Camomile

Our position at 10.00 (13.00 GMT) Friday 17th March was
13 00N
058 37W
on a course of 297T with sunny blue Caribbean skies.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 168 miles. Average 7kts again. Our 24 hour runs peaked at 10pm last night with 178 miles in 24 hours. We have 157 miles to go to Martinique and hopefully be in late tomorrow.

This is our 26th day at sea since leaving St Helena. Still got the current as you can see from our speed but it’s dropping. We have altered course slightly to pass quite close to the north of Barbados because, alledgely, there’s a good current there and we are trying to keep our speed to get in before dark tomorrow. The wind has dropped slightly over the last 24 hours and is now more F3 than F4. The heel of the boat is a bit more comfortable and tempers less frayed.

The plan for tomorrow is to pass the entrance to the marina and sail another 10 miles to our ‘finishing line’ before double backing and then going into the marina. We may make that before dark if not we’ll anchor off St Annes overnight and go into the marina on Sunday. It will be wonderful to just sit still, it’s been a long trip.

Yesterday we passed the three quarters of the way from Cape town to Florida. Our challenge was to cover 500 miles a week to make it in time and obviously after this journey we have plenty in hand for a few weeks relaxing in the Leeward islands but then we will have to press on. There will be time to explore these islands more next year.

I cooked chicken hot pot last night which was an excuse to use leftovers. It had half an onion (4 left) a chopped chicken breast, the last carrot, some herbs, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of butter beans (which were going rusty after their sea bath) and the sweet potato that Bill doesn’t like .. he didn’t notice.

One more night watch.

All well on board.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.

Our position at 10.00 (13.00 GMT) Thursday 16th March was
11 40N
056 08W
on a course of 305T with squally skies.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 170 miles. Average 7kts, we are flying again We have 323 miles to go to Martinique possibly only 2 more night watches.

This is our 25th day at sea since leaving St Helena. Oddly enough we haven’t been this far north since we were last here. Most of our cruising has been in the southern hemisphere. The current is back as you can see from our speed but it’s a bumpy old ride. The wind picked up to 20kts gusting 23kts during the night which has made the sea lumpy again.

The waning moon didn’t rise until 10.30pm last night and it’s still dark when I get up in the morning, so I have the pleasure of seeing both the moonrise and sunrise on my watch. The moonrise is probably more spectacular as it rises like a sleepy eye from the horizon. Without the ambient light coming from the land it casts an eerie glow over the sea. The sunrise is much brighter, usually accompanied by some beautiful pink clouds briefly before it starts to heat up the day.

Did that William get his ears boxed? Only lightly. After he said AGAIN what a nice sail it was I said, without raising my voice, ‘No, it’s not a nice sail, it’s an every time I open the cupboard everything falls out kind of sail, when I try and put my nickers on I fall over kind of sail, being strapped to the gallery to cook kind of sail, trying to sleep while levitating off the bed kind of sail, sitting watching the waves licking the side of the boat just waiting for another one to soak me kind of sail, it’s not a nice sail and I don’t like it’! To which he just laughed, gave me a hug and said we’ll soon be there.

I cooked a bolognaise sauce last night, just added a jar to the mince I’m afraid. We were going to have it with Penne but I got a new packet out of store and put it down on the worktop and noticed the packet was practically moving there were so many weevils in it. Did I feed it to him?…. I was tempted but I didn’t fancy it myself so I emptied it over the side. The packet of pasta twirls under neath it luckily wasn’t affected. When we arrive the cupboard will have to be emptied to make sure there aren’t any more of the beasties in there, impossible to do at sea. I rarely have anything in it’s original packaging, every thing is decanted into lock top boxes for that very reason but I needed extra supplies for this journey and I didn’t have enough boxes. That will teach me.

2 more sleeps to go then I’ll start smiling again.

All well on board.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.

Our position at 10.00 (13.00 GMT) Wednesday 15th March was
10 14N
053 43W
on a course of 304T with squally skies.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 142 miles. Average 5.9kts We have 490 miles to go to Martinique possibly 3 more night watches.

