Saturday 25th October
Position 4'58.072N 28'10.298W
Wind 210 Degrees 6.5 knots
COG 239 Degrees SOG 6.1 knots
Distance Covered 2,607 Nautical Miles. Distance to next Waypoint 849 Miles.
The last 24 hours have really been up and down in typical Doldrums weather although I think we have, in lots of ways, had the best of it. Sure we have been pretty much becalmed for a while but these have only ever proven, so far, to be the lull before the 'storm' as it were and have been quite short-lived. These lulls are pretty infuriating though as you spin through 360 degrees searching for a puff of wind to get you going but that wind is itself spinning round and round - and we don't want to be travelling north for any time at all, however briefly! So long as we have some boat speed however, we have steerage and can then try to do something with the sails to match the course. It always seems that once the new wind starts to kick in, it is from a substantially different direction from what you had prior to the lull. So, set you sails and off you go again.
It was just so this morning and after 45 minutes of frustrating sailing at below one knot, we found the wind had moved round to almost due south and we were into upwind sailing mode for the first time since leaving Portugal. So the spinnaker gets a rest and we get a bit more breeze over the deck - lovely!
There isn't much sign of the big convection squall type clouds around today and it may be that we are now starting to get into the new gradient wind that will see us pretty much all the way to Recife - although we will be hoping for rather more of it!
We have managed to make some further good ground up on the leaders and are now within 45 miles of the Chileans having, at one point, been more than 175 miles behind.
We had a passenger for a while on board this morning - photo attached. Can anyone help me identify this bird? To me it looks, and flew, rather like a juvenile heron. Not sure we're in the right place for one of those though!
Love to all.
Jeremy and David
Friday 24th October
Position 7'04.539N 27'07.311W
Wind 005 Degrees 14.1 knots
COG 148.3 deg SOG 8.0 knots
Distance Covered 2,446 Nautical Miles. Distance to next Waypoint 989 Miles.
We are well into the Doldrums now and experiencing pretty much everything they can throw at us, from patches of almost no wind at all to sudden squalls. You can see the dark heavy squall clouds up in front of you and you know that you are going to meet. They are both good and bad things - on the one hand you know you are going to get some wind, on the other you really don't know from which direction! So, we need to be ready to change sails, put a reef into the main or gybe at very short notice so we are kept on our toes. It isn't so bad during the day as you can see the squalls coming so it will be interesting tonight when we can't!
These squalls also come with so much rain that I almost feel at home in Scotland (although it is still a little warmer here..)! I took advantage of the first one through and grabbed my shampoo and shower gel and had my first proper wash (apart from baby wipes!) since leaving Portugal. Wonderful!
We seem to be gaining good miles on all of our competitors and are now under 100 miles behind the Chileans and Roaring Forty and just over 200 miles behind Beluga - an improvement of nearly 150 miles. Now, they are still out in front and they will be clear of the doldrums well before we will be even though at present we are still doing better speed over the ground than them. Bring on those squalls we say!
David's cold appears to be improving now that he has passed it on to Jeremy! Apart from that though we are both fit and well, getting enough sleep and eating pretty well.
Love to all.
Jeremy and David
Thursday 23rd October
Position 9'39.430 N 26'57.374W
Wind 12.4 Knots 74 Degrees
COG 205 degrees SOG 9.4 knots
Distance Covered 2,231 Nautical Miles
Well not a bad day at the office with better wind than expected and we are still able to maintain a course of west of 200 degrees which is about where we want to be. Sometime ion the next 24 hours we will turn and head pretty much due south in order to try and cross the ITCZ as quickly as possible - but being west right now looks as if it is the favourable position. Wind strength has been much better than expected and finally we are managing to knock some miles of the Germans and Chileans whilst maintaining our lead over the Yarpies on their Banana Boat!
David says he didn't realise he was sailing with an old woman and took the attached photograph to support his case. Think he is a cheeky whatsit myself and I was just trying to keep the worst of the sun off! Not my best look ever though I have to agree!
Freeze dried roast chicken last night was probably worse than expected and really didn't bear much relationship to the real thing. best part was the mashed potato! Breakfast this morning was another experience - freeze dried sacrambled eggs with bits of 'beef bacon' - whatever that is! All part of the adventure and there will be lots of culinary undelights to come I'm sure!
