Petronella Position Report

TIMESTAMP=2015-01-06 : 17:25 UTC

LATITUDE=27 25N

LONGITUDE=014 31W

SPEED=5.0

COURSE=255

WIND DIR=NE

WIND SPEED=15-20

WAVE_HT=2

24HR MILES=108

PROPOSED_COURSE=Great circle direct to Cape Verdes

MILES DONE/TO GO:129/2893

COMMENTS=Gybing southwest



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Day 2

Good day. Chunder count still on zero though dad cutting the dried ham leg nearly changed this! Two more turtles sighted by mum. Loads of gannets.



On a collision course at one point during the night with JPL Aquarius, called him up on the radio, no response but eventually missed by about a mile.



We tried out the downwind sails with limited success. Will continue to gybe southwest throughout the night.



First singing lesson successful, even Marcus joined in!! Now watching a classic three masted clipper go across the dipping sun. Crew morale high.



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Day 1

So, we're off. Thanks to the Gleastonites for a fabulous send off from Arrecife complete with waving Union flags. Quite emotional seeing you all disappear from sight as we rounded the headland by the cruise liner terminal. It was a bit lumpy initially but improved once we had the sails up. F3 ENE with a bit of swell left from last night. We are still not fully back into life afloat yet but the big news is that so far Marcus is hanging in there (football games are keeping the nausea at bay so far) with the current chunder count sitting at a solid zero.



We've now all guessed our competition times, the first of which was "when we will see our first crustacean" (sic - see cetacean). My guess was about three days time but just two minutes after guessing first one and then a whole pod of small leaping dolphins arrived. They have been with us several hours now swimming slowly along in time with us.



The other event was unveiling to Gilly details of her remaining 60th birthday present. Most of you know about this because you contributed, but loads of her friends have made tapes, sent letters and made videos of their memories of Gilly. She is very, very touched. First up was Stu and Julie with their tales of excess ouzo in Crete and fluffy seals in Egypt. Thanks too to Emma for her introduction to the whole idea.



Right, let's see how this posts as we are running along the eastern side of Fuerteventura now; too far out for any normal internet access.



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Petronella Position Report

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TIMESTAMP=2015-01-05 : 1720 UTC

LATITUDE=28 38N

LONGITUDE=013 38W

SPEED=3.6

COURSE=200

WIND DIR=ENE

WIND SPEED=10

WAVE HT=1

24HR MILES=21

PROPOSED COURSE=223 to Cape Verdes

MILES DONE/TO GO:23/2976

COMMENTS=Departed 11.15. Thanks Gleastonites. Small dolphins all afternoon. Cold!

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Update: departure delayed

Just a quick update to say it looks unlikely we'll be leaving on Monday now as gales are forecast for later in the week. We'll continue to be ready at 24-hours notice and will keep the blog updated with any further news.

Meet The Crew

Location: Marina Lanzarote, Arrecife
Interviewer: Jenny

We thought before we left it would be good for our blog readers to meet the crew. We asked everyone 14 questions. Below are their responses.

Name: Gill Douch
Nickname: Gillybobs, Skip
Role: Skipper and Chief Provisioner
Tea of choice: Tesco Finest (by the bucket load)
How are you feeling about the crossing? Very excited and a bit nervous
Most looking forward to: Quiet swooshing noises
Least looking forward to: Anything over 25 knots
Food you'll miss most: Pears
Preferred day wear: (Hopefully) T-shirt and shorts (probably wet weather gear)
Preferred night wear: Wet weather gear
Meal you're most looking forward to: Lobster in the Caribbean
Predicted number of leg bruises acquired: 11
Predicted number of washes during the crossing: 7 body washes. Daily wet wipe washes
Who will win mum's prediction game? Marcus

Name: John Douch
Nickname: Sir John
Role: Chief Engineer/1st Mate/Graduate Trainer
Tea of choice: "Mine's a licorice"
How are you feeling about the crossing? Anticipatory
Most looking forward to: Relative freedom from jobs
Least looking forward to: The 2-4am night watch
Food you'll miss most: Large prawns
Preferred day wear: 1st week - wet weather gear, subsequently nothing
Preferred night wear: As above + a jumper
Meal you're most looking forward to: Mahi Mahi sushimi
Predicted number of leg bruises acquired: 0 (bold)
Predicted number of washes during the crossing: 10
Who will win mum's prediction game?  Marcus

