58 at sea
Daily Log
Day: 58 at sea
Date: December 27th 16:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)
Distance from Cape Town: 1193 Albatross miles from Cape Town
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 132 n.m.
Latitude: 28 35.461 S
Longitude: 004 05.362 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 7 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: #2 jib #2 reef main pulled into #4 before dinner
Barometer: 1029.5
Beaufort Scale: 4 - 6
Sea State: 6 - 8 ft
Weather Conditions: sunny with puffy clouds
Wind Direction/Speed: S 15 - 23 knots
Temp: Air: 23 C
Cloud Cover: overcast to clear to 90%
From Doug S.
Another day at 20-30 degrees tilt. Last night's steer (21:00-midnight) was a frustrating one when the wind went below 16 knots. At least my alarm went off and I was on time. When the wind was up the boat tracked nice and straight at 110 degrees to the true wind angle. We are trying to get as much South as we can but with winds out of the South this is a struggle. So we steer for best speed. This is around 100-110 from the true wind. If we go lower than that, the boat slows and the sails will start to luff (flap, which wears out the sails). Higher and and we are heading too far towards the North. But when the winds dropped I was chasing the angle from 90-130 and I couldn't figure out why. I finally came down and turned on the auto pilot. Set up a course and watched the wind angle. The auto pilot steers far straighter than I can so I could see that the wind got very shifty when below 16kts. Under auto the winds where shifting from 95-120, so at least I knew my steering wasn't totally to blame. And the wind came up for the last hour of my shift to make it a nice ending anyway.
After crashing in John's cave overnight, got up to the sounds of "fish fish". Doug G was reeling in another beautiful Mahi Mahi, a bit smaller than the last one. But as he got to the boat, his struggles paid off as he got off the hook just as Stui was about to gaff him. Can't win them all. Stui fried up some of the unlucky one for lunch and made a great dipping sauce of mustard, mayo, garlic, a few flakes of chili peppers and some lemon. Oh the fish is good out here!!!!
Dinner was spaghetti with some cheese and veg. Simple but good. Both cooks worked hard at standing and balancing with all the heel angle and bouncing as we are going more into the waves now.
My luck with the radio and sat phone where none too good today. I sent out for a weather file, no problem. But tried for 2 hours to receive it. Could not get a decent signal on the radio, and the server kept kicking me off after I had connected on the sat phone. Maddening because we pay for those calls! Anyway finally got the file on radio through Chili. For you radio buffs, we use sailmail and winlink for our e mails through ssb radio. They both have stations all over the world. Lately Halifax has been working good for us, but we have used Belgium, Africa, Chili, Canaries, Italy and some in the States of course. You never know which will work or what frequency.
Our weather forecast shows more of the same for the next 2 days, so we will be walking funny for a while yet. Hopefully the wind clocks more towards the West and we can start to get some South in.
Hope your all having great holidays!!!!! Oh and "Li'l Al the Albatross was back today following along.
Cheers, Doug S.
------------
From Stuart.....
Greetings from the sailor poet,
New York to Cape Town
Ripples to rollers
Calms to wild
Silent to howling
Surfing to still
Sunrise to sunset
Starlight to moonlight
Shooting stars to black nights
Dawn to twilight
Sweating to chilled bones
Anxious to exhausted
Rusty ships to warships
New York to Cape Town
Cheers
Your QM
Day: 58 at sea
Date: December 27th 16:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)
Distance from Cape Town: 1193 Albatross miles from Cape Town
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 132 n.m.
Latitude: 28 35.461 S
Longitude: 004 05.362 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 7 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: #2 jib #2 reef main pulled into #4 before dinner
Barometer: 1029.5
Beaufort Scale: 4 - 6
Sea State: 6 - 8 ft
Weather Conditions: sunny with puffy clouds
Wind Direction/Speed: S 15 - 23 knots
Temp: Air: 23 C
Cloud Cover: overcast to clear to 90%
From Doug S.
Another day at 20-30 degrees tilt. Last night's steer (21:00-midnight) was a frustrating one when the wind went below 16 knots. At least my alarm went off and I was on time. When the wind was up the boat tracked nice and straight at 110 degrees to the true wind angle. We are trying to get as much South as we can but with winds out of the South this is a struggle. So we steer for best speed. This is around 100-110 from the true wind. If we go lower than that, the boat slows and the sails will start to luff (flap, which wears out the sails). Higher and and we are heading too far towards the North. But when the winds dropped I was chasing the angle from 90-130 and I couldn't figure out why. I finally came down and turned on the auto pilot. Set up a course and watched the wind angle. The auto pilot steers far straighter than I can so I could see that the wind got very shifty when below 16kts. Under auto the winds where shifting from 95-120, so at least I knew my steering wasn't totally to blame. And the wind came up for the last hour of my shift to make it a nice ending anyway.
After crashing in John's cave overnight, got up to the sounds of "fish fish". Doug G was reeling in another beautiful Mahi Mahi, a bit smaller than the last one. But as he got to the boat, his struggles paid off as he got off the hook just as Stui was about to gaff him. Can't win them all. Stui fried up some of the unlucky one for lunch and made a great dipping sauce of mustard, mayo, garlic, a few flakes of chili peppers and some lemon. Oh the fish is good out here!!!!
Dinner was spaghetti with some cheese and veg. Simple but good. Both cooks worked hard at standing and balancing with all the heel angle and bouncing as we are going more into the waves now.
My luck with the radio and sat phone where none too good today. I sent out for a weather file, no problem. But tried for 2 hours to receive it. Could not get a decent signal on the radio, and the server kept kicking me off after I had connected on the sat phone. Maddening because we pay for those calls! Anyway finally got the file on radio through Chili. For you radio buffs, we use sailmail and winlink for our e mails through ssb radio. They both have stations all over the world. Lately Halifax has been working good for us, but we have used Belgium, Africa, Chili, Canaries, Italy and some in the States of course. You never know which will work or what frequency.
Our weather forecast shows more of the same for the next 2 days, so we will be walking funny for a while yet. Hopefully the wind clocks more towards the West and we can start to get some South in.
Hope your all having great holidays!!!!! Oh and "Li'l Al the Albatross was back today following along.
Cheers, Doug S.
------------
From Stuart.....
Greetings from the sailor poet,
New York to Cape Town
Ripples to rollers
Calms to wild
Silent to howling
Surfing to still
Sunrise to sunset
Starlight to moonlight
Shooting stars to black nights
Dawn to twilight
Sweating to chilled bones
Anxious to exhausted
Rusty ships to warships
New York to Cape Town
Cheers
Your QM
Day 57 at sea
December 26th Boxing Day Birthday Boy!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DOUG SANDRIN
(A.K.A. Electronics Officer/Communications Officer)
(A.K.A. Electronics Officer/Communications Officer)
on board Falcon GT sailing across the Southern Atlantic heading for Cape Town.
Final destination, Melbourne Australia e.t.a. February 2009
Wishing you a memorable birthday with your buddies,
full of lots of good cheer, favourable winds, fair skies and safe seas,
Cheers Dougie!
With much love from
Audrey and all your family and friends.
Daily LogDay: 57 at sea
Date: December 26th Boxing Day Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5911 nm bearing 315
Distance from NY: 5612 nm bearing 315
Distance from Cape Town: 1310 nm bearing 110
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 139 n.m.
Latitude: 28 52.073 S
Longitude: 006 35.636 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 7 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: #2 jib #2 reef main
Barometer: 1030.1
Beaufort Scale: 5
Sea State: 3 6 ft lumpy ocean swells
Weather Conditions: sun cloud 50/50 mix
Wind Direction/Speed: S 16 - 20 knots
Temp: Air: 25 C
Cloud Cover: 50%
From John:
Greetings from the fish eaters,
Here we are rolling along at 25 degrees angle knocking off the miles to Cape Town and beyond.
The CD declared a movie day so the matinee' was 'The Christmas story', and the main movie featured 'Christmas with the Kranks'. Both movies had their fans.
Lunch-wise the CEO whipped up a white sauce for topping on the tasty grilled Mahi Mahi over a plate of rice -almost as good as home cooking.
Dessert was special carrot cake with rum cooked dried fruit and walnuts courtesy of the QM.
Big suprise - it was Dougies Birthday Cake - Happy Birthday Dougie.
Large tanker came by in the afternoon heading West - no contact but he was a biggie, probably a VLCC.
So - in summary - nice day- hot when the sun came out, 60% cloud cover - makin' miles , watchin' movies, eatin', HHin', chattin', readin', snoozin'. Life on the South Atlantic.
Cheers
Your sailormen
----------------------------
From Doug S.......
Well even Stui got his christmas wish! Just at twilight Christmas Day, as I was at the helm and we usually are pulling in the lure, but had forgotten. Zing------. I turned up into the wind to slow down and Stui raced out, grabbed the rod and started reeling in. After so many had gotten away, we were all rooting for Stui. A lot of line had gone out so Stui had to work for it, but finally here comes the biggest Mahi Mahi so far.
DG & Stui made quick work of him on the transom and into the freezer he went (see picture below ).
The winds are staying the same so we are getting good runs in. The sky last night was very clear and I saw at least four shooting stars, one went a very long way. After John came out for his shift, I even stayed out to star gaze. Went to bed about 20:00 boat (about midnight local) into John's cave.
Got up around 04:00, and got all my birthday cards. There were a lot of them. Thank you all for the cards and E-mails!!!!
A nice morning but not too many birds around. Must have had a busy Christmas. The only thing we really saw today were more flying fish than we have seen in awhile.
For dinner, Doug G made a very good white sauce with bacon, fried mahi mahi, and rice.
Stui made a carrot cake with some rum soaked fruit, which turned out to be my birthday cake. Oh, what a surprise!!!! ;-) It was delicious with chocolate frosting, tasted just like a Christmas cake. A great effort when the boat is heeled over at 20-30 degrees and bouncing up and down. I got some video of Stui making the cake, but it doesn`t look nearly as hard as it was.
We watched the movie "A Christmas Story" (a present from my Sister-in-law, Shirley) so one of my holiday traditions was kept in tact. And that`s it up to now.
Thanks again to all who have sent in holiday wishes. The crew is very grateful for all the kind thoughts!
Cheers, Doug S.
Day 56 at sea
Christmas Dinner on FGT Dec. 25th 2008
QM (Stuart), QD (Brendan), SM (John), CEO (Doug G)
picture taken by EO/CO (Doug S)
From John for Christmas Day...Merry Christmas from John, Doug, Dougie, Stui, and Brendan,
Santa was spotted in the Southern sky just after midnight by the Cruise Director - his comment -"right on time - just as I asked him" His sleigh was a bright shiny light hurtling across the Milky way from East to West. Great start to Christmas Day in the South Atlantic.
Santa dropped off a bunch of very welcome Christmas cards, and some very welcome pressies .
The seas are a sparkling deep blue flecked with white caps, wind is just under the 20 knots, boat speed and direction are right on for Cape Town so we are happy Christmas campers.
The QM (Stui) produced Beef Stroganoff, and lots of it, for our special dinner, the SM made bread, and the CEO handed out extra rations of beer. All delicious.
As you know the fun never ends, so after HH, right at sunset the reel screamed ' bigish fish, ok nice big fish - all right a 20 pounder' Big bull nosed Mahi Mahi - within 30 minutes dispatched, processed and in the freezer to the delight and satisfaction of the crew - perfect timing - we were out of fresh protein for fully 4 hours.
We are the lucky ones. We think about, and of course, chat about our families lots and wish they were here with us on this fabulous adventure.Merry Christmas
The Lucky Ones
The Lucky Ones
From Doug Noon Christmas Day.....
Daily Log
Day: 56 at sea
Date: December 25th Christmas Day Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5834 nm bearing 316
Distance from NY: 5535 nm bearing 317
Distance from Cape Town: 1432 nm bearing 109
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 140 n.m.
Latitude: 29 21.119 S
Longitude: 009 09.560 W
Boat Speed: 5.5 - 7 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: #2 jib #2 reef main
Barometer: 1028.9
Beaufort Scale: 5
Sea State: 3 6 ft lumpy ocean swells
Weather Conditions: sunny with puffy clouds
Wind Direction/Speed: S 16 - 20 knots
Temp: Air: 25 C
Cloud Cover: 30%
From Doug S.
Merry Christmas!!!!! Although to the Canadian`s aboard it sure doesn`t look like it, sunny blue sky, temperature 25C. The Aussie contingent may feel more like it.
Here we have the smell of onion`s and the last of our beef cooking on the stove for a Stui beef stroganoff. The Petrels seem to be staying away today, not that we have any bad intentions! A fish latched on to the hook but once again got away. We are not having much luck landing them in the Southern Atlantic.
