5/2/15
Up at 06:30, doing a few finishing touches and move the boat down the dock to the fuel berth. We top up the port tank ready fro the trip......that's another 400 litres.
We exit the harbour wall at 10:00.................surprisingly we have a decent wind and set off on the port tack on a broad reach at about 7 to 8 knots..........excellent stuff.
The wind comes and goes through the day, so the engine (better known on board as the "donkey") gets a fair bit of use.
We pass a few ships during the night, one going to Columbia.
Our course is set and we are heading for the mouth of the Amazon river.........true...........there is a large depression to our Southwest, so we are heading southeast to avoid it. This only puts an extra few hundred miles on the trip and should get us into the Trade winds quicker.............they are unusually far south this year......just our luck !!!!
6/2/15
Having the craiche with Kevin during a session of Meatloaf on the ipod, he tells us this will be his 15 TransAt.................blimey not bad, this is our first........all of us..............Andy , Carolyn and me.
7/2/15
Plying on we go, weather is still fairly cold with strong winds at times and lots of squally showers.
Generally, the sun is out in the morning for a short while then it clouds over in the afternoon.
A very serious game of "Ispy" was undertaken by myself, Andy and Kevin...........it was a tough match...............with the the likes of:
Sea, sun, sail, shackle...........but i eventually won with Stay sail..........it was recorded in the ships log !!!
My watch's are 06:00 to 08:00 ; 14:00 to 16:00 and 22:00 to 24:00...............i passed my watch onto Carolyn at 24:00 that night
8/2/15
Then at 01:00 i heard an enormous crash........the visability had been bad when i handed over to Carolyn, you just could'nt make out the horizon in front. We had the radar, which normally picks up rain showers.
However, we had'nt seen what was coming.....we sailed straight into the middle of a huge "Storm cell"............Carolyn reflects............
"it suddenly went very calm, less than 10 knots of wind...........then heavy rain........the wind then increased to 30 knots, we had some main sail up so i decided to reduce that......in the time i got to the wheel it was gusting 50, then 60 then 70 and actually hit 90 knots".......
Andy in the saloon heard her shout for assistance, he went up and due to the downpour of rain could'nt see her at the binnacle...........less than 4 metres away !!!!!
Very, very, luckily the intense rain had flattened the sea so we were'nt knocked down...........AMAZING !!! The squall of 90 knots lasted for about 1 minute and caused havoc.....later in the morning we found another "Dan bouy" had been reduced to pieces on the rail !!!!!!!!!
Thank goodness it eased later and we had a good sail in 35 knots winds for a good part of the remainder of the day.
9/2/15
Ha ha ha ........Jim lad............Happy Birthday to me................and what a way to spend your 60th birthday..............just brilliant, though, i'm missing family and friends.
Kevin very kindly allows me to skype Gemma & Bryn on the Satphone wifi......blooming expensive, so i was only on a quick chat.
We had a beautiful, wind, sun and calm seas......just superb.....how many people celebrate their 60th on a $4 million super yacht in the middle of the Atlantic...............AMAZING !!!
Andy & i decided in Madeira it was going to be a Pirate theme for the day.......i bought a cutlass, eye patch, pirate earring and put on my white shirt , leather waistcoat, tartan trousers, wellies and buff neck warmer..........good stuff, i think Kevin enjoyed it too.
We had steak pie and chicken pie for lunch and eagerly awaited Kevin's award winning Cottage pie for supper, complete with a bottle of Cava we bought in Funchal.
Kevin informed me he never drank at sea apart from when he crossed Trafalgar ..................in honour of Admiral Nelson........but, as it was my 60th, he had a drink with us too........................what an priviledge...........i'm up there with Nelson himself !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)
10/2/15
Plodding on overnight, we spent half the time avoiding storm cells..............engine on all night.
Took some photos of the cells and how they form into the hurricanes later in the season.......ooooooooooooo..........and a rainbow..............we'll see how that comes out.
We did pick up some wind in the afternoon today.........lovely sail and the sun came out again as well.................
Crossed a 6000m depth today.....................blimey........pretty deep !!!
I'm doing Chicken masala curry for supper.....mmmmmmmmmmmmm
11/2/15
Wind heading us all night (25 to 35 knots)and most of the day today, very little sailing, but, alot of motoring.
Winds are forecats to be like this ubtil Friday...........DOH........horrid...........being rolled about, just can't steady the boat in these conditions.
Donk (engine) has been on for most of the day.
12/2/15
Beautiful morning this morning, lovely clear skies, the wind has eased and the sea state is nearly flat...........just brilliant.
It gets better as the day goes on, so, Kevin says if you want a swim in the mid Atlantic..............now's the time..............into our swimmers....Andy, Carolyn and i take the plunge................it's fantastic, perfect temperature................we have a swim around for about 10 to 15 minutes...................depth 6000m !!!!!!
22 04.3' N............... 36 46.8' W
We are very aware there maybe sharks about , so Kevin stands on deck with a fog horn (for a warning).................just in case !!!!!!!!!
