They’re Off!

Current Location: Petronella, Lanzarote. Us UK. Lots of friends, crossing the Atlantic.

Whilst we shivver back in the UK, boats are starting to leave the Canaries and Cape Verdes off the west coast of Africa to make their passages to the Caribbean. First to leave were Rick and Robin on Endagered Species (Dangerous Spices to their friends) on the last leg of their circumnavigation. Their catamaran is bowling along westwards so fast that they have been unable to catch any fish so far. Every day they are 150 miles or more closer to home in Florida. Each evening we get an email via their radio telling us of their progress. Rick and Robin are conservative, defensive sailors. They taught us about making comfortable passages rather than pushing on to cut a day off passage time, to always reef at night to allow the crew more sleep and to make sure we are all well fed with extra goodies. Crew morale we learned on our sea survival course is critical to happy, safe passages.

A few days later the 38 yachts on the Atlantic Odyssey Rally left Arrecife. We met several of them while we were in the marina earlier in the month. They will be starting their fourth night just now. Progress has been slow for them. Forced to leave at a time dictated by the rally organisers they have had little wind for the first few days and what they have had has been on the nose (coming from ahead of them) making for slow progress. From what we can see from the rally website (http://cornellsailing.com/sail-the-odyssey/atlantic-odyssey/) all boats look to be making progress westwards. We are especially looking out for Sephina with Rob (now that is one cool dude) and French Jen (of amazing crepes with honey fame) aboard. Good luck guys. We’ll see you on the other side.

They're Off!

My calves in the armpits of a millionairess

Current Location: Petronella in Arrecife Marina, Lanzarote, the Canaries. Gill and John on the M6 heading northwards from Southampton to Cumbria.

“Water’s wet. Water’s cold. We don’t want you in it, do we?” were the opening words from John, our larger than life ex Royal Navy sea survival trainer. We were at Hamble on the south coast of England for our intensive day of training on how to cope with shipwreck, fire, disease, injury and worse. We learned about life raft inflation, what to do if your skipper loses his marbles, how to be rescued by a helicopter, what to do with poo or period detritus when in your life raft (throw it as far away as you can to reduce the chance of shark attack!), what to put in your grab bags, how to choose your new life jackets and a host of other “must know” information.

There were 16 in our group, mostly in their 50s and early 60s with a smattering of younger sailors. Experience varied from very little to yacht masters. We were targeted by a couple with their friends who are planning to “sell up and sail” much like us. Except that their boat is a 55’ Oyster currently undergoing a complete refit in Southampton. Their electric winches probably cost as much as we paid for Petronella and they couldn’t imagine how we managed with no hot water and only two solar panels. But we had an interesting chat nonetheless.

Half the day involved this theoretical stuff but what we were all really there for was the practical part. Thankfully few sailors ever have to take to their life rafts but it’s better to learn how to “step UP into your raft” in the swimming pool than on a cold, dark, stormy night in the middle of the ocean. So off we went to the local sports college. Change into oilies three sizes too big and don the ancient blow up life jackets. Onto the poolside and jump into the pool using the hand over the nose technique. After trying to swim normal backstroke (very difficult) and front crawl (impossible – I actually moved in the opposite direction) we learned to lie on our backs and make mini backstroke movements. This allowed us to make slow progress but it is pretty hard work. Then eight of us linked up and worked as a long backstroke crocodile. I was behind Ros from the Oyster and incongruously as we paddled towards the inflated life raft I thought “I have my calves in the armpits of a millionairess.” Bizarre or what. Then, in our groups of eight we struggled into the life raft. It’s not easy. Everything is slippery, everyone is struggling to slither in, no one is in command and you are lying on top of people that two hours ago you had never met.

[Photo acknowledgements to Anita]

Next it was time to right the life raft. We each learned how to stand on the step, reach up to the CO2 canister, grab the ladder, walk our hands up the ladder, pull the raft up over our heads, punch some air into the base as it came down on top of us (this was the scary bit for some people), chat to Gemma our swimming assistant whilst in the air pocket under the raft and then calmly swim out from underneath the raft. All in all a very useful experience and one that hopefully we will never need to repeat.

Additional lessons to learn:

-          Check for wasps inside your oilies. They may sting you.

-          Do not put your dry clothes bag on top of a locker with a gap behind. They may disappear eight feet down behind said locker.

-          Always carry a BFK* with you in case you get caught in the various tapes and straps hanging off the life raft.

Shortly after completing this course we went looking for better life jackets with sprayhoods, crotch straps, LED lights and more reflective tape. A sobering day.

*Big Fucking Knife

Technical posting alert – SL500 finally replaced with SL555 (a Sea Tiger)

Current Location: Petronella, Lanzarote. Us, UK.

