Whaddawewant? We want a mahi mahi or Dorado or something else blue and shiny, and we want it now. All we ever seem to do is lose bits of our lines. Many multicoloured squid and wobbling thingies have we lost and nary a tiddler to show for it. Tuesday 29th was pretty kind to us and allowed us to trundle on at 6 to 8 knots with our trademark 3 white sail rig. We could have tried harder and hoisted a large floppy coloured thingy but we had learnt not to trust that fluky little 20 knot tailwind. Or perhaps we're just lazy. Anyway today consisted of more sock drying, a bit of one armed sunspanner wrestling, cured spanish jamon and cheese, fruitcake and earl grey tea, and a bit of frantic midday battling with a burst of 25 knots with 2.5 metre swells. David discovered that pasta jars don't bounce and that gravity causes the red stuff inside to get everywhere. His tuna pasta gunge was pretty good all the same.
AM Weds 30th
Overnight last night the wind fell lighter and became more fluky, and a big crossing swell and sea gave us an uneasy corkscrewing motion which required constant helm and sail trimming. All a bit tired this morning and looking forward to our 2nd ever bacon and egg brekkie. The whole day has been declared 'half-way day' as its impossible to define exactly what half way is (time, log distance, straight line distance etc). Nick says he will have a seawater wash on deck and then bake bread and 'stick bits in it'. David says he would like a mid Atlantic swim. Difficult in a 2 metre swell....but we'll have a look this evening. Still pootling along under our strange rig, but perhaps we'll regain courage today to put up one of the coloured beasties so we can gain a few more miles. Anyway must go as brekkie preps and daily radio net calls.
Position 16d 49.4 N; 36d 8.1 W
Tootle Pip
Mike, David, & Nick on RAPAREE
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
29th November - Windy and Rolly Dhobey Days in the Trades
28 & 29 November
Monday morning, all bright eyed and bushy tailed today after a peaceful night's trading under a starry sky. We haven't managed to catch any whales to keep the crew occupied with scrimshaw yet, so skipper creates job list as diversionary tactic. Sock and smalls washing, loo cleaning, sleeping bag ionising, that sort of stuff. We have now cut deep into trade winds territory so a gybe to the west is needed. A 30 min fumble of poles and lines. At least nothing stuck aloft this time. Skipper would love the chute up but ruefully regards his bruises and chickens out. 6.5 knots under white sails will have to do instead. Morning radio report shows our position in the fleet to be pretty good, although one 44ft boat which had managed to achieve about the best handicap in the fleet (better than the small boats and on a par with a gaff rigged coalbarge towing a parachute) was mysteriously flying along in front at 8 knots. Hmm....
Nick instructing David on the mysteries of noon sights with the Ebco Special plastic sextant. The boat looks like a Kowloon dhoby wallah's rickshaw...draped from end to end in socks and M&S shreddies. No sign of any fish whatever, apart from little flying jobbies. One boat in the fleet has caught so many dorados that their freezer is full. Freezer...who needs one?
As I write, our eminent surgeon is washing out the loo floor wearing his surgical gloves, a matelot t-shirt and a straw boater. David, by the way, was instrumental in using tendon repair techniques to sew together our spinnaker halyard yesterday. Obviously surgeons are after all more useful on boats than naval officers. Clocks back 1 hour today as we have crossed the 30 deg W line. Although it confuses us, we have to keep doing this as the wretched sun won't stay still.
The working day turns into a very bouncy and black night with huge surf topped rollers cork-screwing us along on our beam ends. The wind gets up to over 25 or so and stays there. We have a full main, and genoa, and also a large staysail out to windward. The foresails are boomed out and preventered. Every sheet and guy has anti-chafe running blocks and lines and the main is pressed hard into the lower backstays. The new running backstays seem to be working hard to keep the mast from flexing, but, in short, we are over-pressed and the rig is twanging like Vanessa Mae's fiddle. Getting a reef in the main and genoa is a 30 min muscular struggle but once done, Raparee settles into a fast ungainly and bumpy ride. Our speed during surges between 7 and 9 knots and each phosphorescent sprayed surge is loud and furious.