All's well though..................really another one off the bucket list
13/2/15
Wind picks up and veers to the East.....................at long last a decent wind we can sail. The sails are set up as "Goose wing"..........for non sailors one sail is set out to the port of the boat the other to the starboard........................we start slowly but soon pick up to around 6 or 7 knots.
Overnight is interesting .............a few rain squalls pass over, we are all ready to trim the sails, however, they carry on over with no great problem.
14/2/15
Stronger winds this morning, mean we are averaging 8 to 9 knots................yyyehhhaaaaaaaaaaa....eating up the miles...............only 1200 to go..............tomorrow should see us break the 1000 nm marker.
Whale broached about 100 m to the starboard of the boat this afternoon..........we reckon he/she was just having a look at us......... it soon peeled off to the North...................last seem about 2 miles away.
Red Thai curry tonight.........and blooming good it was too.....though i say it myself
15/2/15
We have now not seen another boat or aircraft since the Canaries.............is there anybody out there ???
So, a sweep............who will guess when we see ournext boat..............
Phil........... 16/2/15.......between 06:00 & 12:00
Carolyn...... 17/2/15.........12:00 to 18:00
Kevin...........17/2/15.........18:00 to 24:00
Andy............18/2/15.........00:00 to 06:00
We'll give a prize to the winner
Still on Goose winged sails...............East to South East winds..............anything up to 35 knots.......especially when we get a squall passing over.
Stood out in the rain today..........it was great...lovely and warm............i dried out in about 10 minutes.
Some excellent shooting stars tonight.
16/2/15
Well my time slot came and went ...................no ships...........nowt !!!!
Not even an aircraft.
17/2/15 to 19/2/15
Same as....same as...............eat , sleep, watch.........sail.
Winds are very fickle, vary from South East to East and the seas are very disturbed especially in the squalls, which are quite regular at nightime...........a good soaking has been had by all. However, Kevin does seem to get more than his fair share !!!!!!!!!!! :-)
The one redeeming feature is it's lovely and warm.........even the rain and you soon dry out.....................cooler than a cool thing from Coolsville Arizona !!!!!!!!
500 Nm to go comes and goes, then 400...then 300............we are down to the last 200Nm.
i play a few tricks on Kevin as the days meander along.......invariably with my gnashing skeleton as the main theme.................he pops up all over the place...........oooooooooooo Kevin does think it's funny .........;-)
20/2/15
Got Kevin good styley this morning................i managed to get behind him (without being seen) on deck during his watch this morning.................gnashing skeleton and mouth organ were with me...................
Up at 06:30, doing a few finishing touches and move the boat down the dock to the fuel berth. We top up the port tank ready fro the trip......that's another 400 litres.
We exit the harbour wall at 10:00.................surprisingly we have a decent wind and set off on the port tack on a broad reach at about 7 to 8 knots..........excellent stuff.
The wind comes and goes through the day, so the engine (better known on board as the "donkey") gets a fair bit of use.
We pass a few ships during the night, one going to Columbia.
Our course is set and we are heading for the mouth of the Amazon river.........true...........there is a large depression to our Southwest, so we are heading southeast to avoid it. This only puts an extra few hundred miles on the trip and should get us into the Trade winds quicker.............they are unusually far south this year......just our luck !!!!
6/2/15
Having the craiche with Kevin during a session of Meatloaf on the ipod, he tells us this will be his 15 TransAt.................blimey not bad, this is our first........all of us..............Andy , Carolyn and me.
7/2/15
Plying on we go, weather is still fairly cold with strong winds at times and lots of squally showers.
Generally, the sun is out in the morning for a short while then it clouds over in the afternoon.
A very serious game of "Ispy" was undertaken by myself, Andy and Kevin...........it was a tough match...............with the the likes of:
Sea, sun, sail, shackle...........but i eventually won with Stay sail..........it was recorded in the ships log !!!
My watch's are 06:00 to 08:00 ; 14:00 to 16:00 and 22:00 to 24:00...............i passed my watch onto Carolyn at 24:00 that night
8/2/15
Then at 01:00 i heard an enormous crash........the visability had been bad when i handed over to Carolyn, you just could'nt make out the horizon in front. We had the radar, which normally picks up rain showers.
However, we had'nt seen what was coming.....we sailed straight into the middle of a huge "Storm cell"............Carolyn reflects............
"it suddenly went very calm, less than 10 knots of wind...........then heavy rain........the wind then increased to 30 knots, we had some main sail up so i decided to reduce that......in the time i got to the wheel it was gusting 50, then 60 then 70 and actually hit 90 knots".......
Andy in the saloon heard her shout for assistance, he went up and due to the downpour of rain could'nt see her at the binnacle...........less than 4 metres away !!!!!
Very, very, luckily the intense rain had flattened the sea so we were'nt knocked down...........AMAZING !!! The squall of 90 knots lasted for about 1 minute and caused havoc.....later in the morning we found another "Dan bouy" had been reduced to pieces on the rail !!!!!!!!!