It looks as though the long running windlass replacement saga may be drawing to a close. Following my unsuccessful attempts to purchase a secondhand SL500 to replace our knackered one I finally decided we must have a replacement of some sort before we leave for the Caribbean. Gill wanted to change to an electric one but I didn’t want the huge cost and disruption involved in going down this route. She took a lot of persuading though. I finally convinced her by telling her that she would probably lose the benefits of my amazingly toned upper body if we went down the electric winch road! Anyway, enough of that. Before we left Lanzarote Jack from Carpe Diem (thank you Jack) had shown me a secondhand SL555 on eBay. Not the same, but thought by some to be even better than the SL500, this manual windlass was for sale in Bristol. I bought it for a not overly expensive price. Here is a picture of it.

My new Sea Tiger windlass. Note label on top suggesting it might actually be old but actually unused.

It won’t fit straight onto the mountings for the old one but I think I can mount it without resorting to welding. Welding on the boat is expressly prohibited when you are in the water and the last thing I want to do is lift out just for twenty minutes of welding. Hopefully this approach will work. The new windlass (the bit we use for hauling the anchor chain up) came with the option of either a gipsy to accept 8mm chain or one for 10mm chain. This is great except that we need one for 12mm chain. So that means finding a 12mm gipsy which hopefully fits both our old chain and the new windlass. I’ve emailed a guy in Scotland who purports to stock these gipsies but as yet no reply. I hope he does reply or else I could now be left with two ancient windlasses neither of which have a 12mm gipsy. Watch this space!

The Plan

Here is the North Atlantic with a yellow line roughly showing our expected route. It's well over 2,000 miles to the Caribbean from the Canaries where we are at present.

This is today's chart from Passage Weather, one of our favourite weather sites. The chart shows the winds. Winds blow from the arrow feathers end of the arrow towards the sharp point of each arrow and the brighter colours are the stronger winds. The figures are in knots. 1 knot is a bit more than 1 mile an hour. You can see two nasty looking low pressure systems in the north heading straight for the UK (in fact the first one is due to hit as I'm watching Saints v Leicester City this afternoon). Further south around our yellow line the NE trade winds (more easterly at the moment) are starting to kick in and get established. These are the winds that we've all been waiting for. By January when we leave the Canaries we hope they will be stronger and more consistent.

That's the plan!

(PS: It looks a bloody long way!)

Daily Life in Marina Lanzarote

Arrecife at dusk

Current Location: Petronella and Gilly in Arrecife, John at 38,000' above the Portuguese Atlantic.

After a summer of beating to windward and motoring westward through the Med we have finally had time to recharge our batteries both literally and metaphorically. The marina in Arrecife, Lanzarote has been our home now for several weeks. Activity is ramping up all around us as boats arrive from around the world in preparation for their Atlantic crossings. It's good to reach the Canaries by the middle of October before the chance of hitting a storm further north increases. That means loads of boats waiting in all the anchorages and marinas here until the NE Trades kick in that will transport us to the other side of "The Pond". Everyone has a story to tell because we are the lucky ones with an adventure ahead and everyone has already made a longish Atlantic passage to get here.

Dilek, our Turkish lady sailor friend who we had to leave behind in windy Tarife west of Gibraltar, finally arrived a few days ago. She was on an amazing high after completing her longest solo passage yet in her old 32' boat. After autopilot problems off Tarife she limped in to Rabat on the Moroccan coast. She fixed it but was almost thrown onto the rocks as her engine failed before she eventually managed to leave the port during a lull in the big swells. She stopped one further time on the Moroccan coast to pick up fuel. Here she met up with two small German boats also being sailed by single handers (currently with French hitch hikers aboard).  They sailed the last three days keeping in radio contact with each other. One of the boats caught tuna on the way across and although Dilek won't kill fish she will eat them. This resulted in the odd sight of a dead tuna being thrown from one small boat to another 150 miles from nowhere!

Jack and Fizzy who we first met in Turkey last year arrived before Dilek having also spent time in Rabat. We are now firm friends sharing their bikes (thanks guys) to get in to town and also hiring a car for a tour round the island. Volcanoes, wine tasting and dinner out made a welcome change from the rather intense boatie world of the marina. By the time Gill and I arrive back from the UK on 5th December they may well have left the marina although engine issues might delay their departure.

As it happens our marina is the starting point for a couple of rallies this year. These are organised Atlantic crossings for which you pay a fee to tap into the organisation provided by experienced sailors, the chance to meet other crossers, some parties and cheap berthing on either side of the ocean. We briefly considered joining one of these rallies but decided against it as we already had plenty of friends, could organise our own parties and did not want to be forced into leaving at a specific time and day. We are though part of a loose group of like minded boats who will keep in touch via HF radio during our crossings, though departure dates vary from mid November to mid January.