Early AM Tues 29, time to lick our wounds and decide strategy for the day. We are getting in 160 mile days, and are 140 miles from our halfway point, but overpressed and still not quite going in the right direction. Our autopilot is working hard, but is continuously on full load, so a change of course and rig is essential. But fast downwind sailing course changes also mean complicated rig changes and we are all a bit whacked and bruised. Maybe if we wait a bit, the sunshine will solve it all and anyway the wind might change more in our favour......?
Monday morning, all bright eyed and bushy tailed today after a peaceful night's trading under a starry sky. We haven't managed to catch any whales to keep the crew occupied with scrimshaw yet, so skipper creates job list as diversionary tactic. Sock and smalls washing, loo cleaning, sleeping bag ionising, that sort of stuff. We have now cut deep into trade winds territory so a gybe to the west is needed. A 30 min fumble of poles and lines. At least nothing stuck aloft this time. Skipper would love the chute up but ruefully regards his bruises and chickens out. 6.5 knots under white sails will have to do instead. Morning radio report shows our position in the fleet to be pretty good, although one 44ft boat which had managed to achieve about the best handicap in the fleet (better than the small boats and on a par with a gaff rigged coalbarge towing a parachute) was mysteriously flying along in front at 8 knots. Hmm....
Nick instructing David on the mysteries of noon sights with the Ebco Special plastic sextant. The boat looks like a Kowloon dhoby wallah's rickshaw...draped from end to end in socks and M&S shreddies. No sign of any fish whatever, apart from little flying jobbies. One boat in the fleet has caught so many dorados that their freezer is full. Freezer...who needs one?
As I write, our eminent surgeon is washing out the loo floor wearing his surgical gloves, a matelot t-shirt and a straw boater. David, by the way, was instrumental in using tendon repair techniques to sew together our spinnaker halyard yesterday. Obviously surgeons are after all more useful on boats than naval officers. Clocks back 1 hour today as we have crossed the 30 deg W line. Although it confuses us, we have to keep doing this as the wretched sun won't stay still.
The working day turns into a very bouncy and black night with huge surf topped rollers cork-screwing us along on our beam ends. The wind gets up to over 25 or so and stays there. We have a full main, and genoa, and also a large staysail out to windward. The foresails are boomed out and preventered. Every sheet and guy has anti-chafe running blocks and lines and the main is pressed hard into the lower backstays. The new running backstays seem to be working hard to keep the mast from flexing, but, in short, we are over-pressed and the rig is twanging like Vanessa Mae's fiddle. Getting a reef in the main and genoa is a 30 min muscular struggle but once done, Raparee settles into a fast ungainly and bumpy ride. Our speed during surges between 7 and 9 knots and each phosphorescent sprayed surge is loud and furious.
Early AM Tues 29, time to lick our wounds and decide strategy for the day. We are getting in 160 mile days, and are 140 miles from our halfway point, but overpressed and still not quite going in the right direction. Our autopilot is working hard, but is continuously on full load, so a change of course and rig is essential. But fast downwind sailing course changes also mean complicated rig changes and we are all a bit whacked and bruised. Maybe if we wait a bit, the sunshine will solve it all and anyway the wind might change more in our favour......?