Another beautiful day, cooling a bit. Winds are still up from the South and boat speed pretty high. Lots of heel as we are still hard on the wind. As a matter of fact, we`ve had to bear off to 030 degrees so Stui could cook dinner without falling into the stove.
A beautiful clear night when I started my shift at midnight boat time Christmas Eve. We are about 4 hours off the local time so there was light in the east sky and the sun was up around 02:00.
Brendan saw Santa Clause go by just before I took over watch. There was a bright burst of light above him, and then he could track the light as it moved off. (The burst of light was a satellite coming into daylight above us ).
Opened presents this morning. Thank you all family and friends, for the very thoughtful gifts and cards. We have all of our Christmas cards hanging around the cabin.
The movies are all great that Santa brought. "The Cruel Sea", (we have the book on board, I've read it, and John is reading it right now), and "In Which We Serve" are very appropriate. Although the picture on the front with all the guys hanging on a liferaft is a little unnerving!!
I was telling the guys how I always watch the comedy movie "A Christmas Story" around Christmas and I`d forgot to get it on the computer. Thanks Santa! I will definitely have it on TV today and the others will have to suffer through it. Thanks for the Kit Kats, Smarties and other candies too! Even, Archie`s Comics. Definitely the high brow reading I like!
Just had our Christmas dinner. It was soo good!!!! Thank you Stui! We are lucky to have such good cooks on board.
Well things happen fast at sea. Brendan just called out a whale, starboard. It was pretty far away but he was jumping high out of the water and making a big splash. Saw it about 5 times do that. There may have been 2. We also saw a big Albatross but he was off in the distance and never came to look at us.
Gotta go on my 15:00 shift. Thank you everyone for all your email messages and for thinking of us out here on the ocean over the holiday season. Hope all had a great Christmas and that the rest of your holidays are happy ones!!!!
Cheers, Doug S.
Daily Log
Day: 56 at sea
Date: December 25th Christmas Day Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5834 nm bearing 316
Distance from NY: 5535 nm bearing 317
Distance from Cape Town: 1432 nm bearing 109
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 140 n.m.
Latitude: 29 21.119 S
Longitude: 009 09.560 W
Boat Speed: 5.5 - 7 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: #2 jib #2 reef main
Barometer: 1028.9
Beaufort Scale: 5
Sea State: 3 6 ft lumpy ocean swells
Weather Conditions: sunny with puffy clouds
Wind Direction/Speed: S 16 - 20 knots
Temp: Air: 25 C
Cloud Cover: 30%
From Doug S.
Merry Christmas!!!!! Although to the Canadian`s aboard it sure doesn`t look like it, sunny blue sky, temperature 25C. The Aussie contingent may feel more like it.
Here we have the smell of onion`s and the last of our beef cooking on the stove for a Stui beef stroganoff. The Petrels seem to be staying away today, not that we have any bad intentions! A fish latched on to the hook but once again got away. We are not having much luck landing them in the Southern Atlantic.
Another beautiful day, cooling a bit. Winds are still up from the South and boat speed pretty high. Lots of heel as we are still hard on the wind. As a matter of fact, we`ve had to bear off to 030 degrees so Stui could cook dinner without falling into the stove.
A beautiful clear night when I started my shift at midnight boat time Christmas Eve. We are about 4 hours off the local time so there was light in the east sky and the sun was up around 02:00.
Brendan saw Santa Clause go by just before I took over watch. There was a bright burst of light above him, and then he could track the light as it moved off. (The burst of light was a satellite coming into daylight above us ).
Opened presents this morning. Thank you all family and friends, for the very thoughtful gifts and cards. We have all of our Christmas cards hanging around the cabin.
The movies are all great that Santa brought. "The Cruel Sea", (we have the book on board, I've read it, and John is reading it right now), and "In Which We Serve" are very appropriate. Although the picture on the front with all the guys hanging on a liferaft is a little unnerving!!
I was telling the guys how I always watch the comedy movie "A Christmas Story" around Christmas and I`d forgot to get it on the computer. Thanks Santa! I will definitely have it on TV today and the others will have to suffer through it. Thanks for the Kit Kats, Smarties and other candies too! Even, Archie`s Comics. Definitely the high brow reading I like!
Just had our Christmas dinner. It was soo good!!!! Thank you Stui! We are lucky to have such good cooks on board.
Well things happen fast at sea. Brendan just called out a whale, starboard. It was pretty far away but he was jumping high out of the water and making a big splash. Saw it about 5 times do that. There may have been 2. We also saw a big Albatross but he was off in the distance and never came to look at us.
Gotta go on my 15:00 shift. Thank you everyone for all your email messages and for thinking of us out here on the ocean over the holiday season. Hope all had a great Christmas and that the rest of your holidays are happy ones!!!!
Cheers, Doug S.
Day 55 at sea
Daily Log Christmas Eve
Day: 55 at sea
Date: December 24th Christmas Eve Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5730 nm bearing 317
Distance from NY: 5432 nm bearing 318
Distance from Cape Town: 1565 nm bearing 109
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 122 n.m.
Latitude: 29 04.475 S
Longitude: 011 49.800 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 7.5 knots
Boat Heading: 115 ESE
Boat Sails: #2 jib full main
Barometer: 1025.4
Beaufort Scale: 5
Sea State: 5 - 10 ft long ocean rollers
Weather Conditions: mostly sunny, hot sun, cool wind
Wind Direction/Speed: SSW 15 - 17 knots
Temp: Air: 27 C
Cloud Cover: 40%
From Doug S at Noon Christmas Eve:
Happy Birthday to the best Shore Manager ever!!!!! Best wishes from all the crew Audrey! ;-). Hope you had a great birthday with all your family. First one we've missed being together!
Back here in the beautiful Southern Atlantic, I got my christmas present a day early. Or Audrey gave us her birthday present! The winds are from the SSW at 14-16 knts, waves are long and gentle, Sun is warm, and we are pointed right at Cape town! I've given up on wxx forecasts. We get what we get. So a very nice day. (No tuna for Stui yet).
Yesterday John made a very hardy meal of stew and mashed potatoes that went down really well. We hadn't cooked since the big winds, and it was welcome! My shift last night was to 18-21 boat time(21-mid local). Nice winds, very clear starry night with a few passing clouds.
Good sleep in John's cave. Got up and made a carrot cake for my 1st attempt on the baking front. Came out OK. Big breakfast when John made oatmeal to go along with it. Lunch was soup & sardines, so we are back on the food track OK. Lots of Petrels following us today but "Little Al" was no where to be seen (It was a white-capped Albatross according to our book).
That's it so far today. Enjoying the sunshine while we have been reading about all our Ontario friends digging out of yet another snow fall.
May everyone have a Very Merry Christmas!!!! And have a piece of turkey for us. Beef stroganoff (last of the frozen meats) will be on our Christmas table.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUDREY !!!!
----
From John at supper time Christmas Eve:
Greetings from the on-track sailors,
A beautiful day with excellent sailing winds, in the right direction. We are on track to Cape Town and Melbourne.
With lots of emails for Christmas the Comm Officer has been doing a great job of keeping in contact under less than ideal conditions - but that's all over now and we are all thankful for your Chrissie wishes and your donations to Fight Cancer - now at the $9000 mark.
Just so you know these funds work, the Senior Members son has again a cancer clean bill of health having suffered the Lance Armstrong big C. That's a Christmas present.
Stock taking of food and water was done by the CEO and the QM resulting in non-starvation for the next 21 days with 14 days emergency cuisine tucked away. Plenty of HH supplies on hand, but some nameless bastards drank almost all the beer. At least they left some for Tomorrow.
With all this good sailing close hauled life is lived at a 20 degree angle to the left. No worries for isometric exercising.
Tonight, we're watching for Santa on his way to the kids in South Africa.
Cheers from the Santa watchers
--------------------------------------
Day: 55 at sea
Date: December 24th Christmas Eve Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5730 nm bearing 317
Distance from NY: 5432 nm bearing 318
Distance from Cape Town: 1565 nm bearing 109
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 122 n.m.
Latitude: 29 04.475 S
Longitude: 011 49.800 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 7.5 knots
Boat Heading: 115 ESE
Boat Sails: #2 jib full main
Barometer: 1025.4
Beaufort Scale: 5
Sea State: 5 - 10 ft long ocean rollers
Weather Conditions: mostly sunny, hot sun, cool wind
Wind Direction/Speed: SSW 15 - 17 knots
Temp: Air: 27 C
Cloud Cover: 40%
From Doug S at Noon Christmas Eve:
Happy Birthday to the best Shore Manager ever!!!!! Best wishes from all the crew Audrey! ;-). Hope you had a great birthday with all your family. First one we've missed being together!
Back here in the beautiful Southern Atlantic, I got my christmas present a day early. Or Audrey gave us her birthday present! The winds are from the SSW at 14-16 knts, waves are long and gentle, Sun is warm, and we are pointed right at Cape town! I've given up on wxx forecasts. We get what we get. So a very nice day. (No tuna for Stui yet).
Yesterday John made a very hardy meal of stew and mashed potatoes that went down really well. We hadn't cooked since the big winds, and it was welcome! My shift last night was to 18-21 boat time(21-mid local). Nice winds, very clear starry night with a few passing clouds.
Good sleep in John's cave. Got up and made a carrot cake for my 1st attempt on the baking front. Came out OK. Big breakfast when John made oatmeal to go along with it. Lunch was soup & sardines, so we are back on the food track OK. Lots of Petrels following us today but "Little Al" was no where to be seen (It was a white-capped Albatross according to our book).
That's it so far today. Enjoying the sunshine while we have been reading about all our Ontario friends digging out of yet another snow fall.
May everyone have a Very Merry Christmas!!!! And have a piece of turkey for us. Beef stroganoff (last of the frozen meats) will be on our Christmas table.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUDREY !!!!
----
From John at supper time Christmas Eve:
Greetings from the on-track sailors,
A beautiful day with excellent sailing winds, in the right direction. We are on track to Cape Town and Melbourne.
With lots of emails for Christmas the Comm Officer has been doing a great job of keeping in contact under less than ideal conditions - but that's all over now and we are all thankful for your Chrissie wishes and your donations to Fight Cancer - now at the $9000 mark.
Just so you know these funds work, the Senior Members son has again a cancer clean bill of health having suffered the Lance Armstrong big C. That's a Christmas present.
Stock taking of food and water was done by the CEO and the QM resulting in non-starvation for the next 21 days with 14 days emergency cuisine tucked away. Plenty of HH supplies on hand, but some nameless bastards drank almost all the beer. At least they left some for Tomorrow.
With all this good sailing close hauled life is lived at a 20 degree angle to the left. No worries for isometric exercising.
Tonight, we're watching for Santa on his way to the kids in South Africa.
Cheers from the Santa watchers
--------------------------------------
For those who may have missed this earlier in the month......
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE NEW HEMISPHERE(S)
( Click on image for a much larger view ... if you dare ) !
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE NEW HEMISPHERE(S)Here's our Christmas Card.
We didn't want any 5 o'clock shadows creeping in so we took this picture two weeks ago.
(Dec. 8th)
As you can see King Neptune was given a close shave for excessive punishments, during the crossing of the Equator.
But the rest of the crew felt sorry for him and it was agreed that all should get the same treatment!
The crew seems to have changed.
We now have a Monk, Leprechaun, Terrorist, Rabbi, and Wrestler on board!
Can you guess who's who?
Hope you like the new look.
Still having fun out here. Hope all are well and keeping warm in Canada.
Love to all,
Your Crew on Falcon GT
We didn't want any 5 o'clock shadows creeping in so we took this picture two weeks ago.
(Dec. 8th)
As you can see King Neptune was given a close shave for excessive punishments, during the crossing of the Equator.
But the rest of the crew felt sorry for him and it was agreed that all should get the same treatment!
The crew seems to have changed.
We now have a Monk, Leprechaun, Terrorist, Rabbi, and Wrestler on board!
Can you guess who's who?
Hope you like the new look.
Still having fun out here. Hope all are well and keeping warm in Canada.
Love to all,
Your Crew on Falcon GT
Day 54 at sea
Petral (looks like a flying penguin)picture by Doug S.
"Li'l Al" Albatrosspicture by Doug S.
Daily Log
Day: 54 at sea
Date: December 23rd Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5657 nm bearing 318
Distance from NY: 5359 nm bearing 319
Distance from Cape Town: 1681 nm bearing 108
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 108 n.m.