We had a fantastic aerobic display from a Gannet last night trying to catch flying fish. I hadn't realised that the gannets we all so love to watch at home migrate south to western Africa over the winter (so Margaret Smith tells me - thanks!)- and now we know what they eat. We had been wondering for a while whether there was some specialist bird that tries to catch these flighty fish and now we know. He was smart enough to realise that quite a lot of fish leap out of the water just in front of Mowgli's bow and he therefore followed us for a good half an hour or so, tumbling and turning and occasionally diving down after them. Despite his seemingly amazing skill though, I'm not sure he ever did catch one!
Love to all.
Jeremy & David
Wednesday 22nd October
Position 12'04.989 N 25'54.832 W
Wind 10.2 knots, 82 degrees
COG 224. SOG 6.6 knots
Distance Covered 2,111 Nautical Miles
Well, things have slowed down and heated up at the same time! Temperature inside the boat today hit 40 degrees celsius, it was unbearably hot in the sun and you couldn't stand on deck without shoes on!
We have been doing a bit of housework - cleaning the decks and doing some proper tidying up inside, including moving all our spare food etc forward now that we are in lighter airs. We ate the last of the fresh bacon and eggs for lunch and are now looking forward to freeze dried roast chicken and vegetable with mashed potatoes - inspiration from Dave Brown's email last night no doubt - although we will be missing out on the 1996 Chablis! And I'm not sure it will be quite the same as the real thing!
We also spend a great deal of time looking at weather forecast files, plotting the relative positions of our competitors and generally trying to work out our tactics. It is an old saying in sailing racing that races are won or lost in light winds and there is every chance that our passage through the ITCZ will change everything in the leaderboard. Of course the wind is one of those frustrating things we can't control and there are some directions we just cannot go (dead downwind or upwind) even if we want to! So, still trying to head west but going more south at the moment than we would like - better than going more west with a bit of north in it!
One of the other things we can't control in racing of course is how the other boats are doing - we can only sail our own race, hope not to make mistakes and keep boat speed up at all times. News is filtering through of some of the dramas our other competitors have faced and we are very pleased to hear that everyone is still safe, well and still in the race.
Sounds like encouraging news also with Alex Thomson (David's brother) on Hugo Boss after their collision at the weekend. With just over two weeks to go before the start of the Vendee it sounds as if they are still planning to be on the start line. We are all thinking of them.
Love to all.
Jeremy & DAvid
Tuesday 21st October
Position 13'50.696 N 24'03.611 W
Wind 12.6 knots, 51 Deg
COG 266 deg. SOG 7.8 knots
Distance covered 1,953 Miles
We finally took the decision to leave the Cape Verde Islands to starboard rather than run the risk of wind shadows by going through them - and the wind was against us passing through without lots of gybes in any case. So, we did see some of them in the distance but only on the horizon.
Wind has been getting steadily lighter today although we did enjoy some stronger winds in the acceleration zone south of the islands this afternoon. Really aiming to get as much 'west' in as possible now before making our break to the south into the dreaded Doldrums - or Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) as it is more properly known these days! We won't really be into it properly however for another couple of days when we pass below 10 degrees south.
Weather is roasting hot and very hard to find any shade on board. Jeremy is still a bit of a lobster so is having to be a bit more careful! There was a brief shower of rain this morning and we are very much looking forward to the proper tropical showers we can expect in the doldrums - a chance to cool off and have a shower. Just have to make sure we have washed the shampoo out before the rain stops!
Sorry to hear the weather has been so horrid at home!
We have finally reached the end of our supplies of fresh food and from tomorrow will be on a diet of solid freeze dried which doesn't hold much excitement for us! I have finally managed to persuade David that all fruit cake does not have to be dry and horrible and he is now tucking into Mum's delicious cake with gusto! Not sure that two cakes per leg are going to be enough Mum!! (only joking - thank you!)
Thank you all for your emails and brilliant answers to our turtle question - they keep us much amused and entertained and it is so brilliant to get the kids involved in following our progress. Sorry we can't answer all of your emails individually but believe me, they are all coming to us via Pip.