Monday, 28 November 2011
27 November - firmly in the Trades and battling (South)west
All up for early start untangling stuff. A crazily busy morning. Pull spinnaker halyard out of mast by sewing another halyard to its tail. This in order to replace the smashed head block. Multiple painful mast ascents. Skipper goes aloft and swearing at the waves 50ft below as he clings on with teeth while assembling and mousing 3 shackles and block at crazingly gyrating masthead (cliche warning). Job finished at 1330 with all crew feeling thrashed. Time for cheese and fruitcake. Desperate to get some revs on to improve our speed but too knackered to face up to another hoist of that devil's bag of tricks called a cruising chute. Decide that as its Sunday aft we should be happy to do some dhobeying and trundle along at 6kts under twin jibs and main. Skipper slightly pained at possible loss of rankings but tired crew make painful mitsakes for little gain. Next debate is when to turn west (which could be a slow dead downwind run) as we are now keeping the wind on the quarter to maintain speed. Sooner or later this will turn to handicap rather than gain. We've got to work out when to turn.
Still trying fishing but nowt gained except for loss of 3 traces and lures. Plenty of flying fish, but no big scary creatures. They are being kept at bay by the dreadful smells emanating from the boat. Stale bodies, rotten clothes, sour milk, cabbage, old fruit, bodily waste etc. A bit like an old bungalow in Eastbourne or Bournmouth I suppose, and when did you see any whales there? Now that reminds me, where did I put that Stenna Stairlift for the mast?
Mike, Nick, David, on RAPAREE
Still trying fishing but nowt gained except for loss of 3 traces and lures. Plenty of flying fish, but no big scary creatures. They are being kept at bay by the dreadful smells emanating from the boat. Stale bodies, rotten clothes, sour milk, cabbage, old fruit, bodily waste etc. A bit like an old bungalow in Eastbourne or Bournmouth I suppose, and when did you see any whales there? Now that reminds me, where did I put that Stenna Stairlift for the mast?
Mike, Nick, David, on RAPAREE
Sunday, 27 November 2011
26 November - Into the trades, and a spot of bother (again)
26 November - Into the trades, and a spot of bother (again) We just managed to scrape in our daily 144 miles over the last 2 days, ......we need to keep up our 6 knot average. Progress is helped by our magic rig. Boomed out staysail to windward, well forward and fairly flat so it feeds wind into the genoa to fill it at all times even well offwind. This rig is almost as fast as a cruising chute and is safe and stable. We had hoped for quiet Saturday at sea, and so it started. First signs of tradewind clouds and a little less swell. Temperature definitely on the up. Getting in our stride and taking on little jobs on board. We see other boats about every 2 hours and sometimes chat on VHF. There is a big HF SSB chat session amongst the cruising section at noon daily so we can get the weather, and positions and swop banter.
Crusising chute up each afternoon once any overnight chaos has been cleared. This a very large and sometimes troublesome sail which we fly with pole, sheets, and guy, as an asymmetric spinnaker. Pulls like a trooper but a bugger to launch and recover. Up today at 1300 and crack along all afternoon. Cross 20 degrees North at 1500.
As evening arrives, our troubles begin. Time to get 'the thing' down. David is the bowman, with Nick in the cockpit and skipper faffing on deck directing. Guy and sheet slipped and the halyard run, but the sail stays firmly up while its bits begin to wrap up everything forward of the mast. Panic ensues and darkness arrives. Skipper dons his climbing gear for bumpy ascent. Ropes everywhere. Up aloft the problem is obvious. Spinnaker block mangled and halyard jammed in the remains. Skipper clinging onto 30ft arc of swing and wishing he was elsewhere and 30yrs younger. Once released, the chute falls far below into our bow wave. Battered descent to deck with mangled halyard block. Deck looks like aftermath of tsunami. Crack on with getting out big genoa and boomed out staysail. Leave the junk till tomorrow. Must keep speed up. Crew make skipper go below to cook Chili as he is getting in the way. Beer all round. All totally knackered and bruised after 3 hours of mayhem. (Fastnet race anyone?). Not looking forward to tomorrows mast climb to reinstall spinnaker halyard and block. Crossed tracks with 2 boats tonight. At least we managed a 146 mile day despite the knockbacks, and tomorrow we crack 1000 since the start.
Not looking forward to further mast-climbing.