Latitude: 29 19.745 S
Longitude: 014 08.678 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 7 knots
Boat Heading: 075 ENE
Boat Sails: #2 jib #4 reef main
Barometer: 1023.5
Beaufort Scale: 5
Sea State: 6 - 10 ft
Weather Conditions: sunny, cloudy, occasional showers
Wind Direction/Speed: SSE 18 - 25 knots
Temp: Air: 24 C
Cloud Cover: 100% at Noon but clear patches
Greetings from the Ornerythologists,
Today we have a welcome addition to the Petrels, Astro and Dallas,- we now have an Albatross (White Cap) named 'Little Al'. He has been showing off around the boat with his/her superb gliding and watching skills. Lots have been written about the Albatross, and to see one live is quite the thrill. Pics to follow.
Storm-wise we are through the best parts -today was physically demanding working the boat - changing sails - moving around- some wet weather but - no more colossal waves to cause merriment among the crew, plus we had ye old standby dinner - 4 cans of stew and veges ladled over the powered potatoes - the perfect meal for a tired crew -- any one know how you unpowder that glue? Anyhoo - it was just what the doc ordered. Sleep came easy.
One nameless member - alright he is Senior - gave a startling demonstration on the effect of playing that Irish game of Hurling just after eating vitamin pills and oatmeal - fluorescent yellow?? - unbelievable but colourful.
By the way he's done that before - we think it maybe because he had to make room for something better - last time it was scrambled eggs on toast.
Who's birthday is it tomorrow?
Remember it's the journey not the station that counts. (mostly).
Cheers from the crew
From Doug S at Noon Tuesday:
Still have wind, now just need right direction. Are we asking too much here? Ok since we may as well ask for everything this Christmas, lets have moderate 10-18 knot winds from the SW, low waves and an accurate weather forecast. (yours are OK Audrey). Stui wants a small Tuna with that. I want my hair back, this dome look is getting to me. ;-) Sorry but to those who requested, you don't get your Christmas wish....the beard stays :-)
Actually I don't think we'll be getting our wishes either. Winds are forecast from the East diminishing. But so far SSE and strong (over 20), so much for the forecast, may it all be wrong! Yesterday's last watch for me was 4 to 5 knots boat speed mostly SE. Hard on the wind. Not bad really. Lots of heel today as still hard on the wind. But course now ENE and driving into the waves. Lots of heel and splashing over the windows. Self serve food today, too hard to stand up.
On the biological front we did get our wish granted as "Little Al" (Albatross) did a slow fly by of the port side and then joined our buddies the Petrels following the boat. We had at least 8 Petrels and "Little Al" following us all morning. Maybe they thought the bare metal was a fishing boat. Sorry guys no scraps coming from us, but we had a good airshow! Took way too many pictures so will have to go through them. Hope I got one good one!
Just in case you are all too busy the next couple of days to check in with us, may you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. We of course will still be here and will be sending reports.
Cheers! Doug S.
Day: 54 at sea
Date: December 23rd Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5657 nm bearing 318
Distance from NY: 5359 nm bearing 319
Distance from Cape Town: 1681 nm bearing 108
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 108 n.m.
Latitude: 29 19.745 S
Longitude: 014 08.678 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 7 knots
Boat Heading: 075 ENE
Boat Sails: #2 jib #4 reef main
Barometer: 1023.5
Beaufort Scale: 5
Sea State: 6 - 10 ft
Weather Conditions: sunny, cloudy, occasional showers
Wind Direction/Speed: SSE 18 - 25 knots
Temp: Air: 24 C
Cloud Cover: 100% at Noon but clear patches
Greetings from the Ornerythologists,
Today we have a welcome addition to the Petrels, Astro and Dallas,- we now have an Albatross (White Cap) named 'Little Al'. He has been showing off around the boat with his/her superb gliding and watching skills. Lots have been written about the Albatross, and to see one live is quite the thrill. Pics to follow.
Storm-wise we are through the best parts -today was physically demanding working the boat - changing sails - moving around- some wet weather but - no more colossal waves to cause merriment among the crew, plus we had ye old standby dinner - 4 cans of stew and veges ladled over the powered potatoes - the perfect meal for a tired crew -- any one know how you unpowder that glue? Anyhoo - it was just what the doc ordered. Sleep came easy.
One nameless member - alright he is Senior - gave a startling demonstration on the effect of playing that Irish game of Hurling just after eating vitamin pills and oatmeal - fluorescent yellow?? - unbelievable but colourful.
By the way he's done that before - we think it maybe because he had to make room for something better - last time it was scrambled eggs on toast.
Who's birthday is it tomorrow?
Remember it's the journey not the station that counts. (mostly).
Cheers from the crew
From Doug S at Noon Tuesday:
Still have wind, now just need right direction. Are we asking too much here? Ok since we may as well ask for everything this Christmas, lets have moderate 10-18 knot winds from the SW, low waves and an accurate weather forecast. (yours are OK Audrey). Stui wants a small Tuna with that. I want my hair back, this dome look is getting to me. ;-) Sorry but to those who requested, you don't get your Christmas wish....the beard stays :-)
Actually I don't think we'll be getting our wishes either. Winds are forecast from the East diminishing. But so far SSE and strong (over 20), so much for the forecast, may it all be wrong! Yesterday's last watch for me was 4 to 5 knots boat speed mostly SE. Hard on the wind. Not bad really. Lots of heel today as still hard on the wind. But course now ENE and driving into the waves. Lots of heel and splashing over the windows. Self serve food today, too hard to stand up.
On the biological front we did get our wish granted as "Little Al" (Albatross) did a slow fly by of the port side and then joined our buddies the Petrels following the boat. We had at least 8 Petrels and "Little Al" following us all morning. Maybe they thought the bare metal was a fishing boat. Sorry guys no scraps coming from us, but we had a good airshow! Took way too many pictures so will have to go through them. Hope I got one good one!
Just in case you are all too busy the next couple of days to check in with us, may you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. We of course will still be here and will be sending reports.
Cheers! Doug S.
Day 53 at sea
Daily Log
Day: 53 at sea
Date: December 22nd Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5600 nm bearing 319
Distance from NY: 5300 nm bearing 320
Distance from Cape Town: 1720 nm bearing 108
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 100 n.m.
Latitude: 29 38.077 S
Longitude: 016 10.824 W
Boat Speed: 4 - 6 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: no sails, then stay sail, #4 reef main
Barometer: 1022.8
Beaufort Scale: 10 GALE FORCE
Sea State: 30 ft plus
Weather Conditions: sunny, windy.
Wind Direction/Speed: S up to 55 knots
Temp: Air: 22 C 72 F
Cloud Cover: 0%
From John:
Greetings from Stormy Monday,
We have been discharged from rehab - we are cured of having too much optimism on our progress.
Forget the cuisine info - forget the bedtime - it`s action stations.
At 3am the wind was 20 kts at 4am 30 kts at 6am 40 kts at 7am 50 kts and it stayed there all day.
And you know what goes with the wind is the waves - large ones which always appear at dawn.
As the crew peer out the windows, it looks like a series of watery mountains arriving at 5 second intervals at 45 to 90 degrees from the front of the boat. Up we go and then down we go - roll to Port then roll to Starboard - follow up with a corkscrew, and finish the sequence with a half pike and a full tuck for a clean entry. Repeat constantly. Forget cuisine.
Then to cap off the days entertainment, check that the windows on the Port side can work as an aquarium.
One participant classified all this a ``squall``. Ok ask the QM what he classified it as.
The fun never ends.
Cheers from the taste of the Southern Ocean .
I guess the fingers crossed thing works. Maybe too good! Audrey's letter early in the day mentioned strong winds in our area. Nothing about it in our info. Winds picked up after dark. Always seem to be the way. All crew went out and put a #2 reef in and rolled up the jib half way.
I took over at 21:00. Winds starting to get over 30 knts. Boat was way overpowered so got the crew up again, the main was taken down to the #4 reef and just a small amount of jib left out. I tried to steer SSE for about 2 hours and my arms were aching! Boat has an amazing rudder, if you have the strength to hold it. Finally gave the boat and my body a rest, turned downwind and much easier. Of course heading back to the Cape Verde's!
John came up for his shift, said no use going this way, all hands on deck again to take down all the sails. Afterwards, I hit my bunk, I was so tired. Got thrown out a few times with the rocking.
Got up at 06:00, glanced at the wind meter, Yikes!! 50kts! Looked out window. Whoooa!, huge waves, very close together, bright blue sky, beautiful coloured water, wind blowing the tops off the waves. Looked unreal. Never thought I'd see waves like that. Boat was great, bobbing like a cork. Birds were doing big swoops with the high winds and high waves. I took some video through the window. Didn't want to go out with all the spray. Haven't watched it yet. That's for another day.
Stui was outside steering with bare poles, still going fast 4-6 knts. Kinda scary but boat handled it very well. You can see the Beaufort Scale link at top of page in our Daily Log info. was a 10 Gale Force.
Not much else going on today. Everyone tired from sail changes and not getting much sleep. Too rough to cook, too hard to even sit on the high side and type on the computer. Most of us slept or read.
Wind and sea slowing calming down through day to around 20 knts. At 18:00 still rocking and hard to type this. Have to brace my leg across aisle to stay in seat, then move it if someone wants to go by. Then have to hold on to chart table to stop from being thrown out.
Guess we all have our sea legs now, as no one feeling bad with the worst motion of the trip so far. I would rather that be the worst of it too!!! I'm sure there will be some good pics but you'll get them later.
Cheers! Doug S.
Date: December 22nd Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5600 nm bearing 319
Distance from NY: 5300 nm bearing 320
Distance from Cape Town: 1720 nm bearing 108
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 100 n.m.
Latitude: 29 38.077 S
Longitude: 016 10.824 W
Boat Speed: 4 - 6 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: no sails, then stay sail, #4 reef main
Barometer: 1022.8
Beaufort Scale: 10 GALE FORCE
Sea State: 30 ft plus
Weather Conditions: sunny, windy.
Wind Direction/Speed: S up to 55 knots
Temp: Air: 22 C 72 F
Cloud Cover: 0%
From John:
Greetings from Stormy Monday,
We have been discharged from rehab - we are cured of having too much optimism on our progress.
Forget the cuisine info - forget the bedtime - it`s action stations.
At 3am the wind was 20 kts at 4am 30 kts at 6am 40 kts at 7am 50 kts and it stayed there all day.
And you know what goes with the wind is the waves - large ones which always appear at dawn.
As the crew peer out the windows, it looks like a series of watery mountains arriving at 5 second intervals at 45 to 90 degrees from the front of the boat. Up we go and then down we go - roll to Port then roll to Starboard - follow up with a corkscrew, and finish the sequence with a half pike and a full tuck for a clean entry. Repeat constantly. Forget cuisine.
Then to cap off the days entertainment, check that the windows on the Port side can work as an aquarium.
One participant classified all this a ``squall``. Ok ask the QM what he classified it as.
The fun never ends.
Cheers from the taste of the Southern Ocean .
Quick picture by Stui, while steering, of approaching wave
From Doug S:
From Doug S:
I guess the fingers crossed thing works. Maybe too good! Audrey's letter early in the day mentioned strong winds in our area. Nothing about it in our info. Winds picked up after dark. Always seem to be the way. All crew went out and put a #2 reef in and rolled up the jib half way.
I took over at 21:00. Winds starting to get over 30 knts. Boat was way overpowered so got the crew up again, the main was taken down to the #4 reef and just a small amount of jib left out. I tried to steer SSE for about 2 hours and my arms were aching! Boat has an amazing rudder, if you have the strength to hold it. Finally gave the boat and my body a rest, turned downwind and much easier. Of course heading back to the Cape Verde's!
John came up for his shift, said no use going this way, all hands on deck again to take down all the sails. Afterwards, I hit my bunk, I was so tired. Got thrown out a few times with the rocking.
Got up at 06:00, glanced at the wind meter, Yikes!! 50kts! Looked out window. Whoooa!, huge waves, very close together, bright blue sky, beautiful coloured water, wind blowing the tops off the waves. Looked unreal. Never thought I'd see waves like that. Boat was great, bobbing like a cork. Birds were doing big swoops with the high winds and high waves. I took some video through the window. Didn't want to go out with all the spray. Haven't watched it yet. That's for another day.
Stui was outside steering with bare poles, still going fast 4-6 knts. Kinda scary but boat handled it very well. You can see the Beaufort Scale link at top of page in our Daily Log info. was a 10 Gale Force.
Not much else going on today. Everyone tired from sail changes and not getting much sleep. Too rough to cook, too hard to even sit on the high side and type on the computer. Most of us slept or read.
Wind and sea slowing calming down through day to around 20 knts. At 18:00 still rocking and hard to type this. Have to brace my leg across aisle to stay in seat, then move it if someone wants to go by. Then have to hold on to chart table to stop from being thrown out.
Guess we all have our sea legs now, as no one feeling bad with the worst motion of the trip so far. I would rather that be the worst of it too!!! I'm sure there will be some good pics but you'll get them later.
Cheers! Doug S.
Doug G after the gale
picture by Doug S.
picture by Doug S.