This is our 24th day at sea since leaving St Helena. We are on the home run now, like the second week of a holiday although instead of rushing by it seems to drag when you’re at sea. We’ve just passed the three quarters of the way mark and less than 500 miles to go now so a mere Biscay crossing.

Heard on the net yesterday that Norsa and Solstice have crossed the equator so all the northern hemisphere boats, on the net, are now back in the northern hemisphere.

Speed dropped off again yesterday evening and moral and chocolate were low when I went to bed. The speed gradually picked up overnight but I woke to a squally sky this morning. The wind piped up to 20kts gusting 25 so we put the second reef back in. Luckily it didn’t last long. Our boat speed is showing more 6 & 7kts now so hopefully that’s the end of the adverse current. Moral is a little better this morning although it’s not helped by someone who keeps saying what a great sail we’re having and what is all the fuss about …. he’s going to get his ears boxed soon and he won’t see it coming.

Last night I cooked one of those Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies, frozen potatoes and tinned carrots. Emergency rations normally but the pie and the carrots were some of the tins that took a bath the other evening when the big wave came down below and, although I’ve cleaned the storage out, they are already starting to go rusty so we’ve got to start eating them. We used to have the pies when we were children on holiday because my Dad used to like them. I’m not that keen plus this was years out of date so my expectations weren’t high; they were not exceeded.

All well on board.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.

Our position at 10.00 (13.00 GMT) Monday 13th March was
08 55N
051 47W
on a course of 301T with sunny blue skies.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 139 miles. Average 5.7kts slowly recovering We have 629 miles to go to Martinique

We have been out here 23 days from St Helena. Our original Atlantic crossing was completed in 23 days 3 hours so that will now become our second longer passage, this will be our longest passage. Another 4 or 5 days yet.

Speed increasing as the adverse current is gradually losing it’s pull on us. Don’t think it wants us to get there. We shook the reefs out last night as the wind dropped a bit but put 1 reef back in this morning. Everything else is the same. I spend the morning writing, I enjoy getting emails, and try and sleep in the afternoon. Pretty boring stuff but I suppose a boring passage is better than a difficult one.

Last night we had pork chop, sausage, bacon, potato wedges from the freezer and the last portion of Heinz baked beans.

All well on board.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.

Our position at 10.00 (13.00 GMT) Monday 13th March was
07 44N
049 48W
on a course of 307T with 30% cloud cover over sunny blue skies.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 128 miles. Average 5.2kts We have 767 miles to go to Martinique

Yes we have changed our destination. Tom on Adina very kindly sent me the check in formalities for Barbados and we discovered they are charging US$375 for the first 2 days and $100 per day after that – and that’s just the port charges, anchorage is on top! If you also add marina fees on top of that it would have been very expensive, total madness. Even if we had that sort of money I refuse to pay it because they obviously don’t want yachts to go there and are only interested in superyachts. Those charges are designed to keep the riff raff out – so we aren’t going. It’s just over another 100 miles to Martinique so we’ve decided to go there instead. I’ve checked our old log book and entered our course from 2010 and set up a ‘finishing line’ so we will complete our circumnavigation before we go into the marina. Exciting.

So I spoke too soon saying I would be having a Sunday brunch on land. Hopefully we’ll arrive some time Sunday in time for sundowners but depends on our speed over the next few days. I think I put the kiss of death on Barbados by making a flag, won’t be needing that now. Martinique is French and I’ve got one of those.

Last night our speed slowly increased as we were gradually released from the grip of the adverse current. I take a log reading every 4 hours and keep a running record of our 24 hour mileage and the worse was at the 10pm log reading when the lowest we achieved was 120 miles in 24 hours, it’s gradually increasing now. Bill and I studied the RTOF files and if we moved 100 miles to our west we would pick up good current but that would add almost a day to our journey but we didn’t think the extra push from the current would save us a day plus you never know if those files are accurate. It would also mean the last part of our journey would be close hauled into head winds and we didn’t want to do that. If we were going to Trinidad or Grenade it might have worked but it was decided we would keep to our course and tough it out. According to the same files about 200 miles further on we get a good current anyway.