One of these rallies is the Atlantic Odyssey organised by the well known cruising sailor Jimmy Cornell. See here for more information on the Atlantic Odyssey rally. Jimmy's book Cruising Routes of the World is on most of our bookshelves. It explains the best routes, timings and hazards for sailors across the globe. If you wanted to sail say from Australia to UK his book would be one of your first planning ports of call. He has just arrived at the marina in his new boat. During the week the rally will run seminars on provisioning, downwind sailing, routing and other very exciting topics! Very generously the rally has thrown most of these sessions open to non rally sailors staying in the marina for free so Gilly will be attending a good few before she returns to the UK next week. There is even a "women only" session run by an all women team sailing round the world.  As one of the few women skippers at the marina Gilly has been invited to contribute to this session. Wow!

What else? Ah yes Jen and Marcus you will be pleased to hear we have a new toilet and there is now a concealed red glowing light in the compass so that is one less trailing wire in the cockpit. There is a new one though as the towed generator (The Toad) is now almost installed with a cable wired direct back to the batteries to generate electricity as we merrily bowl along.

In other news during a recent two day ferry trip to the next island of Fuerteventura we got talking about Christmas presents. "What did I want" Gilly asked. I told her I wanted some new "cool" T-shirts. "Like what? Who's cool?" she asked. After some discussion (I won't embarrass you chaps) as to who qualified we checked into a smart hotel for the night. Our plan of arriving late and getting a cheap last minute room completely backfired and we ended up with a very expensive suite. This did however include dinner and breakfast and our own VIP area for sunbathing. They even apologised for the late arrival of the cava and fruit platter! There was a problem though. Gentlemen (that'll be me then) were required to wear trousers for dinner. Problem. No trousers. Only shorts. Hoof it up to the local shopping centre for a pair. "Ah", says Gilly. "Zara. That's for you, especially with your new cool image". However, not so successful. My calves are SO well developed I can't get into any of their trousers. Hence the famous statement  "too hench for Zara". Still, no problem. I got a great pair for 19 euros in the sports shop instead. Feeling well up in the cool stakes we went down to dinner with me wearing my favourite white shirt. It was only after three ten year old girls had laughed at me that Gilly finally said to me "you do realise you are wearing your shirt inside out, don't you".  Ah well, maybe cool isn't really my forte after all.

Very posh hotel on Fuertaventura (our VIP terrace top right with "grass")

We now new or at least modified cushions for night watch, we've replaced broken crockery, had a cracking prawn curry and installed a new galley drainer from Lanzarote's very only Ikea (arghh) so Wmn you can keep the one we gave you to bring out!.....

.......So now I'm back in the UK. You can tell cus it's freezing cold, the train is full and it looks like I'll be standing from Gatwick to Southampton (2 hours). This is my last trip back before the crossing. Till now we've returned to the UK for a few weeks every 3 to 4 months to ensure Mum and Dad are OK. Next time won't be till June or July and that seems a long while away. At least we'll be back for longer when we finally do return. The contrast between our optimistic outdoor sailing life and time with my parents is stark and rather sad.

Crew Preparations

Location: Walthamstow, London

Blogger:  Jenny

So, dad has asked me to give a quick update of how the preparations for our departure are going in the UK. Both of us have resigned from our jobs and we have handed in our notice on our rented flat. I only have four weeks left at work. It's getting very close.

We've been busy learning about sailing and getting prepared for the trip. This began on a very cold and wet Competent Crew course in March this year in the Solent. The conditions on the last day were pretty challenging and a ripped foresail (see below) gave us a taste of the problem solving often required on board a boat.

*nb - photos taken the next day safely in Poole harbour!

Two trips with mum and dad, first from Kafalonia to Sardinia and then a couple of weeks ago from Gibraltar to the Canaries complete our limited experience. For us this gave us the chance to have a proper run at some passage making and to build on the skills we learnt on the Competent Crew course. Dad is an excellent teacher, so we've had master classes in a number of the tasks on board and now feel much more confident that we will actually be useful members of the crew. We've also had a chance to do watches on our own and are ready as we can be for the big crossing.

We also recently attended a very interesting, if slightly terrifying Sea Survival course in Southampton. We learnt a lot about "worst case scenarios" (sinking) and even had the chance to practice getting into a life raft in full wet weather gear and life jackets (in a swimming pool). We learnt loads, although hopefully it will be a complete waste of money and we will never need to put in to action any of the stuff that we learnt. Mum and dad are doing the same course in a month or so.

I am the Team Petronella Entertainments Officer so have been busy finding things for us to do during the crossing. So far the list runs to Cribbage, 3/4-part harmony singing (a recorder has been purchased), cards and cryptic crosswords. Other suggestions on a postcard please (or in the comments section). We've all also suggested meals to have on a couple of days - one fresh(ish) and one store cupboard. The world-famous pasta-tuna-mayo is going trans-Atlantic.

Experimental bread baking

Ingredients 

The Mix

Final Result

We're not going to be able to carry bread for up to 30 days when we cross so today was experimental bread making day. It came out OK. Gill found it a bit salty but I didn't.

Tomorrow we have been invited by French Jen for freshly made crepes on her boat. Yum!