Day 52 at sea
Daily Log
Day: 52 at sea
Date: December 21st Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5541 nm bearing 320
Distance from NY: 5246 nm bearing 321
Distance from Cape Town: 1865 nm bearing 108
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 158 n.m.
Latitude: 29 45.746 S
Longitude: 018 06.013 W
Boat Speed: 6 - 9 knots
Boat Heading: 100 ESE
Boat Sails: #1 Jib, full main
Barometer: 1021.5
Beaufort Scale: 3 - 4
Sea State: 3 - 6 ft.
Weather Conditions: cloudy morning, mostly sunny afternoon.
Wind Direction/Speed: S to SW 8 - 15 knots
Temp: Air: 26 C
Cloud Cover: 50%
...............From Captain John Sunday evening....
Greetings from rehab,
We are the patients in rehab - patiently tooling along at 5, 6 ,7 and occasionally 8 knots of boat speed -
We are in rehab recovering from too much optimism on our progress. And we had a discussion on the merits of Amy Whinehouse singing about rehab - we like it.
Refrained from spinnakers today and continued with full main and jib 1. Kind of warm and burnie in the sun but lots of clouds so no bimini today.
Scones for breakfast, noodles for lunch , spag with mushies and onion sauce for dinner followed up with a fine vintage limonaide.
We have named our resident flying penguins - well our seabird book id'd as looking like penguins- Astro and Dallas - because they behave like a couple of pooches we know -always on the lookout for dinner, leaving deposits here and there, and hanging around as if they own the joint.
5:15pm - it's bedtime.
Exciting, eh?
We are rolling on to Cape Town.
Cheers from the patients
---------------------------------------
From Doug S. at Noon:
Lots of wind for once. And on starboard tack. Wind coming over the right side of the boat. I was steering the 15-18 sunset shift last night. A wave slapped the side of the boat and spray hit me on my right side. Hey, that's never happened before. Always the higher winds had come from port. The v berth was not sleepable last night, since I would have been thrown out of my bunk. No lee cloths up there. So it was musical bunks, except for me. I got the main cabin, since John followed my shift. The others just jumped into the person's that had just got up. Funny I didn't sleep that good with all that room. I'm usually jammed into my cozy bunk. The boat was rocking pretty good because of the following wind. It's much harder sleeping with that than the normal heel of the boat.
A little rain overnight. Dinner last night was canned stew and rice. Not too bad. We've got lots of it, so may be a staple for the last little while. I forgot to mention that John made 2 very nice loafs of bread yesterday. Today he made scones. Quite the baker!
Lunch today was made by Brendan, fast noodles with some veg. Simple but good.
We think we have finally figured out who our big bird friends are. There are two, our books says possibly, the Great-Winged Petrel and the White-chinned Petrel.
They put on a good airshow all day. Not that many and all the sea birds fly low. Doug G saw one crash the other day. They fly almost touching the waves, and when they bank, the low wing is skimming. Doug said one put the low wing into the water and splash...in! The bird sat up, looked around as if to say, "Did anyone see that?" They fly around the boat but I don't know what they eat. They don't seem to check out our garbage like gulls would.
Nice and sunny now but quite cloudy this morning. Not doing too much today. Gave the kitchen a bit of a scrub. Reading a book. Wind was very nice yesterday and is slowly decreasing today. Almost a record with 158 miles for the day. The wind was shifty and we couldn't sail in a straight line. So we're hoping it keeps up for a little while. Fingers crossed.
Oh.... and for those who have been waiting for a picture of a whale. Here's one compliments of Stuart's camera...
Unfortunately, truth be told, he took this picture at Sea World but since our whale was in and out of the water in a flash, and we weren't able to capture it on camera, this will have to do as our testiment to the fact we did see a whale.
Cheers! Doug S. ;-)
Date: December 21st Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5541 nm bearing 320
Distance from NY: 5246 nm bearing 321
Distance from Cape Town: 1865 nm bearing 108
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 158 n.m.
Latitude: 29 45.746 S
Longitude: 018 06.013 W
Boat Speed: 6 - 9 knots
Boat Heading: 100 ESE
Boat Sails: #1 Jib, full main
Barometer: 1021.5
Beaufort Scale: 3 - 4
Sea State: 3 - 6 ft.
Weather Conditions: cloudy morning, mostly sunny afternoon.
Wind Direction/Speed: S to SW 8 - 15 knots
Temp: Air: 26 C
Cloud Cover: 50%
...............From Captain John Sunday evening....
Greetings from rehab,
We are the patients in rehab - patiently tooling along at 5, 6 ,7 and occasionally 8 knots of boat speed -
We are in rehab recovering from too much optimism on our progress. And we had a discussion on the merits of Amy Whinehouse singing about rehab - we like it.
Refrained from spinnakers today and continued with full main and jib 1. Kind of warm and burnie in the sun but lots of clouds so no bimini today.
Scones for breakfast, noodles for lunch , spag with mushies and onion sauce for dinner followed up with a fine vintage limonaide.
We have named our resident flying penguins - well our seabird book id'd as looking like penguins- Astro and Dallas - because they behave like a couple of pooches we know -always on the lookout for dinner, leaving deposits here and there, and hanging around as if they own the joint.
5:15pm - it's bedtime.
Exciting, eh?
We are rolling on to Cape Town.
Cheers from the patients
---------------------------------------
From Doug S. at Noon:
Lots of wind for once. And on starboard tack. Wind coming over the right side of the boat. I was steering the 15-18 sunset shift last night. A wave slapped the side of the boat and spray hit me on my right side. Hey, that's never happened before. Always the higher winds had come from port. The v berth was not sleepable last night, since I would have been thrown out of my bunk. No lee cloths up there. So it was musical bunks, except for me. I got the main cabin, since John followed my shift. The others just jumped into the person's that had just got up. Funny I didn't sleep that good with all that room. I'm usually jammed into my cozy bunk. The boat was rocking pretty good because of the following wind. It's much harder sleeping with that than the normal heel of the boat.
A little rain overnight. Dinner last night was canned stew and rice. Not too bad. We've got lots of it, so may be a staple for the last little while. I forgot to mention that John made 2 very nice loafs of bread yesterday. Today he made scones. Quite the baker!
Lunch today was made by Brendan, fast noodles with some veg. Simple but good.
We think we have finally figured out who our big bird friends are. There are two, our books says possibly, the Great-Winged Petrel and the White-chinned Petrel.
They put on a good airshow all day. Not that many and all the sea birds fly low. Doug G saw one crash the other day. They fly almost touching the waves, and when they bank, the low wing is skimming. Doug said one put the low wing into the water and splash...in! The bird sat up, looked around as if to say, "Did anyone see that?" They fly around the boat but I don't know what they eat. They don't seem to check out our garbage like gulls would.
Nice and sunny now but quite cloudy this morning. Not doing too much today. Gave the kitchen a bit of a scrub. Reading a book. Wind was very nice yesterday and is slowly decreasing today. Almost a record with 158 miles for the day. The wind was shifty and we couldn't sail in a straight line. So we're hoping it keeps up for a little while. Fingers crossed.
Oh.... and for those who have been waiting for a picture of a whale. Here's one compliments of Stuart's camera...
Unfortunately, truth be told, he took this picture at Sea World but since our whale was in and out of the water in a flash, and we weren't able to capture it on camera, this will have to do as our testiment to the fact we did see a whale.Cheers! Doug S. ;-)
Day 51 at sea
Blue Spinnakerphoto by Brendan
Day: 51 at sea
Date: December 20th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5400 nm bearing 322
Distance from NY: 5105 nm bearing 322
Distance from Cape Town: 2025 nm bearing 109
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 107 n.m.
Latitude: 28 39.341 S
Longitude: 020 50.685 W
Boat Speed: 6 - 10 knots
Boat Heading: 120 as of Noon but 090 earlier and will go back to that if wind stays the same
Boat Sails: #1 Jib, full main as of Noon but asymmetrical spinnaker most of the morning
Barometer: 1021.3
Beaufort Scale: 0 - 6
Sea State: lumpy 3 - 5 sometimes bigger
Weather Conditions: sunny early, clouding over
Wind Direction/Speed NNE 0 - 22 knots over course of morning
Temp: Air: 28 C
Cloud Cover: 10% early 80% at Noon
From Doug S. at Noon...
So starting off from yesterday. We saw the two ships go by and dinner was changed when the meat that was brought out to be defrosted turned out to be pork chops and not stewing beef. So Stui quickly changed plans and baked pork chops with veg and mushroom soup over them, served on rice with a bean salad. I was off to bed fairly quickly as I had the 00:00-03:00 sunrise shift. (Boat time is EDT not sun time).
Got up to something strange. Hardly any noise. I had to work to be quiet, so as to not wake the 3 sleepers. I could even hear the fridge which makes a buzzing sound. Haven't heard that since Oakville. Brendan had almost nil wind, so we pulled in the jib since it was flopping back and forth on the waves. John came up and said let's motor. I steered for a bit but then put on the auto.
As the sun was rising at 02:15 John came up and shut down the engine, I pulled out the head sail, we were sailing again with about 3-5 kts of wind, boat going 1-3. As John came up for his 03:00-06:00 shift the wind was on the beam so of course the spinnaker had to go up. The Blue & white asymmetrical was flying in no time. I was back to bed for a nap. Woke up around 06, boat flying along at 6 - 8 knots with nice winds out of the North. Sunny and warm. Winds picked up all day 'til we had to take down the chute. Now on #1 jib and main. Still going over 7 knts. Rocky and rolly with the wind behind us.
A fish just hit the line. I was first out but as I put on tension it stopped and the fish was gone. Have to try again.
Clouds are thickening but no rain in sight yet, but threatening.
That's it up 'til now. Cheers!
Doug S.
---------------
From John later that night...
Subject: Day 51 at sea on board FGT Sat 20 Dec 08
Position 29 00S 020 25W - 1980 crow miles from Cape Town
9-20 knots of S to Sw wind - Sea state 2'to 6 Boat speed av 7.0 kts barometer 1024.0 air 28 C ocean 26.0
Greetings from the lucky ones,
At 2am - no wind , at 3am 4knots, at 3:30am 10knots and at 4am 18knots and that's what we've had ever since.
At 2am - full main and full Jib 1, at 3:45am full main and assymetrical spinnaker, at 5am hitting 9+ knots boat speed, at 8am ripped the spinnaker - 2 down 2 to go - repairable though. At 8:30am full main and full Jib 1. Boat speed 8+ - 41 nautical miles in 4 hours. Nice.
We are rolling to Cape Town - thank you thank thank you wind gods.
Cheers from the grateful.
Speeding across the South AtlanticPhoto by Brendan
Day 50 at sea
Calm EveningPhoto by Stuart
Daily Log
Day: 50 at sea
Date: December 19th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5315 nm bearing 322
Distance from NY: 5020 nm bearing 323
Distance from Cape Town: 2122 nm bearing 110
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 74 n.m.
Latitude: 28 13.760 S
Longitude: 022 47.517 W
Boat Speed: 2 - 5 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: #1 Jib, full main
Barometer: 1024.6
Beaufort Scale: 1 - 3
Sea State: 2 - 4 ft
Weather Conditions: sunny, hot sun, cool wind
Wind Direction/Speed S 2 - 9 knots
Temp: Air: 25 C
Cloud Cover: 40%
Greetings from the tour boat,
Whales ahoy! - look starboard aft and there they were - slowly arching out of the water and disappearing to come up 50 meters away. Probably 2 or 3 smallish whales - kind of like huge dolphins.
That was a thrill.
Next thrill - Ship ahoy! - over the port midships- a v large tanker - spoke to him on the vhf radio he was headed East.
Next thrill - Ship ahoy - over the port aft - a container ship going West. Didn't VHF him.
Now we are all thrilled out.
We have a new best friend - a chick - looks like a Petrel - body is dark brown all over, length about 18", and it lands on the water occasionally. Been with us for 3 days and sometimes has his friends fly with him.
New forecast - not great but useable - expecting more wind tomorrow, and Sunday please.
We hear that Ontario is saving on fridge power - you can now use the patio as a freezer. We feel for you.
Cheers from the nature lovers.
------------------
From Doug S at Noon:
Day 50 and we are in light winds with low boat speeds. Well we are after all in the "variable latitudes" and that's what we are getting. As you can see on the map we had to head a little West with our Southing last night. But this morning the winds had come around a bit and we tacked to go East. This will be it until at least Tue, according to our Wxx advisors.
We will have to go SE sometime to get further South than Cape Town. With the prevalent winds and current, that is the way we have to approach it. (from the SW).
Big news this morning was Brendan heard and then saw a whale as it passed within 100 ft of the stern. We all saw it on the 2nd and 3rd sightings, as it moved off, going from South to North. To me it looked like the kind I'd seen in Newfoundland which was a "Right whale" but I'm sure no expert!