Name: Jenny Douch
Nickname: Fungusface, Grouch, Stan
Role: Scurvy Crew/Vegetable Monitor
Tea of choice: "Make sure it definitely doesn't contain caffeine"
How are you feeling about the crossing? Ready to go now
Most looking forward to: Nights. Not wearing any shoes for a month. Wildlife sightings.
Least looking forward to: Marcus being sick (and on a more personal note having to wash in the same bucket)
Food you'll miss most: Lettuce
Preferred day wear: T-shirt and bikini bottoms (bring on the sunshine)
Preferred night wear: Fleece and Turkish fleece pyjama bottoms (red with white hearts)
Meal you're most looking forward to: Olives with anchovies
Predicted number of leg bruises acquired: 400
Predicted number of washes during the crossing: 9
Who will win mum's prediction game?  Dad

Name: Marcus Haydon
Nickname: The Meerkat/Marcus Mullet
Role: Scurvy Crew/Tall person job do-er
Tea of choice: Yellow Label
How are you feeling about the crossing? Good
Most looking forward to: Potential whale sightings. The simplicity of existence.
Least looking forward to: Unrelenting movement
Food you'll miss most: Fresh salad
Preferred day wear: (Hopefully) shorts and t-shirts (if John's wearing nothing then maybe some of his cool t-shirts)
Preferred night wear: Wet weather gear
Meal you're most looking forward to: Something that isn't the chorizo pasta we've eaten every day for the last 4 years
Predicted number of leg bruises acquired: At least 15
Predicted number of washes during the crossing: 10-15 hopefully
Who will win mum's prediction game?  John Douch

Happy New Year

It’s 08:00 am on Thursday 1^st Jan 2015 and I’m sitting on the balcony of a magnificent villa in Tios high above the sea looking out across the Atlantic Ocean. The morning is calm, the sky is clear and it is pleasantly warm already after a bleak, dreary day to finish up 2014. Looking at the weather forecast we can see a few days of relatively gentler winds starting on Monday so unless anything changes Monday will be departure day.

The past few days have been spent in a blur of comings and goings and final job completion. We’ve had Shore Support daughter Emma here over Christmas, my brother Philip and his wife here in Lanzarote for a few days of lovely weather which was great, and last night Marcus flew back in.

Christmas was ace with Emma. Lovely to see her so relaxed, confident and happy with her life. Challenging clinical trials work, boyfriend Chris and a nice flat in London are making for a very happy time for The Wombat. We hired an apartment for a few days and Christmas followed our traditional pattern of stockings with small presents (guaranteed to the girls until they don’t come to us for Christmas Day), breakfast, main present opening (ha, lots of cool T-shirts for me) and a roast for dinner around 4pm. We even managed to squeeze in a (very brief) swim in the sea (cold, but not as cold as Turkey last year). We did miss the traditional drinks and mince pies at Helen and Jonathon’s though. Turkeys were unobtainable but we had a brace of duck beautifully cooked in orange sauce instead, and none the worse for it. A lovely day. 

My favourite card - from "not-so-technical" brother Philip and wife Jane

 On another day we took our (decidedly dodgy) hire car around the north of the island, looking down over La Graciosa anchorage where we spent such a happy 10 days earlier in the year and visiting the “caves with a secret” that Gill first went to with Emma when Emma was four years old. And on Boxing Day we went for a 12km walk through the amazing volcanic scenery of Lanzarote stopping to pick fresh figs and admire the lava cones and broken blackened landscapes. In fact Gilly was so carried away taking pictures with her iPad that she fell off a verge badly cutting her legs, hip and elbow. Blood everywhere but luckily no lasting damage done, except to her pride. Nothing that the pharmacist in Porto Calero couldn’t fix. Silly, girl – remember to look before you photograph next time love and don’t try to walk backwards at the same time!