The skipper says we couldn’t ask for a better sail, 15kts on the beam with a slight to moderate sea. That’s ok if you like sailing!!

Spoke to Sara on Norsa this morning on the net. They are sailing well and expecting to cross the equator later today. Norman caught a wahoo yesterday and Ingvar on Marieke managed to catch a 40 to 50kg swordfish a few days ago. Well done to them, proves there are fish out here.

Last night I made lemon chicken with egg fried rice.
Take 1 large chicken breast or 2 small ones and cut it into cubes. Beat an egg in a small bowl and add the chicken cubes to coat them in the egg. Take a plate and sprinkle with a couple of spoons of cornflour and sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Carefully transfer the egg coated cubes of chicken onto the cornflour (I use a fork) Take a shallow frying pan and add a splash of oil. Roll the chicken cubes in the cornflour and transfer to pan, this is messy add a little more cornflour if necessary they need to well coated. Pour the remaining egg over the cubes and gently shallow fry. When they are cooked on one side turn them over breaking up the egg you poured over. Meanwhile put some rice on to cook and chop up half a green pepper. Keep shaking and turning the chicken cubes gently, when cooked transfer to a bowl for a few minutes while you cook the pepper in the same pan. When the rice is almost cooked break an egg into the center but don’t stir leave to set while the rice finishes cooking. When the pepper is cooked put the chicken cubes back in the pan and add half a jar of lemon sauce (sorry I cheat I bought one in a lovely Chinese shop in the Seychelles) or a lemon stir fry sauce and simmer gently to heat up. When the egg is set in the rice give it a stir. serve with the lemon chicken on the top. One of my favourite dishes. Yum.

Hope you enjoyed your walk yesterday and felt better at work this morning.

All well on board.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.

Our position at 10.00 (13.00 GMT) Sunday 12th March was
06 38N
048 01W
on a course of 287T with 30% cloud cover over sunny blue skies.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was a disappointing 127 miles. Average 5.2kts We have 786 miles to go to Barbados

Things are back to normal now with watches taken in the cockpit again. We started losing our good current last night and seem to have moved into an area of adverse current. I watched our SOG drop from 7kts to 6kts to 5kts last night and then to a disappointing 3.9kts but the boat appeared to be doing the same speed. When Bill got up for his watch we took one of the reefs out which gave us a little more speed but we are heeling more now. This morning we still have a NE wind of 14 to 18kts blowing in moderate seas with the odd wave washing across the deck but the cockpit is dry. We are managing to keep an average speed of 5kts. The RTOFS files say the adverse current will continue today but we should pick up better current tomorrow. It is what it is quite frankly, it’s not like we can drop the anchor somewhere to wait for the current to change! Currents are a really pain, tides are bad enough but you expect them close to land, in open sea like this one assumes it’s just ‘plain sailing’ I wish!

We left St Helena 3 weeks ago today and have beaten our Pacific passage of 21 days, that will now become our third longest passage. Probably got another 5 or 6 days out here but this time next week I’ll be having a nice Sunday brunch some where, can’t wait.

The hardest thing on board when the boat is heeling (leaning) like this is the inertia of the waves. Camomile rises and falls with the waves but every now and again ‘slides’ down a wave causing every thing and every one to slid sideways if it’s not held down or you’re holding on. Simple every day jobs become a really chore. Washing up is difficult, everything has to be carefully stacked so things don’t go flying. A second person drying up doesn’t help because there’s only room for one person in my galley and if Bill dried up the plates and put them on the table they would go flying too. Getting dressed is another problem, you get one leg in a pant, the boat lurches and over you go! Can’t tell you how many bruises I’ve got. Luckily, sadly, I’m used to it and mostly cope with it.