M, D, N on RAPAREE
Crusising chute up each afternoon once any overnight chaos has been cleared. This a very large and sometimes troublesome sail which we fly with pole, sheets, and guy, as an asymmetric spinnaker. Pulls like a trooper but a bugger to launch and recover. Up today at 1300 and crack along all afternoon. Cross 20 degrees North at 1500.
As evening arrives, our troubles begin. Time to get 'the thing' down. David is the bowman, with Nick in the cockpit and skipper faffing on deck directing. Guy and sheet slipped and the halyard run, but the sail stays firmly up while its bits begin to wrap up everything forward of the mast. Panic ensues and darkness arrives. Skipper dons his climbing gear for bumpy ascent. Ropes everywhere. Up aloft the problem is obvious. Spinnaker block mangled and halyard jammed in the remains. Skipper clinging onto 30ft arc of swing and wishing he was elsewhere and 30yrs younger. Once released, the chute falls far below into our bow wave. Battered descent to deck with mangled halyard block. Deck looks like aftermath of tsunami. Crack on with getting out big genoa and boomed out staysail. Leave the junk till tomorrow. Must keep speed up. Crew make skipper go below to cook Chili as he is getting in the way. Beer all round. All totally knackered and bruised after 3 hours of mayhem. (Fastnet race anyone?). Not looking forward to tomorrows mast climb to reinstall spinnaker halyard and block. Crossed tracks with 2 boats tonight. At least we managed a 146 mile day despite the knockbacks, and tomorrow we crack 1000 since the start.
Not looking forward to further mast-climbing.
M, D, N on RAPAREE
Saturday, 26 November 2011
25 November
A busy day, but well-fed day starts at 0700. A dawn struggle on the foredeck , but after an hour all hands have fixed and untangled the wrapped cruising chute and genoa. David discovered stbd upper spreader steadily making its way through the Mainsail. 3 foot long seam split. We heave-to to reef the mainsail to bring the damage below the upper spreader and to flatten the sail to keep it off spreaders. Deployed furler genoa to stbd with boomed out no.1 staysail to port.
After David's amazing grilled cured Spanish bacon on brown bread breakfast our working day continued with reassembling the cruising chute and its bits and lowering and repairing the mainsail. Not brave enough for stitching yet so big patches were cut from a bolt of sticky-back dacron, and stuck on either side of sail. Difficult to do as even with sail lowered the job was 8 ft up and much effort was needed just clinging on to the boom.
Fishing tried again today by Nick, who is now into his 3rd lost trace, still with no visible reward. Obviously something out there bites. We probably couldnt handle it anyway even if we caught it.
First proper all sit down at table type supper this evening, for Mike's pork, beans and potato casserole.
Night watch with Orion and his friends. Counting Jupiters moons by binoculars. Rolling along in a phosphorescent spray under our strange hybrid 3-sail rig. No-one else in sight. Snoring, and other noises, and red lights below.
M, D, N
After David's amazing grilled cured Spanish bacon on brown bread breakfast our working day continued with reassembling the cruising chute and its bits and lowering and repairing the mainsail. Not brave enough for stitching yet so big patches were cut from a bolt of sticky-back dacron, and stuck on either side of sail. Difficult to do as even with sail lowered the job was 8 ft up and much effort was needed just clinging on to the boom.
Fishing tried again today by Nick, who is now into his 3rd lost trace, still with no visible reward. Obviously something out there bites. We probably couldnt handle it anyway even if we caught it.
First proper all sit down at table type supper this evening, for Mike's pork, beans and potato casserole.
Night watch with Orion and his friends. Counting Jupiters moons by binoculars. Rolling along in a phosphorescent spray under our strange hybrid 3-sail rig. No-one else in sight. Snoring, and other noises, and red lights below.
M, D, N
Friday, 25 November 2011
24th November............later that day!