The only other sighting today was a huge oil tanker going the same way as us to the north in the distance, then 1 going east probably to Rio in the same lane. Haven't seen another ship in at least 3 days.
The big black grey birds are still with us, we don't think they are Albatross. The beak doesn't look right. Could just be a big Sea Gull. Nice flyers though, and don't make noise.
Breakfast was self serve and lunch was some sardine's and crackers. Stui is talking of a beef stroganoff for dinner.
Last night was very clear. We were able to look at the Southern Hemisphere sky. There where 2 blotches South of Orion that looked like clouds but were clusters of stars. They looked like how the Milky Way looks at home, but weren't in the main stream. Don't see that up North.
So just waiting on the wind. Might have to ask Santa Clause!
Cheers, Doug S.
Day: 50 at sea
Date: December 19th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5315 nm bearing 322
Distance from NY: 5020 nm bearing 323
Distance from Cape Town: 2122 nm bearing 110
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 74 n.m.
Latitude: 28 13.760 S
Longitude: 022 47.517 W
Boat Speed: 2 - 5 knots
Boat Heading: 090 E
Boat Sails: #1 Jib, full main
Barometer: 1024.6
Beaufort Scale: 1 - 3
Sea State: 2 - 4 ft
Weather Conditions: sunny, hot sun, cool wind
Wind Direction/Speed S 2 - 9 knots
Temp: Air: 25 C
Cloud Cover: 40%
Greetings from the tour boat,
Whales ahoy! - look starboard aft and there they were - slowly arching out of the water and disappearing to come up 50 meters away. Probably 2 or 3 smallish whales - kind of like huge dolphins.
That was a thrill.
Next thrill - Ship ahoy! - over the port midships- a v large tanker - spoke to him on the vhf radio he was headed East.
Next thrill - Ship ahoy - over the port aft - a container ship going West. Didn't VHF him.
Now we are all thrilled out.
We have a new best friend - a chick - looks like a Petrel - body is dark brown all over, length about 18", and it lands on the water occasionally. Been with us for 3 days and sometimes has his friends fly with him.
New forecast - not great but useable - expecting more wind tomorrow, and Sunday please.
We hear that Ontario is saving on fridge power - you can now use the patio as a freezer. We feel for you.
Cheers from the nature lovers.
------------------
From Doug S at Noon:
Day 50 and we are in light winds with low boat speeds. Well we are after all in the "variable latitudes" and that's what we are getting. As you can see on the map we had to head a little West with our Southing last night. But this morning the winds had come around a bit and we tacked to go East. This will be it until at least Tue, according to our Wxx advisors.
We will have to go SE sometime to get further South than Cape Town. With the prevalent winds and current, that is the way we have to approach it. (from the SW).
Big news this morning was Brendan heard and then saw a whale as it passed within 100 ft of the stern. We all saw it on the 2nd and 3rd sightings, as it moved off, going from South to North. To me it looked like the kind I'd seen in Newfoundland which was a "Right whale" but I'm sure no expert!
The only other sighting today was a huge oil tanker going the same way as us to the north in the distance, then 1 going east probably to Rio in the same lane. Haven't seen another ship in at least 3 days.
The big black grey birds are still with us, we don't think they are Albatross. The beak doesn't look right. Could just be a big Sea Gull. Nice flyers though, and don't make noise.
Breakfast was self serve and lunch was some sardine's and crackers. Stui is talking of a beef stroganoff for dinner.
Last night was very clear. We were able to look at the Southern Hemisphere sky. There where 2 blotches South of Orion that looked like clouds but were clusters of stars. They looked like how the Milky Way looks at home, but weren't in the main stream. Don't see that up North.
So just waiting on the wind. Might have to ask Santa Clause!
Cheers, Doug S.
Day 49 at sea
Dec. 18th Doug S on "Whale Watch"Daily Log
Day: 49 at sea
Date: Thursday December 18th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5279 nm bearing 322
Distance from NY: 4983 nm bearing 323
Distance from Cape Town: 2130 nm bearing 112
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 60 n.m.
Latitude: 27 05.894 S
Longitude: 022 14.873 W
Boat Speed: 3 - 5 knots
Boat Heading: 220 SW
Boat Sails: #1 Jib, full main
Barometer: 1026.5
Beaufort Scale: 2 - 3
Sea State: 5 - 8 ft smaller ocean rollers
Weather Conditions: sunny, cooler
Wind Direction/Speed SE 3 - 10 knots
Temp: Air: 24 C
Cloud Cover: 30%
Doug's log for Noon report, Thursday December 18th
Another night (re Wednesday night) of very light winds. Only did 60 miles for 24 hours but sailed at least 80. On your map it looks like we went straight south, but during the night we had two 90 degree turns and a 45. From s to e to s to sw. We are waiting for a wind shift so we can head more southeast.
I woke up to a beautiful morning at 02:30 boat time. (crew's clocks are on EDT for their work schedule). Sun was just up and we were going about 3 knots e or ne. Winds just started to pick up and shift so Brendan & I tacked and we were going straight south for a while. Then winds picked up some more but we had to turn a bit west. At least saw us going over 5 knts at times.
Not much in the way of wildlife. Just big mostly black birds with white around their eyes. We can't find them in our bird book. Been with us for the last few days, and have seen three together at times but mostly solo. (Editor: Could be Albatross. See side bar under student info. for more details).
No sightings of whales yet. Must have been migrating through when the other guys were here. Other than the sounds the other night. The noise did make me jump when I heard the breathing but I wasn't scared, just startled and wondering where it was. There is an article in one of the magazines on board of a sailboat near Hawaii that was attacked by a whale. It ran into the boat a couple of times and put a big hole in it. The crew were calm. They wrote. "We got into the life raft. Took some pictures of the boat and damage for the insurance company before it sank. Too bad I didn't bring the data connector to the sat phone or I would have started a blog while we waited for the rescue boat".
We are seeing more stuff floating in the water. Plastic jugs, cardboard, we think maybe it's like the centre of a whirlpool here and everything gets drawn in.
Breakfast was self serve. The sea looked like the farmers field near where I live in Ontario. The big ocean rollers looked just like the hills there and with the sun low down, the colour was very dark. Had one of those big black birds flying around me, swooping over the crests and out of sight into the troughs. A lot like the Florida pelicans with their wing tips just missing the water. These guys never go very high though.
Temps in the sun very nice, but when the sun went behind a cloud needed a shirt. (sorry as you suffer in the cold up there!!) John was trying to fix something so I got some tools out of the vee berth. While I was there got out next week's food supply and put it away. Then figured out the cockpit radio and attached a wire Daniel G had bought for his dad, (John) so we can hook up our ipods out there. Put up Bimini by myself as the sun got pretty hot.
For lunch we had some salami & cheese with bran muffins made by Brendan with the last of the apples thrown in. Dinner will be spaghetti sauce made by Doug G.
That's about it for now, Cheers! Doug S.
---------------------------------------------
Greetings from Suspended Animosity Sailors,
"Waiting for the wind - waiting for the wind - waiting for the SW wind"
We figured 2000 miles to CT - only need 10 days @ 200mpd to get there. Or 20 @ 100 or 40 @ 50, but then we'd run right out of HH supplies so we reverted to 130 mpd = 16 days - how do you like our arithmetic now?
Apart from our obvious interest in getting to port, today we spent a lot of time in the cockpit holding lectures on decorum in particular worker-management, and worker-worker relationships, and of course union - management arrangements for which we have several varying opinions.
The SM reports that HH was very successful, with vital information on the body areas which are most painful when injected - The hand was voted the narrow winner. Several crew had this and other experiences.
Tomorrow we will try to do 150mpd regardless.
Cheers from the famous five.
Day: 49 at sea
Date: Thursday December 18th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5279 nm bearing 322
Distance from NY: 4983 nm bearing 323
Distance from Cape Town: 2130 nm bearing 112
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 60 n.m.
Latitude: 27 05.894 S
Longitude: 022 14.873 W
Boat Speed: 3 - 5 knots
Boat Heading: 220 SW
Boat Sails: #1 Jib, full main
Barometer: 1026.5
Beaufort Scale: 2 - 3
Sea State: 5 - 8 ft smaller ocean rollers
Weather Conditions: sunny, cooler
Wind Direction/Speed SE 3 - 10 knots
Temp: Air: 24 C
Cloud Cover: 30%
Doug's log for Noon report, Thursday December 18th
Another night (re Wednesday night) of very light winds. Only did 60 miles for 24 hours but sailed at least 80. On your map it looks like we went straight south, but during the night we had two 90 degree turns and a 45. From s to e to s to sw. We are waiting for a wind shift so we can head more southeast.
I woke up to a beautiful morning at 02:30 boat time. (crew's clocks are on EDT for their work schedule). Sun was just up and we were going about 3 knots e or ne. Winds just started to pick up and shift so Brendan & I tacked and we were going straight south for a while. Then winds picked up some more but we had to turn a bit west. At least saw us going over 5 knts at times.
Not much in the way of wildlife. Just big mostly black birds with white around their eyes. We can't find them in our bird book. Been with us for the last few days, and have seen three together at times but mostly solo. (Editor: Could be Albatross. See side bar under student info. for more details).
No sightings of whales yet. Must have been migrating through when the other guys were here. Other than the sounds the other night. The noise did make me jump when I heard the breathing but I wasn't scared, just startled and wondering where it was. There is an article in one of the magazines on board of a sailboat near Hawaii that was attacked by a whale. It ran into the boat a couple of times and put a big hole in it. The crew were calm. They wrote. "We got into the life raft. Took some pictures of the boat and damage for the insurance company before it sank. Too bad I didn't bring the data connector to the sat phone or I would have started a blog while we waited for the rescue boat".
We are seeing more stuff floating in the water. Plastic jugs, cardboard, we think maybe it's like the centre of a whirlpool here and everything gets drawn in.
Breakfast was self serve. The sea looked like the farmers field near where I live in Ontario. The big ocean rollers looked just like the hills there and with the sun low down, the colour was very dark. Had one of those big black birds flying around me, swooping over the crests and out of sight into the troughs. A lot like the Florida pelicans with their wing tips just missing the water. These guys never go very high though.
Temps in the sun very nice, but when the sun went behind a cloud needed a shirt. (sorry as you suffer in the cold up there!!) John was trying to fix something so I got some tools out of the vee berth. While I was there got out next week's food supply and put it away. Then figured out the cockpit radio and attached a wire Daniel G had bought for his dad, (John) so we can hook up our ipods out there. Put up Bimini by myself as the sun got pretty hot.
For lunch we had some salami & cheese with bran muffins made by Brendan with the last of the apples thrown in. Dinner will be spaghetti sauce made by Doug G.
That's about it for now, Cheers! Doug S.
---------------------------------------------
Greetings from Suspended Animosity Sailors,
"Waiting for the wind - waiting for the wind - waiting for the SW wind"
We figured 2000 miles to CT - only need 10 days @ 200mpd to get there. Or 20 @ 100 or 40 @ 50, but then we'd run right out of HH supplies so we reverted to 130 mpd = 16 days - how do you like our arithmetic now?
Apart from our obvious interest in getting to port, today we spent a lot of time in the cockpit holding lectures on decorum in particular worker-management, and worker-worker relationships, and of course union - management arrangements for which we have several varying opinions.
The SM reports that HH was very successful, with vital information on the body areas which are most painful when injected - The hand was voted the narrow winner. Several crew had this and other experiences.
Tomorrow we will try to do 150mpd regardless.
Cheers from the famous five.
Day 48 at sea
SunsetPhoto by Brendan
Daily Log
Day: 48 at sea
Date: Wednesday December 17th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5230 nm bearing 322
Distance from NY: 4930 nm bearing 323
Distance from Cape Town: 2160 nm bearing 113
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 64 n.m.
Latitude: 26 04.857 S
Longitude: 022 14.477 W
Boat Speed: 2 - 5 knots
Boat Heading: 180 - 220 S-SSW
Boat Sails: #1 jib full main
Barometer: 1028.2
Beaufort Scale: 1 - 3
Sea 10 - 15 big ocean swells
Weather Conditions: sunny or cloudy, cooling down
Wind Direction/Speed SE 2 - 8 knots
Temp: Air: 25 C
Cloud Cover: 0 to 100%
Greetings from the South Atlantic,
Here we sat broken hearted - paid the piper and hardly started - to Cape Town that is - progress is on the less than swift side. Translation - not wind.
To get through the hard times we resorted to a mini-vacation day. The CD recommended Happy Hour, dinner of chilli and rice, followed by a movie.