Last night we celebrated New Year with our good friends Dave, Vera, Chris, Audrey, Helen and Jonathon from Gleaston, our home village back in Cumbria, leaving Jenny on the boat to reacquaint herself with boyfriend Marcus. For nearly 30 years the 8 of us Gleastonites have been together on New Year’s Eve with barely a couple missing over the whole time. When the children were small we rotated hosting the event. The hoster cooked the main meal and the rest the other courses. But this was not just any meal – this was the Gleastonites New Year meal. Never is there any element of competition but the food is always superb, often not finishing until well past midnight. When we were back in the UK recently we were rueing the fact that we would miss this year’s event when Chris said “why don’t we all go to Lanzarote”! So that’s what they did. A late night flight from Liverpool saw them arrive on the island bleary-eyed, but next morning they were round for coffee on Petronella from their upmarket villa in Tios in the centre of the island. After a couple of hours food shopping we were back in Tios to chill out and catch up on news. A brief swim in the (heated) pool – the pool was nice but the biting easterly wind was not as we emerged and then time for dinner masterfully coordinated by Vera and Chris. Tapas, gambas (large prawns) cooked on the (upmarket) BBQ, pork loin in brandy and cream, chocolate cake and finally cheese and biscuits. 

Gambas cooking on the BBQ

Then it was fireworks over Puerto del Carmen, updates with all our offspring via various electronic media, followed by traditional charades with the usual very hard questions (try miming “The Desolation of Smaug”, or “The Mediterranean Handbook 2014” after a glass or three of Lanzarote vino). It was a great evening as always, great friends, memories and a whole lot of laughter. At 12:00 midnight we all did our toasting and kissing and Gill and I thought of our friends crossing at the moment, especially Jack and Fizzy who had sent an email telling us that they were…

“having an awesome sail but are a little surprised by the continual big seas. We had 30 Knots of wind last night and reached 14.6 knots as we surfed down a big wave. Luckily Petronella is built just for this type of expedition. Now have Genoa poled out to Starboard and Stay sail poled out to Port. Less strain on rig - noticeable. Still rolling, but not much we can do about that, although it will reduce when the wind picks up. Typically at night - last night 25-30 knots with up to 35 Knot gusts! Presently (18:00 UTC) 15 KTS. During the day 15-25 Kts but with big swell from the previous night.”.

Anyway bedtime this year was 3am – not bad for a group now almost all (except Helen) in our 60s (surely that can’t be right). Oh yes, did I mention the string of flags that Vera had made from my old pair of lime green swimming shorts that she had pulled out of our rubbish bin, or the German lesbians from our surprising book club book “Lanzarote”? Gilly and the girls thought the book was simply pandering to every man’s sexual fantasies but us chaps all knew that it was really a thoughtful consideration of intimate human relationships!

An interesting thing happened to Helen when she came on board Petronella yesterday morning. Of the eight of us Helen is the last one who would choose to do the crossing but yesterday when she visited Petronella for the first time she sat and looked round and said “What a lovely boat. So different from the charter boats we’ve all been on. It’s like a home. I finally get it, I can see the whole adventure and why you want to do it. The planning, the communications, the provisioning, I can see it all now.” Brilliant!

Meanwhile, in other, boatie news we’ve also made considerable progresss. The burglar bars to keep out inquisitive Caribbean visitors have been completed and installed, the genoa has been taken off and inspected with telltales added to show us how well we are sailing and the temperamental water pump has been fixed (I think) for the umpteenth time and new nets have been strung across the forepeak to accommodate snacks. HyperDino the Lanzarote supermarket is now completely out of toilet rolls, kitchen towels, pasta and tins of tomatoes. So, what’s left to do? Not much really. Top up the water tanks (the diesel got done by jerry can when we had the car last week), get the new GoPro equivalent camera working, and turn Petronella back into a sea going vessel from her current caravan mode. Now that New Year is over, that’s it – the next thing to happen is we set sail across the Atlantic Ocean for the Caribbean. How exciting is that?