Atlantic Passage

Well it finally happened, I had galley duty when Donald the cook was ashore. Luckily Corey was with me and he can actually cook

Yesterday after we arrived here in Sao Vincente my watch was able to go ashore and all I did was find Internet and hang out. Simple needs for me

Otherwise it was a pretty calm day. We are using the three watches even at anchor so there was only one watch aboard the other two were ashore. It wa pretty quiet with only 10 or so people here.

The weather on this island is odd. The mountains are high enough to cause clouds but not quite high enough to cause rain, just the odd sprinkle in the wind gusts. The gusts are very strong but because the anchorage is sheltered we only hear it in the rigging. We have both anchors out just in case however.

I get the next two days off so I will be doing internet stuff and wandering around the town. On Saturday I will hookup with the 4-8 gang and maybe head out of town for a look at more of the island.

I also want to stock up on snacks and stuff because once we leave here on Sunday it will be nearly a month before we get to shore and that wil be on the other side of the Atlantic!

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Woke up this morning to find that the wind had increased to a steady force 7 directly offshore into our anchorage, that is the lower end of Gale force. There is not much wave action which is good although the odd swell does sweep in from the Atlantic.

Spent the day doing ship work that included splicing and whipping a couple of lines. Some “sailorizing” stuff that

In the morning the Alexandre Humbolt steamed in and anchored as well as another freighter making a total of 2 tall ships, and 3 freighters in the anchorage. The wind has been steadily pushing us back so we have both anchors out and a lot of chain to go with them. Leaving this anchorage on Monday will be a real workout!

About mid afternoon I came up from my splicing to see that the new freighter had been dragging her anchor and was now about a ship length away from the Humbolt. Apparently the Humbolt radioed her and said “you are dragging” to which they responded “no we aren’t” !?!
The freighter shortly thereafter fired up their engine, hoisted anchor and steamed ahead back to where they were before and dropped anchor again. It appears two hours later that they are still dragging but much slower now.

We appear to be holding OK although we are “plowing” a bit downwind at the moment, but we are on notice that all hands may be required sometime during the night if conditions change.

Tomorrow I should be able to go ashore again so hopefully I can find some way to send this so you can read it in a bit more timely manner.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S. It is now 8:30 in the evening and the wind has moderated a bit but is still near gale force. Deb came down a few minutes ago and mentioned that both the Humbolt and the dragging freighter have up anchored and headed for sea. I can see the lights of the freighter h she seems to be standing off and on just off shore but there is no sign of the Humbolt.
On the plus side I used John’s cellphone to call the mysterious Internet provider and now have a place to go to get access when I get ashore (if I get ashore) in the morning.

Note: This is one long post covering the passage from La Gomera to Dakar Senegal. It is in date order so read down for the latest.

Dec 27,08

The weather hasn’t changed all that much except that the wind died today so we had to motor for most of the day. In the ten hours our engine was on we covered more distance than the preceeding 3 days combined!

Mary Joyce, one of the trainees was putting messages in bottles and throwing them overboard today. Each one has a note with the latitude and longitude of our current position and a description of who we are and where we are heading plus her email and contact info. She also puts one of the ship’s business cards in. She says one of the bottles she put over off the coast of Spain was found and they publiished the note in the local paper. It got a good response with lots of emails when she hit shore.

We are now sailing again with all square sail set so it should be a nice quiet evening.

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Monday Dec 29,08

We are sailing due South just West of the border between Western Sahara and Mauritania in Africa.

Yesterday morning I awoke to the sound of our “iron topsail” firing up. The winds had dropped to almost nothing. By the time my watch started at noon however the wind had begun to blow from the NE instead of the NW and the order was given to set all the squrae sails and the engine was shut down shortly thereafter. Corey, who was on helm at the time, says the Captain had come up to the quarterdeck just before, looked up into the sky and said “the start of a real wind”. By the time of my night watch at midnight we were sailing along at 5 knots under a steady force 4 from the NE! Still going this morning.