PM 24th
Well weren't we smug today. After our Orca sighting and crossing into the tropics, things went swimmingly well. Proper Spanish lunch from our honorary spaniard, Nick. Attempted fishing for Dorado (loss of trace and squid lure thingy). Successful hoist of big asymmetric cruising chute, flown as a spinnaker. Flew straight and level until sunset and opened out the miles. Then came our problems. Never leave things too late. It gets dark very quickly very early in this here parish, and we weren't ready. When it came to lowering, boy did things go wrong. We got most of the sail down but the halyard and snuffing system took great delight in tying knots at the top of the mast so that a mess of lines and haliards now decorate the forestay trapping the genoa and leaving us a tangle of loose and flapping sail around the bow and forestay. We rig the inner forestay and struggle to raise our No1 staysail which we pole out. It pulls, but not as well as the real thing and so we limp along for the rest of the night at a more sedate pace. We stare forlornly at the mess on the foredeck and wonder grimly which eejit goes up the stick tomorrow to attack the tangle aloft.
M, D, N on Raparee
Well weren't we smug today. After our Orca sighting and crossing into the tropics, things went swimmingly well. Proper Spanish lunch from our honorary spaniard, Nick. Attempted fishing for Dorado (loss of trace and squid lure thingy). Successful hoist of big asymmetric cruising chute, flown as a spinnaker. Flew straight and level until sunset and opened out the miles. Then came our problems. Never leave things too late. It gets dark very quickly very early in this here parish, and we weren't ready. When it came to lowering, boy did things go wrong. We got most of the sail down but the halyard and snuffing system took great delight in tying knots at the top of the mast so that a mess of lines and haliards now decorate the forestay trapping the genoa and leaving us a tangle of loose and flapping sail around the bow and forestay. We rig the inner forestay and struggle to raise our No1 staysail which we pole out. It pulls, but not as well as the real thing and so we limp along for the rest of the night at a more sedate pace. We stare forlornly at the mess on the foredeck and wonder grimly which eejit goes up the stick tomorrow to attack the tangle aloft.
M, D, N on Raparee
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Raparee Days 4 to 5 (23/24 Nov) Nearly Tropeeecal
Busy couple of days rolling along, still under main and poled out genny. Speeds between 5.5 and 7.5 knots. Daily runs so far between 140 and 168. If poss we'd like to keep at least 144 (6 knot average). Amazingly starry night last night and nicve soft evening breeze. Time to get out the books and study the star pointers. Spagh Bol last night, and our first beers since leaving. Crossed VERY close (feet) from another yacht in pitch blackness (in silence). We very slowly left him astern...the conditions suited us, so he may well catch us later.
Nick got a shock during the morning watch as he heard this snort and saw a huge fin only feet away ahead of us. It was over 20ft long, and an Orca, according to the guide pics. It turned away very quickly just in time and we missed him by inches.
This morning's celebration was the crossing of the Tropic of Cancer, at 0730 ships time. Tiny tots of Cap'n Morgan's Rum were knocked back and phots in cockpit.
From Nick:
There was an old boat in the ARC
Whose crew were partial to shark
while on a dead run,
they landed a big one
But its bite was bad for their barque
David has entered a one man beard growing competition and has taken to wearing a mediaeval doge's hat.
Mike B
Nick M
Dr David Mc
Nick got a shock during the morning watch as he heard this snort and saw a huge fin only feet away ahead of us. It was over 20ft long, and an Orca, according to the guide pics. It turned away very quickly just in time and we missed him by inches.
This morning's celebration was the crossing of the Tropic of Cancer, at 0730 ships time. Tiny tots of Cap'n Morgan's Rum were knocked back and phots in cockpit.
From Nick:
There was an old boat in the ARC
Whose crew were partial to shark
while on a dead run,
they landed a big one
But its bite was bad for their barque
David has entered a one man beard growing competition and has taken to wearing a mediaeval doge's hat.
Mike B
Nick M
Dr David Mc
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