Wednesday 28th November
We lost. Again. All Blacks.
We are now just over 800 nm SouthWest of Lanzarote, having sailed just over 6 full days, though not in a straight line. When we left Lanzarote we made contact with Herb Hilgenberg on HF radio ( 12.359 mhz).
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Each night at 20:30 gmt (zulu) sailors call Herb:
'Southbound two, Southbound two, this is Chelone, chelone, checking in'
This goes on for many minutes as perhaps a dozen or more vessels take part in the roll call. Herb writes down the name of each vessel. He asks that people register by email, giving vessel details and passage plans.
Herb will then contact each vessel in turn, ask for a position and local weather conditions. He will then discuss a strategy for the next 24 hours, taking into account strong winds, calms and other factors such as the gulf stream.
Our plan, for example, which could have seen us sail South until the butter melts and then head West saw Herb route us motorsailing South to quickly escape gales in the Canaries, then due West at 22 degrees North to avoid calms near the Cape Verdes before tracking SouthWest to the tradewinds.
Herb has his critics, and likes to do things his way, but to my mind, he does a lot of hard work, on an off the air for sailors, and in my opinion he is to be recommended.
A couple of days back we suffered what I initially thought was a minor disaster. A small tear near the UV strip on the genoa became, overnight, a 15 foot rip. With over 2300 miles to go, this was very concerning.
John, Ross and myself set about dropping the genoa. We then manhandled it down below where Louise and Susie then spent the best part of 2 days sewing up the tear.
Another hour or so for the three lads to rehoist the sail and we were back sailing. In the meantime, sailing with full main and staysail alone, Chelone managed over 5 knots, not bad for a 16 tonner without her headsail.
Went swimming today,
Bright blue water, clean, crisp and warm. I swam around the boat twice before tiring. Even with bare poles and less than 10 knots of wind, Chelone moved relatively quickly. I estimated that, in those benign conditions, if I fell overboard and could not swim back to the boat within a few short minutes, that would be it. If she had sail up, I'd have no chance.
And then John caught a fish. Over 2000 miles and four weeks of trying.
Then Louise reeled one in. We ended up with five 'mahi mahi', or dolphin. 2-3lbs each, and all female. John expertly cleaned them
and then he and Ross prepared 3 different flavoured batters. Plain, Morrocan spicy and hot spicy. With chips. And mushy peas, salt, vinegar and allioli, a spanish garlic mayonnaise Louise and I brought aboard and which has become a favourite amongst the crew and, indeed, an obsession with our Tenby contingent.
We now have a settled routine. Formal watches from 18:00 until 10:00, 2 hours each for me, Louise, John and Ross, 2 watches each per night. It advances by 2 hours each night, so we all get our fair share of 'easy' watches.
John is concerned about fresh water. We wash up in salt water and flannel wash ourselves every few days. I drink 1 litre per day. I sweat a lot, especially when winching sails or carrying diesel cans on deck, so I hope John doesnt think that's excessive. I'm not sure what to do if he does.