During my night watch last night it was overcast so the brightest lights were in the sea itself. We sailed through bands of some creature that lit up very brightly as we passed. There must of been millions of them, they were bright enough to cast a faint shadow. They were mosty round so the consensus was that they were jellyfish but some of them were cylindrical so they might have been squid.

Dolphins were cruising around the ship and playing in the bow wave most of the watch. When they carged into a group of these creatures there was a bright flash as maybe 20 or so would fire up at once. It was like green fireworks under the surface of the sea. Beautiful and strange indeed.

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Tuesday Dec 30,08

Word from Paul, the 2nd mate, is that we will likely get into Dakar on the 2nd of January. Odd to think that the first decade of the 21st century is nearly over. We still don’t have any flying cars! Blah. I guess the old saying ‘the future isn’t what it used to be” applies.

My little laptop is working really well. It does everything I need it to do onboard and will be doing more as I figure it out. The 3 hour battery life is not conducive to much experimentation but as long as I can keep a good charge I take 20% and play around Thanks again to Mark and his gang at Tremar Computer Solutions!

Yesterday I spent an hour up on the foreyard adding a second siezing to the stirups that support the footropes.

Watch last night was uneventful, the haze that typifies this area blocks all but the highest stars and there was not as much phosphoresence in the sea so there wasn’t much to look at. At least my cold has run it’s course and my back is slowly getting better.

Since our watch will be the ones to ring in the New Year tomorrow night, Paul has devised a plan to create a big ball to drop at the critical time! Construction will begin shortly. I’ll let you know the progress later.

Later…

We got a good start on the ball it is a wire sphere abot 2′ in diameter with two 100 watt light bulbs inside! We will also have a spotlight with 2009 on it to shine on the mainsail at the critical time. Should be an interesting evening tomorrow if we can get it all done.

Afternoon watch was uneventful, spent it working on the port head, which is finally back together and fully operational. It was dismantled in Las Palmas and with only one head available for the salon crew to use for number 2s… well you can imagine how welcome the rebuilt one will be

One more day in 2008 to go.

I hope your New Years plans go well.

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Wed Dec 31,08

My night watch last night had some excitement to liven things up. I was on helm and we were sailing on the port tack around 1:30pm with all square sails set, spanker and inner and outer jibs. Then the wind dropped away to almost nothing. In another minute it came back from the opposite tack ,blowing and gusting much stronger than it had been. The rest of the watch took in the spanker and royals while I tried to keep the ship steady. It was tough, it took a lot of turns to get her to respond then when she did she would take off so I had to correct fast. Exciting and frightening at the same time.

After the sails were adjusted and I finally got her back on course I was relieved at helm by Bruce. Adrenaline works wonders for ones reflexes and man did I have lots of that! It was hard keeping track of where the wheel was relative to midships. It takes 8 full turns to go from midships to hard over so one has to always be counting the turns to be able to get her straight once she starts to turn. I’m still learning how to handle this beautiful ship, and it is still scary to have control of all 200 tons of her like that.

The rest of the watch was uneventful, thankfully.

There will be a Marlinspike of sorts tonight to celebrate New Years Eve and hopefully we will have our ball drop ready. It is grey and cloudy at the moment so not sure what it will be like tonight.

More later…

It’s later and I’m getting ready to catch a few hours sleep before the action starts around 10:00pm.

We are definitely in the tropics now, we have steady NE Tradewinds blowing and I saw my first school of flying fish this afternoon while I was aloft on the foremast. Trade Winds, Flying Fish and a landfall in West Africa possibly as early as tomorrow, what a way to start 2009!

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year to all.

May 2009 be a good one for you and your loved ones.

Bright Blessings

KJ

P.S. The Ball dropped right on schedule last night!

We ended up with a low windage version because rather than wrap it in tinfoil we used garlands and Christmas lights around it as well. nbsp;Everybody came on deck about 10:30. Munchies and popcorn was set out. I supplied a nut cake I got in Switzerland, thanks to Ursula and Francois.

At 30 seconds to midnight the countdown started and the ball was dropped down to the hatch cover. At the stroke of twelve shouts of Happy New Year rose up and the ships horn blasted out into the tropical night. There followed dancing and revelry until 1:30am when we set the sails and carried on.