The SM obliged with the HH ingredients , the evening sky provided a magnificent sunset for HH, the QM obliged with the chilli, and the CD produced a Clive Owens classic which practiced population control at max rates even for a movie. However we know the popularity of the movie is judged by the resilience of the audience and they stayed the whole distance so it gets the 4stars recommendation.
Meanwhile outside the night sky was brilliant. The smooth and quiet boat motion promoted lots of surreptitious yawning ending up with lots of snoring. Another day in the South Atlantic.
Quote of the day -'I don't snore and I don't f@#t'. Who is the owner of that questionable statement?
Cheers - your vacationing sailors
---------------------
From Doug S.
Very slow day here with light winds coming from South Africa. So we've been heading mostly south today, with some Westing. Not the best situation but you get what you get. Looks like a few days of this variable stuff. No way of knowing an ETA to South Africa now. All depends on the winds.
John made some very nice scones this morning. Jeannette take note, you've got a good baker here. Brendan made lunch with instant noodles and veg. And Stui made a very good chili and rice that Doug G ranked in the top 5 meals of the trip!
Had some excitement last night during Brendan's shift and again on mine. The moon wasn't up yet and it was cloudy. There was little wind so it was quiet. Brendan heard a whale take a breath right behind the boat. Looking around he couldn't see anything. He heard it twice more moving off. He never did see it. Then later with the moon up, no clouds, and a smooth sea, I heard the same thing, right behind the boat. But again there was nothing there. No ripples, no sign at all. I had very good visibility for a 100 yards at least. Sound must travel funny over water!
We've been watching a movie this afternoon called "Shot em up". Pretty funny.
That's all for now!
Cheers, Doug S.
Day 47 at sea
Brendan and Doug S. Laundry day.
photo by Doug G.
Daily Logphoto by Doug G.
Day: 47 at sea
Date: Tuesday December 16th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5170 nm bearing 322
Distance from NY: 4875 nm bearing 323
Distance from Cape Town: 2200 nm bearing 114
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 94 n.m.
Latitude: 25 07.989 S
Longitude: 022 45.198 W
Boat Speed: 2 - 7 knots
Boat Heading: 130 SE
Boat Sails: 2.2 oz big blue spinnaker or #1 jib, full main (Also motoring)
Barometer: 1026.1
Beaufort Scale: 0
Sea State: 2'to 15' East and from the West at the same time - unbelievable but we saw it.
Weather Conditions: cloudy light rain showers early
Wind Direction/Speed 0 - 10 knots of N,E,S, W wind
Temp: Air: 27 C
Cloud Cover: 100%
Greetings from the once again impatient sailors,
Last night we were tooling along nicely doing the 5's, 6's and 7's,then the wind took a holiday. Down came all sails and motored slowly. Wind back 5 to 8 knots - up sails tooling along then no wind - down sails - motor motor wind back in a continuous cycle until just now ( 1900zulu- that's South African for UTC) when some dirty black clouds appeared from the West. Now tooling along in 11 knots of Westish wind at 5ish knots of boat speed but - get this - straight for Cape Town and close to the Commanders Weather waypoints.
For sustenance we had cereal for breakfast, followed up by polishing off the bread baked last night by the CEO - some sort of a competition going to see who could pile on the most peanut butter - there were some nameless crew who ventured into the Nutella.
So while we were pulling sails up and down, a break time was voted for an athletic event featuring the Electronics Officer performing aquatic feats off of the bow platform -
Another Flying Fish? Or Doug S?Photo. by Brendan
Dinner of rice, beans, onions, cheese and stuff by the Ceo, chased up by HH and some enlightening stories of roofing accoutrements viz the CEO polishing his stainless steel guttering and downpipes.Maybe things will be just as exciting tomorrow.
Cheers from the rum corps.
"After the swim"Doug S soaping up to wash off the salt after his "swan dive"
picture by Brendan
Day 46 at sea
Dec. 15th Blue SpinnakerPhoto by Doug S.
Daily Log
Day: 46 at sea
Date: Monday December 15th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5081 nm bearing 323
Distance from NY: 4786 nm bearing 324
Distance from Cape Town: 2292 nm bearing 115
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 135 n.m.
Latitude: 24 13.171 S
Longitude: 024 08.872 W
Boat Speed: 7 knots
Boat Heading: 125 SE
Boat Sails: 2.2 oz all blue spinnaker. full main
Barometer: 1022.8
Beaufort Scale: 3
Sea 1 - 3 ft.
Weather Conditions: sunny now, under one cloud all morning, showers around
Wind Direction/Speed N 10 - 12 knots
Temp: Air: 28 C
Cloud Cover: 50%
Greetings from South of the Tropic of Capricorn,
See - it's not always tropical - we are now out of that pesky hot weather although it doesn't feel much different.
Reporting wise things are a bit scarce - running with the 2.2 oz spinnaker and full main straight to Cape Town as we write. We know this is probably not a good idea as we can get caught in the South Atlantic high with little wind.
We have a plan and it goes like this. 'what'll we do? - lets think about it - lets call Audrey. Then it's email- Commanders Weather -( we actually try to follow their waypoints as closely as the wind permits ) that settles any discussion.
So here we are getting closer to CT and doing reasonable daily distances.
Cheers from the sub tropical sailors.
----------------------------------
From Doug S Monday lunch time:
As you can see today we are at lat 24 long 24 just a coincidence. Wind was light all afternoon yesterday, so we left the spinnaker up until just before midnight when Brendon went under a big cloud and the winds got stronger and we had a big wind shift. All hands called on deck and the chute came down. Then we tacked over because we were heading NE.
After tack heading SSW. I took over and tried to keep that heading. We had done a lot of Easting the day before so the little Westing wasn't too bad but we were still under that cloud and the winds clocked a bit more so I was heading SW. Didn't want to wake everyone again for a tack so stuck with that for about an hour 'til John came up to relieve me at 03:00(EDT).
Sky brightning but lots of clouds around. John and I tacked and put up the spinnaker, and that's the way we've been all morning. We were again sailing under one cloud, with a squall line on our starboard side which hasn't gotten any closer all day.
Sun has been in and out with a fine rain occasionally. Looks like we may get hit with the rain later. Only 135 n.m. miles today because of the light winds yesterday afternoon and the tacking and maneuvering overnight but not bad.
Doug G made oatmeal muffins this morning and used some fresh apples he'd found, still good for baking anyway.
Sea state quite flat today so a nice smooth ride with some rocking under spinnaker and good boat speed.
Not much happening today. Did some laundry 'cause some of my clothes got wet taking down the Spinnaker last night. Just about dry, but it's spritzing out so brought clothes in, have to hang them up in vee berth. Doug G making bread today, and snags brought out for dinner.
Cheers! Doug S.
Day: 46 at sea
Date: Monday December 15th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 5081 nm bearing 323
Distance from NY: 4786 nm bearing 324
Distance from Cape Town: 2292 nm bearing 115
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 135 n.m.
Latitude: 24 13.171 S
Longitude: 024 08.872 W
Boat Speed: 7 knots
Boat Heading: 125 SE
Boat Sails: 2.2 oz all blue spinnaker. full main
Barometer: 1022.8
Beaufort Scale: 3
Sea 1 - 3 ft.
Weather Conditions: sunny now, under one cloud all morning, showers around
Wind Direction/Speed N 10 - 12 knots
Temp: Air: 28 C
Cloud Cover: 50%
Greetings from South of the Tropic of Capricorn,
See - it's not always tropical - we are now out of that pesky hot weather although it doesn't feel much different.
Reporting wise things are a bit scarce - running with the 2.2 oz spinnaker and full main straight to Cape Town as we write. We know this is probably not a good idea as we can get caught in the South Atlantic high with little wind.
We have a plan and it goes like this. 'what'll we do? - lets think about it - lets call Audrey. Then it's email- Commanders Weather -( we actually try to follow their waypoints as closely as the wind permits ) that settles any discussion.
So here we are getting closer to CT and doing reasonable daily distances.
Cheers from the sub tropical sailors.
----------------------------------
From Doug S Monday lunch time:
As you can see today we are at lat 24 long 24 just a coincidence. Wind was light all afternoon yesterday, so we left the spinnaker up until just before midnight when Brendon went under a big cloud and the winds got stronger and we had a big wind shift. All hands called on deck and the chute came down. Then we tacked over because we were heading NE.
After tack heading SSW. I took over and tried to keep that heading. We had done a lot of Easting the day before so the little Westing wasn't too bad but we were still under that cloud and the winds clocked a bit more so I was heading SW. Didn't want to wake everyone again for a tack so stuck with that for about an hour 'til John came up to relieve me at 03:00(EDT).
Sky brightning but lots of clouds around. John and I tacked and put up the spinnaker, and that's the way we've been all morning. We were again sailing under one cloud, with a squall line on our starboard side which hasn't gotten any closer all day.
Sun has been in and out with a fine rain occasionally. Looks like we may get hit with the rain later. Only 135 n.m. miles today because of the light winds yesterday afternoon and the tacking and maneuvering overnight but not bad.
Doug G made oatmeal muffins this morning and used some fresh apples he'd found, still good for baking anyway.
Sea state quite flat today so a nice smooth ride with some rocking under spinnaker and good boat speed.
Not much happening today. Did some laundry 'cause some of my clothes got wet taking down the Spinnaker last night. Just about dry, but it's spritzing out so brought clothes in, have to hang them up in vee berth. Doug G making bread today, and snags brought out for dinner.
Cheers! Doug S.
Day 45 at sea
Shearwater Picture by Brendan
Daily Log
Day: 45 at sea
Date: Sunday December 14th Noon EDT
Day: 45 at sea
Date: Sunday December 14th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 4950 nm bearing 324
Distance from NY: 4605 nm bearing 325
Distance from Cape Town: 2400 nm bearing 116
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 144 n.m.
Latitude: 22 52.768 S
Longitude: 026 07.495 W
Longitude: 026 07.495 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 9 knots
Boat Heading: 115 SE
Boat Sails: 2.2 oz all blue spinnaker. full main
Barometer: 1022.6
Sea 3 - 6 ft.
Weather Conditions: sunny with high cloud, warm
Wind Direction/Speed NE 8 - 10 knots
Temp: Air: 29C
Cloud Cover: 50% but high thin, letting sun through.
Greetings from the frustrated sailors,
Today started ok and went zippeddoodaa down from that. Wind died, then became shifty,(who are you calling shifty??), confused seas, then not enough wind.
Had the 0.5 oz spinnaker up which lasted 45 minutes before destroying itself - leaving two leech lines up the mast, no head, and a pile of ripped nylon floating around. - Sorry Murray S - we owe you one.
After dark the stuffo hit the fan - wind shifted 45 degrees - all hands removing the 2.2 oz spinnaker, gybing boat, then the sky peed on us. Wet bum - no fish. Everyone went to sleep - sort of .
Ah- the life of a sailor man.
Cheers from the wet ones.
----------------------
From Doug S. Sunday afternoon:
We had a change of plan last night for dinner as the veg locker wasn't smelling pleasant. One bad potato found and tossed and the rest were cut up for a seafood chowder. Now we just have onions left from the fresh food bought in NJ. Actually there is still a loaf of the brown bread in the fridge but no one is brave enough to try it. It does look OK from the outside. The clam & mackerel chowder was very good along with the bread. (Stui made both).
My 18-21 shift was a trying shift as the winds were light and the boat did not want to be on the heading I wanted it to be on. It is easy to steer when the boat is fighting you a little. This puts pressure on the wheel that you can lean against. Last night right on the heading I wanted there was a null spot, and you always had to turn the the wheel to keep it there. If you looked away,then boat would be 10 degrees off, one side or the other and you'd have to steer it back. So a bit of a zig zag last night. Boat was steady last night so a nice sleep with not much motion.
A cloudy morning or more like one big cloud over us. The cloud slowly overtook us. John decided to put up the blue spinnaker which increased our speed enough that we sailed back under the cloud. Sun very hot when the cloud finally left us.
Nice steering today under the bimini. We would bake without it. Steering more towards Cape Town today, because the wind has moved more out of the North. The only problem with this is if we come in too far North and get into the S Atlantic high. There is very little wind there and we'd be stuck waiting. So the plan is to head more Southerly and get the bottom of the high which will blow us right into Africa.
Doug G made a nice early dinner today. It was like a shepherd's pie but with fish, so a sailor pie. Had instant potatoes, bacon, last of Mr. Mackerel, corn, onions, and green beans. Very tasty!!!
We are approaching our furthest point East on the trip, so the sun will set earlier. Also approaching the Tropic of Capricorn ( 23° 26′ 22″ S) which means we will be officially out of the tropics, but being the middle of Dec., the sun is right overhead of us, now approaching the longest day of the year. So the sub tropics are very nice right now!!
Cheers, Doug S.