Now, tell us some more about the Cape Verde Islands... I don't think they are an independent country so which country do they belong to, what language do they speak and what currency do they use??
Love to all.
Jeremy and David
Monday 20th October
Wind 62 Deg 13.2 knots
COG 271. SOG 7.5
Distance Covered 1,723 miles.
Well, I guess it's one - nil to them, or maybe more given the reaction a flying fish hitting David in the face invoked! More than he can handle, being slapped in the face with a wet fish! Temper, temper!
As well as lots of flying fish around however, I was surprised on the morning rounds looking for corpses to find several small squid aboard, one of them stuck, dried, to the mainsail just aft of the mast. Now, this is a phenomenon I haven't come across before although David assures me it is normal. Flying Squid! I ask you! What are they up to?
We have continued to make good progress south and are now just south west of the Cape Verde Islands and about to gybe our way through them. Not sure wether we will see any of them yet as we intend to keep clear of the more mountainous of them at least - they will have a huge wind shadow behind them that we need to avoid. We have enjoyed fair winds and pretty good sailing, mostly without drama. We did blow the tack line (the line at the end of the pole that the spinnaker is attached to) at about 1.30 am and that took a good hour or more to fix - why do these things always happen at night? Sods Law...
We have some answers to our question on what turtles eat but there must be lots more children out there - nieces, nephews, friends etc - who might like to look this up for us and let us know what they think. I will be throwing a few more questions in their direction over the next few weeks so have those atlases and encyclopedias at hand!
Hope this bleeding credit crunch isn't too depressing at home.
Love to all.
Jeremy & David
Sunday 19th October
Position 18'36.322N 19'47.622W
Distance Covered 1,494 miles
Wind 23.4 knots 47 Degrees
COG 183, SOG 12.8 knots
Well, can I tell you, we were treated to an amazing sound and light show last night! David and I were sitting by the chart table when we heard the distinctive whistling and clicking of dolphins chatting to each other! I guess a thin hulled fibreglass boat makes for a fine auditorium and we were chuckling away listening to them just outside - within a a couple of feet from where we sat. We then moved out on deck to see if we could see them and WOW! The phosphorescence was just amazing. The whole boat was surrounded by glistening, sparkling little lights, so much so that it looked as if we were flood lit from below. The dolphins however were the stars of the show and created their own 'jacket' of light so we could clearly see them swimming under water and jigging about playing with our bow wave. In fact the only time we couldn't see them was when they came up for air! So hard to describe but a truly amazing sight.
So, back to sailing! The wind really picked up for us last night after we had reduced our sail area and the sea state picked up accordingly. Suddenly, for the first time this trip, we had a whole lot of water coming over the deck and we were both soaked. The sailing was exhilarating although challenging and it was all too easy to lose concentration for just a moment and put the boat into a broach. All was well until we noticed a sudden drop in boat speed and an increase in our wake - we had caught something on our rudder and it was time for immediate action. So furl the headsail away and bring the boat into the wind to stop her, and sail backwards if possible and out with the boat hook. We were lucky this time as we managed to free a large chunk of fishing net pretty quickly - I wasn't relishing the thought of having to put my dive tank on and get down there to sort it out!
Dawn brought with it the first real numbers of flying fish and boy can they fly! We were sailing at about 15 knots and they seem to fly at about the same speed - often straight towards us! Helming became a dangerous operation as we were forever ducking to avoid being struck - so far, so lucky! We did have quite a number on deck though and quickly put them back in the sea before they started decomposing in the heat. Just hope we have managed to find them all!
Now a question for all the youngsters out there! We saw a giant turtle floating by this afternoon - probably about two and a half feet long. Now what we don't know and you can help us with is - What do turtles eat?? Answers by email and I'm sure there will be prizes!
Enjoying some music whilst we sail with thanks to Dave Rice of Dogtag Insurance and Duncan Campbell of Jeffrey Crawford & Co (two of our wonderful corporate sponsors) who between them downloaded their entire music collection onto a new Ppod and made some decent playlists for us. Thank you!
Love to all.
Jeremy & David