Last night was the first nightwatch that I didn’t have to wear a coat until I went on lookout. A sign of things to come I hope.

Happy New Year!

I hope 2009 is a good one.

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Thur Jan 1, 09

We arrived in Dakar around 4:00pm this afternoon after an uneventful day sailing down the coast. Heard my first real “Laaaaannndd Hoooo” which wa pretty cool.

Dakar is a big bustling smoggy/hazy city of 2.5 million. We will be here for about 6 days and we are again using the two watch system. I have to work tomorrow but will go ashore on Saturday to scope out the Internet situation

Thanks for reading.

KJ

We left La Palmas around 10:00am this morning and have been sailing all day South around the island of Gran Canaria heading for a small island called Gomera. There we will be anchored off a nice beach apparently so I hope the weather continues to improve.

For a while today we were sailing with all our sails set, save one.That is the first time since I’ve been aboard. She is a fine sight fully dressed like that I imagine. It’s interesting but as time goes on the rig takes on a very utilitarian, but still beautiful, look. That is mostly my getting used to it and understanding where all the lines go and what they do.

Also, except for the first hour or two I haven’t felt very queasy, hopefully that is a good sign.

Not sure what if any Internet access there will be on this small island so not sure when you will get to read this but hey, that’s life in the “slow lane”

Later…

Just got off our night watch. I had helm for the last hour and watched the rising Sun illuminate the rocky outline of Tenerife. The volcanoe, active but currently dormant, on Tenerife is 12,000′ high. Along the south coast are a couple of cinder cones making for a dramatic landscape.

We can see Gomera on the horizon. Mike says we shoulkd be there later today. I saw no lights from there last night so not sure what that implies for getting Internet access.

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Was on galley duty today which wasn’t too bad really. I also laid in with the rest of my watch working on getting the ship ready to sail. We are supposed to leave for another island in the canaries tomorrow morning.
I helped to undo and re-bend on the Main Lower Topsail this morning. This entails going aloft onto the yard and then cutting the old robands, thin strands of manila rope that lace the sail to the yard. Once the sail is free the lines holding it to the ends of the yard are tightened up with a block and tackle (called a “handy billy”). Once the head of the sail is tight and centered on the yard, we lace it back on by using more robands. It’s odd to think of the ship being pulled along by what amounts to twisted grass.

Hopefully there will be Internet access wherever we endup in the next couple of days but if not oh well that’s the way the cookie crumbles…

Speaking of cookies, as I typed this Bruce came back from shopping and offered me a chips ahoy cookie. Synchronicity in action

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Since I had galley duty yesterday I didn’t have to stand the normal watch so I took the opportunity to do what I seem to always do when free here…sleep.

Had my normal 4:00am watch though, which was rough for me this time.  The weather was actually pretty good. We had fairly warm temperatures with a steady NW Force 5 wind with gusts to force 6.  Steering was hard as she tends to bounce around in the waves and gusts. I lost track of how to bring her back steady on her course at one point and the Mate had Ben take over till she was stabilized.  For some reason I had alot of trouble stying alert for the rest of the watch. Must be the motion which is making me a bit queasy again.

We will be getting to the Canaries on Thursday afternoon  at this rate.

I saw the North Eastern most island on the horizon this morning.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

It took until 11:00 to get clearance to leave, then we up anchored and
motored away from Essaouira, there being almost no wind. By mid
afternoon there was a light NW breeze and we started to set sail.  By
the time I went on watch at 4:00pm we had all our square sails set and
most of the fore and aft ones as well. 

A pod of dolphins came by for a romp in the bow wave around 2:00pm, they are amazing to watch up close.  They can swim much faster than we can sail.

We are now sailing along at 5 knots under a partly cloudy but moonlit
sky.  The air is warm and the ship steers beautifully. As the captain
told me when I was on helm “It’s a lovely evening”.

I noticed something interesting tonight. The sea has no smell.  There
is no “sea smell” to speak of at all.  The smell I had always
associated with the sea is actually the smell of the shore. Interesting
that I just noticed that now. Hopefully that means I’m getting more
comfortable with this sea life thing.