Another image of Ilhas Martin Vaz.(Island we passed by yesterday).
Picture by Brendan
Day 44 at sea
Daily Log
Day: 44 at sea
Date: Saturday December 13th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 4812 nm bearing 325
Distance from NY: 4518 nm bearing 326
Distance from Cape Town: 2550 nm bearing 118
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 158 nm
Latitude: 21 13.612 S
Longitude: 027 59.226 W
Boat Speed: 9 - 12 knots
Boat Heading: 150 SSE
Boat Sails: #1 jib #2 reef main
Barometer: 1023.1
Beaufort Scale: 3 - 4
Sea State: 3 - 5 ft. bigger earlier
Weather Conditions: sunny, air getting cooler, sun hot
Wind Direction/Speed E 9 - 15 knots
Temp: Air: 28C
Cloud Cover: 20% High clouds West, small puffy around here
Greetings from the Culturalists
Today being a Saturday a designated day of leisure, we voted to review our cultural activities.
Now while book readings of Herodotus and Hemmingway were high on the priority list, and playing cribbage counts, and Nintendo seems to be in illicit use, plus movies, the main pleasure is music.
We have 4 ipods, one largish Bose system, and a cockpit stereo. All work great.
The Sm would like to recognize the talents and excellent personality of the Razor K - last seen in the Ford paint spray booth#1. Razor was kind enough to provide me with 850 songs which are in constant use on board the FGT.
During the night watches it is hard to beat great music on the headphones - we have a great selection - oldies to bring back memories, rap, current stuff and the classics - Bach concertos when the going gets rough.
So the favourite songs by crew are Dusty Springfield - Windmills of your Mind, Led Zeppilin - Whole lotta Love, Dixie chicks - Earl, Pink Floyd -Comfortably Numb, ( a nod to Murray S - and we had his chute up today - still is) The Water Boys - the fishermans blues.
Oh yes - we missed the islands - saw our first land this morning - the uninhabited island of Martin Vas (see picture below here in Doug S report) - no wonder there is no one there - it rises straight up - looks like a big green rock cone shaped, with a smaller version a few miles away - never did see Is Trinidad.
Dinner by the QM was a fish and clam chowder - last of the spuds - absolutely delic with fresh baked bread. Mmmm.
Cheers from the high brow sailors
Excerpts from Doug S. email:
As things settled down after sunset last night the wind went down below 10. The reef was pulled out. I was off to bed for my 03 shift. The wind came up overnight to over 15 knts so all were out at 01:40 to put a #2 reef in the main. Low clouds around blocking the bright moon but sky to the East was brightening quickly.
I decided to stay up, was playing Nintendo DS in cockpit, with Brendan steering when he asked me to look at funny clouds on the horizon. Nope no clouds, there were the Ilhas Martin Vaz. We were about 13 miles away to the NE. Still in twilight. Not a place to picnic with sheer cliffs to the ocean. Not even a light on these 3 Islands. Think it's just too steep to get anything on. Only way would be by helicopter.
I was steering while Brendan took pics, as sun slowly came up, but a lot of low cloud kept Islands in the shade. We had been heading SE-SSE all night to make sure we avoided the rocks but once in sight I steered due S and we got to about 12 miles away. Sun finally lit up the cliffs, no sign of vegetation. There were a lot of birds flying around. Terns, and one Shearwater. I'm sure the Islands's were full of nests.
Ilhas Martin Vaz
Picture by Brendan
As you can see in the pic there is the main Island with smaller ones to the North and South. Brendan and I were on the lookout the whole time while others came out for a quick peek. Our closest position was 20 27.319 S/028 38.156 W. Around 03:30 boat time..EDT..(time approx).
Then with the wind up around 13, we turned back on our SSE course racing away at about 8 knts. We could just see the main Island on the horizon when we were 25 miles away.
Looking at the chart, even though we were only 12 miles away the water was between 13000-16000 ft deep under the boat. That is one steep mountain. For those who have been to Banff Alberta in Canada.....those mountains (The Rockies) start at 4500 ft (i.e. Banff is at 4500ft above sea level) and are just over 9000 ft high, so just 4500 ft difference. And they look big. Therefore if we were standing on the sea bed these islands would tower over 15000ft above us.
We could not see the bigger Island of Ilha Da Trindade being so much further off to our West. I went back to bed after John came on shift @ 06, in bright sunshine with the Island just visible. John had made pancakes for breakfast. The guys were kind enough to leave me some for when I woke up. Stui is going to make the rest of the Mackerel up for dinner with a mustard sauce. Mmmmmm!
So that was a big event in our trip, The next landfall will be South Africa. Now we need a close whale sighting for all of us to see, just to round things off. It's just before 13:00 here as I wrap this up and as usual the winds are taking their afternoon break, down to 8 knts.
-----------------
To answer more of your questions and comments.
About the sun. Right now as we approach the tropic of Capricorn, the sun is directly overhead at noon local as we come up to the longest day and Canada is headed for the longest night, of the year. Dec. 21st down here is equivalent to June 21st at home.
At Equinox the sun would be directly over the Equator but now it is almost directly over the Capricorn line. So Canadians are of course the furthest away from the sun right now as you can be. (Cold!). A picture right now would be the same as a summer
day at home.
Later as we get further South the sun will be in the North at noon, (Australians are used to this, but Canadians are used to seeing the sun in the South at Noon) maybe we can get a pic of that.
If at the equator you are spinning around at over 1100 mph I believe compared to 900 at florida and 600 at home, I'm going by memory here so could be wrong. Sunset therefore will be quicker at the Equator.
About the compass....variations and the difference in the Southern hemisphere. Since we are a modern boat and we live in 2008 we don't use magnetic North, we use true North. This never varies. The GPS,s all are set to that.
Our compass of course does use magnetic but we just steer by a number there, that relates to our true North. We figure our course to the next commanders weather mark, then take into account the wind. And has been the case for most of this trip...the wind is the determining factor. Then we just sail as hard on the wind as we can and see what that is on the compass.
When I relieve Brendan on watch, he tells me what he has been steering. I try that and improve if I can or just stay the same. And the same happens when John comes up to relieve my watch.
As we make our landfall courses will be more important so we will use the GPS and just figure out what the magnetic compass says after that.
For communications we are presently using our satellite phone to email, because Ham radio frequencies are weak at the moment. We will continue to use these two methods of communication throughout the trip all the way to Melbourne. We prefer Ham radio connections, as they are free. Sat. phone is $1 a minute.
Cheers, Doug S.
Day: 44 at sea
Date: Saturday December 13th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 4812 nm bearing 325
Distance from NY: 4518 nm bearing 326
Distance from Cape Town: 2550 nm bearing 118
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 158 nm
Latitude: 21 13.612 S
Longitude: 027 59.226 W
Boat Speed: 9 - 12 knots
Boat Heading: 150 SSE
Boat Sails: #1 jib #2 reef main
Barometer: 1023.1
Beaufort Scale: 3 - 4
Sea State: 3 - 5 ft. bigger earlier
Weather Conditions: sunny, air getting cooler, sun hot
Wind Direction/Speed E 9 - 15 knots
Temp: Air: 28C
Cloud Cover: 20% High clouds West, small puffy around here
Greetings from the Culturalists
Today being a Saturday a designated day of leisure, we voted to review our cultural activities.
Now while book readings of Herodotus and Hemmingway were high on the priority list, and playing cribbage counts, and Nintendo seems to be in illicit use, plus movies, the main pleasure is music.
We have 4 ipods, one largish Bose system, and a cockpit stereo. All work great.
The Sm would like to recognize the talents and excellent personality of the Razor K - last seen in the Ford paint spray booth#1. Razor was kind enough to provide me with 850 songs which are in constant use on board the FGT.
During the night watches it is hard to beat great music on the headphones - we have a great selection - oldies to bring back memories, rap, current stuff and the classics - Bach concertos when the going gets rough.
So the favourite songs by crew are Dusty Springfield - Windmills of your Mind, Led Zeppilin - Whole lotta Love, Dixie chicks - Earl, Pink Floyd -Comfortably Numb, ( a nod to Murray S - and we had his chute up today - still is) The Water Boys - the fishermans blues.
Oh yes - we missed the islands - saw our first land this morning - the uninhabited island of Martin Vas (see picture below here in Doug S report) - no wonder there is no one there - it rises straight up - looks like a big green rock cone shaped, with a smaller version a few miles away - never did see Is Trinidad.
Dinner by the QM was a fish and clam chowder - last of the spuds - absolutely delic with fresh baked bread. Mmmm.
Cheers from the high brow sailors
Excerpts from Doug S. email:
As things settled down after sunset last night the wind went down below 10. The reef was pulled out. I was off to bed for my 03 shift. The wind came up overnight to over 15 knts so all were out at 01:40 to put a #2 reef in the main. Low clouds around blocking the bright moon but sky to the East was brightening quickly.
I decided to stay up, was playing Nintendo DS in cockpit, with Brendan steering when he asked me to look at funny clouds on the horizon. Nope no clouds, there were the Ilhas Martin Vaz. We were about 13 miles away to the NE. Still in twilight. Not a place to picnic with sheer cliffs to the ocean. Not even a light on these 3 Islands. Think it's just too steep to get anything on. Only way would be by helicopter.
I was steering while Brendan took pics, as sun slowly came up, but a lot of low cloud kept Islands in the shade. We had been heading SE-SSE all night to make sure we avoided the rocks but once in sight I steered due S and we got to about 12 miles away. Sun finally lit up the cliffs, no sign of vegetation. There were a lot of birds flying around. Terns, and one Shearwater. I'm sure the Islands's were full of nests.
Ilhas Martin VazPicture by Brendan
As you can see in the pic there is the main Island with smaller ones to the North and South. Brendan and I were on the lookout the whole time while others came out for a quick peek. Our closest position was 20 27.319 S/028 38.156 W. Around 03:30 boat time..EDT..(time approx).
Then with the wind up around 13, we turned back on our SSE course racing away at about 8 knts. We could just see the main Island on the horizon when we were 25 miles away.
Looking at the chart, even though we were only 12 miles away the water was between 13000-16000 ft deep under the boat. That is one steep mountain. For those who have been to Banff Alberta in Canada.....those mountains (The Rockies) start at 4500 ft (i.e. Banff is at 4500ft above sea level) and are just over 9000 ft high, so just 4500 ft difference. And they look big. Therefore if we were standing on the sea bed these islands would tower over 15000ft above us.
We could not see the bigger Island of Ilha Da Trindade being so much further off to our West. I went back to bed after John came on shift @ 06, in bright sunshine with the Island just visible. John had made pancakes for breakfast. The guys were kind enough to leave me some for when I woke up. Stui is going to make the rest of the Mackerel up for dinner with a mustard sauce. Mmmmmm!
So that was a big event in our trip, The next landfall will be South Africa. Now we need a close whale sighting for all of us to see, just to round things off. It's just before 13:00 here as I wrap this up and as usual the winds are taking their afternoon break, down to 8 knts.
-----------------
To answer more of your questions and comments.
About the sun. Right now as we approach the tropic of Capricorn, the sun is directly overhead at noon local as we come up to the longest day and Canada is headed for the longest night, of the year. Dec. 21st down here is equivalent to June 21st at home.
At Equinox the sun would be directly over the Equator but now it is almost directly over the Capricorn line. So Canadians are of course the furthest away from the sun right now as you can be. (Cold!). A picture right now would be the same as a summer
day at home.
Later as we get further South the sun will be in the North at noon, (Australians are used to this, but Canadians are used to seeing the sun in the South at Noon) maybe we can get a pic of that.
If at the equator you are spinning around at over 1100 mph I believe compared to 900 at florida and 600 at home, I'm going by memory here so could be wrong. Sunset therefore will be quicker at the Equator.
About the compass....variations and the difference in the Southern hemisphere. Since we are a modern boat and we live in 2008 we don't use magnetic North, we use true North. This never varies. The GPS,s all are set to that.
Our compass of course does use magnetic but we just steer by a number there, that relates to our true North. We figure our course to the next commanders weather mark, then take into account the wind. And has been the case for most of this trip...the wind is the determining factor. Then we just sail as hard on the wind as we can and see what that is on the compass.
When I relieve Brendan on watch, he tells me what he has been steering. I try that and improve if I can or just stay the same. And the same happens when John comes up to relieve my watch.
As we make our landfall courses will be more important so we will use the GPS and just figure out what the magnetic compass says after that.
For communications we are presently using our satellite phone to email, because Ham radio frequencies are weak at the moment. We will continue to use these two methods of communication throughout the trip all the way to Melbourne. We prefer Ham radio connections, as they are free. Sat. phone is $1 a minute.
Cheers, Doug S.