Thank goodness it eased later and we had a good sail in 35 knots winds for a good part of the remainder of the day.
9/2/15
Ha ha ha ........Jim lad............Happy Birthday to me................and what a way to spend your 60th birthday..............just brilliant, though, i'm missing family and friends.
Kevin very kindly allows me to skype Gemma & Bryn on the Satphone wifi......blooming expensive, so i was only on a quick chat.
We had a beautiful, wind, sun and calm seas......just superb.....how many people celebrate their 60th on a $4 million super yacht in the middle of the Atlantic...............AMAZING !!!
Andy & i decided in Madeira it was going to be a Pirate theme for the day.......i bought a cutlass, eye patch, pirate earring and put on my white shirt , leather waistcoat, tartan trousers, wellies and buff neck warmer..........good stuff, i think Kevin enjoyed it too.
We had steak pie and chicken pie for lunch and eagerly awaited Kevin's award winning Cottage pie for supper, complete with a bottle of Cava we bought in Funchal.
Kevin informed me he never drank at sea apart from when he crossed Trafalgar ..................in honour of Admiral Nelson........but, as it was my 60th, he had a drink with us too........................what an priviledge...........i'm up there with Nelson himself !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)
10/2/15
Plodding on overnight, we spent half the time avoiding storm cells..............engine on all night.
Took some photos of the cells and how they form into the hurricanes later in the season.......ooooooooooooo..........and a rainbow..............we'll see how that comes out.
We did pick up some wind in the afternoon today.........lovely sail and the sun came out again as well.................
Crossed a 6000m depth today.....................blimey........pretty deep !!!
I'm doing Chicken masala curry for supper.....mmmmmmmmmmmmm
11/2/15
Wind heading us all night (25 to 35 knots)and most of the day today, very little sailing, but, alot of motoring.
Winds are forecats to be like this ubtil Friday...........DOH........horrid...........being rolled about, just can't steady the boat in these conditions.
Donk (engine) has been on for most of the day.
12/2/15
Beautiful morning this morning, lovely clear skies, the wind has eased and the sea state is nearly flat...........just brilliant.
It gets better as the day goes on, so, Kevin says if you want a swim in the mid Atlantic..............now's the time..............into our swimmers....Andy, Carolyn and i take the plunge................it's fantastic, perfect temperature................we have a swim around for about 10 to 15 minutes...................depth 6000m !!!!!!
22 04.3' N............... 36 46.8' W
We are very aware there maybe sharks about , so Kevin stands on deck with a fog horn (for a warning).................just in case !!!!!!!!!
All's well though..................really another one off the bucket list
13/2/15
Wind picks up and veers to the East.....................at long last a decent wind we can sail. The sails are set up as "Goose wing"..........for non sailors one sail is set out to the port of the boat the other to the starboard........................we start slowly but soon pick up to around 6 or 7 knots.
Overnight is interesting .............a few rain squalls pass over, we are all ready to trim the sails, however, they carry on over with no great problem.
14/2/15
Stronger winds this morning, mean we are averaging 8 to 9 knots................yyyehhhaaaaaaaaaaa....eating up the miles...............only 1200 to go..............tomorrow should see us break the 1000 nm marker.
Whale broached about 100 m to the starboard of the boat this afternoon..........we reckon he/she was just having a look at us......... it soon peeled off to the North...................last seem about 2 miles away.
Red Thai curry tonight.........and blooming good it was too.....though i say it myself
15/2/15
We have now not seen another boat or aircraft since the Canaries.............is there anybody out there ???
So, a sweep............who will guess when we see ournext boat..............
Phil........... 16/2/15.......between 06:00 & 12:00
Carolyn...... 17/2/15.........12:00 to 18:00
Kevin...........17/2/15.........18:00 to 24:00
Andy............18/2/15.........00:00 to 06:00
We'll give a prize to the winner
Still on Goose winged sails...............East to South East winds..............anything up to 35 knots.......especially when we get a squall passing over.
Stood out in the rain today..........it was great...lovely and warm............i dried out in about 10 minutes.
Some excellent shooting stars tonight.
16/2/15
Well my time slot came and went ...................no ships...........nowt !!!!
Not even an aircraft.
17/2/15 to 19/2/15
Same as....same as...............eat , sleep, watch.........sail.
Winds are very fickle, vary from South East to East and the seas are very disturbed especially in the squalls, which are quite regular at nightime...........a good soaking has been had by all. However, Kevin does seem to get more than his fair share !!!!!!!!!!! :-)
The one redeeming feature is it's lovely and warm.........even the rain and you soon dry out.....................cooler than a cool thing from Coolsville Arizona !!!!!!!!
500 Nm to go comes and goes, then 400...then 300............we are down to the last 200Nm.
i play a few tricks on Kevin as the days meander along.......invariably with my gnashing skeleton as the main theme.................he pops up all over the place...........oooooooooooo Kevin does think it's funny .........;-)
20/2/15
Got Kevin good styley this morning................i managed to get behind him (without being seen) on deck during his watch this morning.................gnashing skeleton and mouth organ were with me...................
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