The moon has been good the last couple of nights with the full moon being tonight. It makes night watch better when you can see further than the end of your arm. Lots of flying fish around us but only a few commit suicide on the decks. Ingvar on Marieke eats them, not sure I like the thought of that. All is well on the net. Marieke is about 60 miles to our port and Ganash is about 120 miles to our starboard. Antares has streaked on ahead but he is 60ft. Norsa and Solstice have left the Fernando islands and are heading towards the ITCZ and the equator. WOW are still in Fernando but maybe leaving today.

Last night I made a stir fry in a black bean sauce. I’ve still got 2 carrots, half a red pepper, one and a half green peppers, 2 red onions and 3 white onions so I chopped up a red onion, a carrot, the halves of the red and green peppers, stir fried them, added some strips of beef and a black bean sauce packet. Really nice. We decided not to have rice or noodles with it because we had eaten too many cookies earlier! 🙂

As it’s Sunday go for a walk for me simply because you can and think of me still out here while you’re walking. Maybe post me a photo on facebook.

All well on board.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.

Our position at 10.00 (13.00 GMT) Saturday 11th March was
05 31N
046 14W
on a course of 300T with sunny blue skies.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 182 miles. Average 7.5kts fastest on this passage We have 911 miles to go to Barbados

A much calmer day today. The F5 winds continued through the night with gusts of 25kts and watches were taken down below with the wash boards in to prevent more water going down the hatch. There were more waves over the side but not as bad as last nights one. The speed of the boat was helped by a knot or more of current and the miles were ticking down much faster. This morning the wind veered slightly and dropped to F4 which enabled me to take her back on course with an apparent wind angle of 120 giving us a much smoother ride. During the day the sea has become calmer but still moderate.

We put the clocks back one hour yesterday so we are UTC -3 now.

Overnight the GPS ticked down to less than 1000 miles to Barbados, a good physiological barrier and we also passed the 950 miles to go which is half way between Fernando and Barbados and three quarters of the way from St Helena to Barbados so the end is nigh.

Last night I made chicken rogan josh which was just a jar from the cupboard with some chicken and rice, another easy meal. I made bread this morning and cookies, although they weren’t up to the standard of the ones my son makes for The Thomas Cookie co, but still nice.

All well on board again.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.

Our position at 10.00 (12.00 GMT) Friday 10th March was
03 54N
043 33W
on a course of 305T with 90% cloud cover.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 172 miles. Average 7.1kts hold to your hats We have 1098 miles to go to Barbados

I’m having a serious sense of humour bypass here. I’ve had several offers of helicopters but it hasn’t bloody arrived!

You can see by our speed what sort of day we had yesterday. F5/6 with 20kts of NE wind on the beam in 4 meter swells. Deep joy.

Sat in the cockpit on watch last night having had a wash and all clean clothes when the boat rolled, a rogue wave caught the starboard quarter and over we went. A massive wave came into the cockpit, straight down my neck, onto the chart table (luckily the computers had been put away) all over the floor, I was soaked to the skin. Bill rushed up to help me down and get me sorted mainly by putting a glass of wine in my hand and getting the emergency chocolate out; I NEEDED chocolate.

It wasn’t until this morning I realised just how far the water had traveled. I have a food cupboard in the bilge with my tins in. They are several boxes Bill made that normally stay dry but the water had found it’s way in and was slopping around the tins. I’ve taken them all out and dried it but they won’t keep, they’ll go rusty. So it’s double chickpeas with every meal now.

After that I finished my watch from below deck just popping my head up now and then to check for shipping.