Day 43 at sea
Portugese Man O' WarPicture by Brendan
Daily Log
Day: 43 at sea
Date: Friday December 12th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 4650 nm bearing 325
Distance from NY: 4328 nm bearing 326
Distance from Cape Town: 2700 nm bearing 119
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 144 nm
Latitude: 19 09.551 S
Longitude: 029 43.133 W
Boat Speed: 4 - 6 knots
Boat Heading: 150 SSE
Boat Sails: #1 jib full main
Weather Conditions: sunny hot sun comfortable breeze
Barometer: 1024.3
Sea State: 2 - 4 ft. short and choppy
Wind Direction/Speed E 5 - 8 knots
Beaufort Scale: 2 - 3
Temp: Air: 28C Ocean: 26C
Cloud Cover: clear overhead clouds on horizon
Greetings from the Fish Eaters and explorers,
Feeling pretty pleased with our haul from Thursday, just after 8am boat time, the CEO smiled slightly, disappeared into the galley, surfacing some 15 minutes later with a plate of chunk size fried mackerel. Deliciious, and they kept coming until the crew groaned enough enough for now - how about a cold one? Our fridge is amazing - want a cold one? Sure thing it's nice and cold - can't beat it with a stick.
Later - having rested up after that strenuous effort - the chart called for a cluster of islands and our route went right into them.
The smartie navigators reckoned we would see them about dawn Sat. - with a bit of luck. We'll see if we are any good at playing explorers.
HH was a celebration of the full Moon rising - a spectacular golden-yellow globe on the Eastern horizon. Moonshine burnished the ocean surface giving us a magnificent night scene on the South Atlantic.
Wind conditions continue favourable and the bets are coming in on the date of arrival in Cape Town - the SM says Dec 29, the CEO Dec 31, The QM Jan 4, the CO Jan 3, and the CD Dec 30.
Cheers from the explorers
------------
Excerpts from Doug S. email earlier:
As John has told you, we had some excitement with our dinner yesterday, as Stui landed the mackerel. The dinner was really great even with the interruption. They have come a long way with instant potatoes. We had the last of our cabbage. It had been frozen so wasn't the best coleslaw of the trip.
After some quick emails, it was off to bed for me to catch some sleep before my 21:00 shift. My alarm didn't wake me (again) and poor Brendan had to come and get me 25 minutes into my shift. New alarm for me from now on!
Nice winds for my steer, and speeds around 7-8. Mostly clear with a very bright moon. Blotted out all but the brightest stars. Just as John was relieving my shift, a slight rain shower was starting, but it wasn't much.
Today, caught some sun while reading and Doug G started making some fish nuggets,(using shake n bake ) from last evening catch. (He used to own a fish n chip shop so he knows what he's doing. His batter on the Mahi Mahi was better, but this was still excellent). He kept making them and we kept eating 'til we could eat no more. Still lots of fish left too!!
Doug G, Stui, and Brendan coordinated the capture of a Portuguese Man-o-War, with a lookout, helmsman, and bucketman. Got one on their second try. Studied him and took some pics and then set it free. ( Will send pics when we have good connection).
My afternoon steer was uneventful from 12-15. Low winds around 6-8 and boat speeds 5-6.
HH and dinner took place together as everyone still full of fish nuggets. Watched the sunset and moon rise as it looks full tonight.
We are about 60 miles from a pair of islands that we're going to get fairly close to. This should happen in about 10 hours, during daylight. We plan on being well away from them, so probably won't see them.
They are at latitude 20 29 S, longitude 028 51W (Ilha Martim Vaz) and Ilha Trindade latitude 20 29s, longitude 029 28W.
Both Islands are tops of underwater mountains so there are no reefs around and it drops off very quickly to very deep depths. This will be our closest approach to land so thank you GPS and charts!! Let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Zoom right in as close as possible, on map, for clear and close up view of the islands. Also click on higlighted word above to read more info. or check out "Student links" on the right side of the main page of our blog for same link. Be sure to scan down the information page to read some interesting information of past sailing expeditions that have called in to these islands, including my favourite..Scott...and even a mention on episodes of Star Trek, (for you trekkie fans).
Cheers! Doug S.
Day: 43 at sea
Date: Friday December 12th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 4650 nm bearing 325
Distance from NY: 4328 nm bearing 326
Distance from Cape Town: 2700 nm bearing 119
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 144 nm
Latitude: 19 09.551 S
Longitude: 029 43.133 W
Boat Speed: 4 - 6 knots
Boat Heading: 150 SSE
Boat Sails: #1 jib full main
Weather Conditions: sunny hot sun comfortable breeze
Barometer: 1024.3
Sea State: 2 - 4 ft. short and choppy
Wind Direction/Speed E 5 - 8 knots
Beaufort Scale: 2 - 3
Temp: Air: 28C Ocean: 26C
Cloud Cover: clear overhead clouds on horizon
Greetings from the Fish Eaters and explorers,
Feeling pretty pleased with our haul from Thursday, just after 8am boat time, the CEO smiled slightly, disappeared into the galley, surfacing some 15 minutes later with a plate of chunk size fried mackerel. Deliciious, and they kept coming until the crew groaned enough enough for now - how about a cold one? Our fridge is amazing - want a cold one? Sure thing it's nice and cold - can't beat it with a stick.
Later - having rested up after that strenuous effort - the chart called for a cluster of islands and our route went right into them.
The smartie navigators reckoned we would see them about dawn Sat. - with a bit of luck. We'll see if we are any good at playing explorers.
HH was a celebration of the full Moon rising - a spectacular golden-yellow globe on the Eastern horizon. Moonshine burnished the ocean surface giving us a magnificent night scene on the South Atlantic.
Wind conditions continue favourable and the bets are coming in on the date of arrival in Cape Town - the SM says Dec 29, the CEO Dec 31, The QM Jan 4, the CO Jan 3, and the CD Dec 30.
Cheers from the explorers
------------
Excerpts from Doug S. email earlier:
As John has told you, we had some excitement with our dinner yesterday, as Stui landed the mackerel. The dinner was really great even with the interruption. They have come a long way with instant potatoes. We had the last of our cabbage. It had been frozen so wasn't the best coleslaw of the trip.
After some quick emails, it was off to bed for me to catch some sleep before my 21:00 shift. My alarm didn't wake me (again) and poor Brendan had to come and get me 25 minutes into my shift. New alarm for me from now on!
Nice winds for my steer, and speeds around 7-8. Mostly clear with a very bright moon. Blotted out all but the brightest stars. Just as John was relieving my shift, a slight rain shower was starting, but it wasn't much.
Today, caught some sun while reading and Doug G started making some fish nuggets,(using shake n bake ) from last evening catch. (He used to own a fish n chip shop so he knows what he's doing. His batter on the Mahi Mahi was better, but this was still excellent). He kept making them and we kept eating 'til we could eat no more. Still lots of fish left too!!
Doug G, Stui, and Brendan coordinated the capture of a Portuguese Man-o-War, with a lookout, helmsman, and bucketman. Got one on their second try. Studied him and took some pics and then set it free. ( Will send pics when we have good connection).
My afternoon steer was uneventful from 12-15. Low winds around 6-8 and boat speeds 5-6.
HH and dinner took place together as everyone still full of fish nuggets. Watched the sunset and moon rise as it looks full tonight.
We are about 60 miles from a pair of islands that we're going to get fairly close to. This should happen in about 10 hours, during daylight. We plan on being well away from them, so probably won't see them.
They are at latitude 20 29 S, longitude 028 51W (Ilha Martim Vaz) and Ilha Trindade latitude 20 29s, longitude 029 28W.
Both Islands are tops of underwater mountains so there are no reefs around and it drops off very quickly to very deep depths. This will be our closest approach to land so thank you GPS and charts!! Let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Zoom right in as close as possible, on map, for clear and close up view of the islands. Also click on higlighted word above to read more info. or check out "Student links" on the right side of the main page of our blog for same link. Be sure to scan down the information page to read some interesting information of past sailing expeditions that have called in to these islands, including my favourite..Scott...and even a mention on episodes of Star Trek, (for you trekkie fans).
Cheers! Doug S.
Day 42 at sea
Dec. 11th Stui catches a 15lb MackerelPhoto by Doug G.
Day: 42 at sea
Date: Thursday December 11th Noon EDT
Distance from Oakville: 4515 nm bearing 325
Distance from NY: 4220 nm bearing 326
Distance from Cape Town: 2805 nm bearing 123
Distance travelled in 24 hours: 162.5 nm NEW HIGH!
Latitude: 16 52.082 S
Longitude: 030 28.003 W
Boat Speed: 5 - 9 knots
Boat Heading: 180 S
Boat Sails: #1 jib #2 reef main
Barometer: 1022.6
Beaufort Scale: 3 - 4
Sea State: 2 - 6 ft. short and choppy
Weather Conditions: sunny warm puffy clouds
Wind Direction/Speed E 8 - 12 knots
Temp: Air: 30C Ocean: 26C / 79F
Cloud Cover: 40%
Greetings from the Thursday Slackers...until dinner time,
Thursday in the South Atlantic tropics - 500 miles, 500 miles (that dang Peter Paul & Mary song), 500 miles off the coast of Brazil and 800 miles from Copacabana - the crew insisted on going to the beach but the SM vetoed that because the dress code there is simply not up to the FGT standards. Apparently they all wear thongs and not shoes, and they have something known as a Brazilian haircut which the crew were anxious to investigate further.
Having warded off that crisis, the disgruntled crew then insisted on a beer after pancakes - some nasty eating habits surfacing after 6 weeks at sea. Slacking continued until the next crisis - the starboard fishing reel rachet broke so with the combined brains of 5 men( which equals 1 women ) it was fixed in under 3 hours. Very satisfied with our efforts we broke off work to continue slacking .
The SM woke up to the smells of steak BBQing, with mashed spuds, onions, coldslaw, and mixed veges - the 3 crew team prepared this magnificent feast.
So there we were - 5 hungry guys tucking into the mashed spuds when the Port reel screamed - mackerel, mackerel, big mackerel - Stui - being the closest sprang into action, while the rest of us continued munching for about 10 seconds before we headed for our battle stations. Gaff, knives, buckets, hammers, lots of advice, minor amount of yelling, instructions from the 5 experts, and there she was - a 15lb King Mackrel landed on the transom.
Within 10 minutes there was 10lbs of fillets in the freezer - one slightly wounded QM - the bleeding stopped with the ½ hour, and 5 quietly satisfied sailors sitting down to knock off the steak dinner.
HH in the cockpit watching our 42nd ocean sunset.
We are saying nothing about the wind forecast.
Cheers from the Fishermen.
-------------------------------------
Excerpts from Doug S email Thursday morning:
Very nice warm weather here the last few days. Might be too hot if the boat wasn't going so fast. Yesterday, Stui made some bread, and we had chicken salad, salami, and cheese to go with it. A nice sunset with some high wispy clouds. John and I saw a muted GREEN FLASH. (click word to read definition). There is a lot of motion on the boat and the sun went down and came up again and did turn green but it wasn't as distinct as the one I saw with Audrey on the Gulf coast years ago.
My shift last night from 15:00 - 18:00 was the sunset cruise, and it was a very nice sail with steady winds and fast boat speed between 6 and 8 knots. Everyone sleeping at 18:00 so off to bed for me too. (The time would be about 20:00- 20:30 local) My trouble is I only sleep about 5 hours at a time. Awake just after midnight, so played Nintendo DS for awhile. It's hard to do in the Vee berth being bounced and rocked around. My morning shift was 06-09. I set my alarm for 5:45, (accidentally p.m.) so woke up with a start at 06:05. I always seem to be late to relieve Brendan's shift. Funny the other Doug is always late for Stui. Must have something to do with the name Doug. Again a nice sail with winds about the same.
Only thing of note this morning was a Portuguese man-o-war jelly fish floated close by the boat. At first it looked just like a pink plastic bag, but Stui and I got a good look it. Just the one all on it's own.
Doug G made pancakes for breakfast, and Stui and I fixed up a fishing reel ratchet. That was about it.
Some of you are asking if we are getting bored yet. It has been a long trip but it is so different from normal life that it hasn't gotten old yet. Not sure if any would be quick to do such a long trip again, but that was the whole point. A once in a life time trip. Lots of things to keep oneself occupied. Fixing things, sailing, cooking, cleaning, hygiene, resting, reading, it is very relaxing. The view is always the same but different also. The waves are always bigger, smaller, longer, shorter. The water colour is always changing too. The blues are just amazing. Flying fish are skimming the waves. And we're always on the lookout for dolphins, whales, ships, or something different. So far so good.
A correction for a statement made the other day. Sorry about that but I'm always getting my left and right mixed up.
Port tack is when the wind is coming over the LEFT SIDE of the boat as port is on the left.
Cheers, Doug S.