The trip to the Canary islands will take 3-4 days and the weather forecast is for fair winds building over the next couple of days.

I have galley duty tomorrow so I don’t have to stand our night watch tonight which is sweet. Plus we are sailing on the starboard tack so the ship heals to port. Now since my bunk is on the port side I will be held into my bunk instead of risking being thrown out as she rolls.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S.  Just finished the breakfast dishes and thought I would write this down before I forget it.  Last night about 3:00am I woke up to an odd sound. It was like a long drawn out squeak but very quiet.  At first I thought it was something moving with the rolling of the ship but after a while it was obviously coming from the water.  My bunk is below the water line so sounds in the water are pretty clear.  I think perhaps it was whales.

Have to keep an eye out today and see if they can be seen.

This morning dawned bright and sunny with the sea settling down to a steady groudswell from the North West.

Had a really good breakfast this morning, nothing fancy but it sure
tasted good, amazing what a couple of days of bad weather does for the appetite. The diesel galley stove refused to light during the gale so today is the first day that it has worked since the day after Thanksgiving.

Working in the galley, our watch cleans it after supper each day, when they were trying to light the stove really did a number on my stomach. Enclosed spaces, diesel fumes and big seas are a bad combination. This morning all is well and I was famished by the time I heard those delightful words “Watch below”

We should be in Essaouira Morocco by this evening. The Captain will then decide if we can anchor or if we will have to stand off till the swell subsides.

With luck I will be able to let everything dry out, including me, before I have to go on watch again this evening.

We arrived in Essaouria around 3:00 this afternoon after motoring in as the wind had dropped away to almost nothing. Still pretty big swell running though. This is a pretty exposed anchorage but it looks like we should be OK as long as the wind doesn’t pick up from the West.

Lots of fortifications here, mostly built by the Portugese I believe.
Should be a cool place to explore.

Thanks for reading
K

Finally the weather has moderated a bit and we are heading back to the South. This means that if all goes well we should reach our destination in Morocco tomorrow evening.

After last nights squall things were more reasonable on watch today. 
I only bashed mself a couple of times and only gashed myself once.  I think I will have very few body parts that haven’t been bruised or lacerated at least once by the time I get home.

Even when the seas have moderated they can still throw a surprise twist into your day.  Mid afternoon today while I was off watch  I went to the head, but it was  busy so decided to stand and wait on deck. I was just in front of the Fore mast fife rail enjoying the sunshine  when I heard a sort of thumping crash and the ship shuddered.  “This can’t be good” thought I and  what seemed like a full second later a wall of water came crashing down across the fo’csle head and drenched me.  The second Mate says the splash went up to the topsails!   Of course  since I was just going to the head I didn’t have my fowlies on, blah.

But at least the Sun was shining

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Shortly after I went to bed last night the wind picked up to a force 8-9 Gale. Since we were hove to the ship began to seriously roll, like 45 degrees or more. All sorts of things rattled and crashed as well as the seas pounding against the side of the hull.  Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep.

This morning we wore ship to get back underway in a steady force 7 with much larger seas, the captain says 18-20′. Still rolling, making movement very difficult.  Starting to feel a bit queasy after 12 hours of this, blah.

Moving food around is difficult and doing the dishes an exercise in acrobatics. I found sitting at the stern to be the best even though the motion is greater simply because I can wedge myself in and not have to worry about sliding around.

The nice thing is that the sun is shining at least, there are rainbows in the spray when the rollers come crashing aboard.

Last word goes to the Bosun Kolin who said “This is what you paid for right?”  Right

Thanks for reading
KJ

P.S. When I went on night watch at 4:00 I had first lookout. The seas  were too rough to be on the fo’csle so we had to stand watch on the bridge, which is just in front of the chart house.  About a half hour into my watch a great black bank of cloud blotted out the stars and the wind began to howl. The gusts were strong enough to knock me off my feet. The mate says they were easily 50 knots in the gust close to Force 10 steady!  We hove to again to ride it out then wore round and reset the sails at 8:00am.  We are now sailing South again.  Hopefully that is the last we’ll see of that system.