Shipping, we’ve seen nothing for weeks but last night at 11pm while watching the chartplotter an AIS contact appeared directly on our track. As it got nearer the info came through and it was a panamax which basically means the biggest ship that will fit in the Panama canal. This thing wasn’t measured in feet but was 0.178 of a mile long, 197ft wide and a draft of 71ft and it was coming straight for us. I waited until it was half an hour away but I still couldn’t see it in the swell which, by the way, is now 4 meters. So I called the bridge on the vhf. We don’t usually like doing this because at that time of night they don’t always have someone on watch that speaks English then they have to go and wake someone and it turns into a right performance but I was lucky a nice young man answered. I asked if he could see me on the AIS and he said he could and he was passing port to port as normal. That would have been way to close so I asked him to change his course to port and pass starboard to starboard please. He agreed and all was good. The last bit of the saga was as they were half a mile away from us he called me to ask if I had lights on as he couldn’t see me. I looked up at the mast head to discover the tricolour was out and we had no lights on. I put on some other lights and he said he could now see me. He was massive as it passed in the dark. A close call.

So that’s your lot today. Oh we had a chilli from the freezer that I had prepared earlier. Too bouncy to cook.

All well on board. sort of.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.

Our position at 10.00 (12.00 GMT) Thursday 9th March was
02 44N
040 58W
on a course of 298T with 50% cloud cover.
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 139 miles. Average 5.7kts We have 1267 miles to go to Barbados

OK where’s my helicopter? Has no one sent one? Surely you would all realise by now that I would want to get off. You know I don’t like sailing and never will – ok got that off my chest and now we have NE trade winds.

We spent most of yesterday sailing slowly in and out of the clouds. At 3pm the wind disappeared yet again but this time we had to put the engine back on and motor through another patch of the doldrums and the main came down. It was off at 6pm and the sails were back out. We sailed for an hour but the wind kept changing direction and the main sail was flapping badly so at 7pm the engine went back on again. During the evening we were surrounded by a massive cloud system that brought winds from all directions along with a deluge of rain, despite the fact we were now 02 degrees north. It’s been suggested we just motor north until we find the trade winds but the ITCZ doesn’t have a straight edge, it moves, and the gribs aren’t very good at predicting exactly where it is and what’s in it. So we just keep to our course and hope the trade winds come through soon. Bill went to bed while I sat in the cockpit with my umbrella shielding me from the rain coming around the edge of the cover. It was probably our worse night so far on this passage. The sky was so black despite the moon being behind the clouds. It was a difficult decision leaving the main up, it was slatting badly but to take it down would have meant getting Bill up and someone going on deck to sort it. The gooseneck was getting stressed and it’s something we don’t normally do but if it came down it might have to up again in half an hour. So I persevered with changing course all the time trying to keep it inflated. Our track is a really wiggly line. Suddenly at 11.45pm the NE trade winds came from no where, literally, and Camomile was off. I pulled the genny out, turned the engine off and we’ve sailed through the night. Bill was surprised when I woke him at 1am for his watch to see us sailing so well. “Did we have much rain?” I won’t print my answer.

Bill sailed the boat through the night and so far the NE winds have held so we think this is it now. The main sail was reefed this morning and there’s one reef in the genny. We have a F4 on the beam so our speed is on average 6.5kts but we are getting 7 and 8kts regularly. Our course is 300T. Out of the last 96 hours (4 days) we’ve motored 50 hours, of those the last 9 have been motor sailing trying to keep the sails inflated. Should be a fast sail to Barbados hopefully. The GPS has given us an arrival date of 18th right from the beginning but yesterday it slipped to the 19th which was depressing but this morning, with the speed we are doing, it’s saying 16th so we’ll see. That’s still another week or so away and my helicopter might be here before then!

I lied yesterday and said we were passing the two thirds of the way from St Helena to Barbados. It’s this morning that happens.

Last night we had pork chop, sausage, bacon, baked chip potatoes and baked beans. Now that we’re heeling more, cooking is going to be difficult. We are on starboard tack which means the wind is pushing us onto our left side which causes me a problem because my galley is on the right side. Every time I open a cupboard I have to be prepared for things to fall out. They don’t usually because I have everything wedged in but sometimes something escapes. I have a galley strap so when I’m cooking I’m literally tied to the cooker and can lean into it. I can’t cook while hanging on for dear life.

All well on board. sort of.

The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in the Caribbean. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.