From Race Control – It is certainly hotting up both out on the water with the leaders as well as here on the island. St Helena Yacht Club are gearing up for the fleets arrival. The tourism office are finalising all the activities for the fleet. We are so looking foward welcoming them all here.
TinTin
I see most of our competitors mention champagne sailing conditions. Aboard Tintin it is more like sparkling whine:
“It’s too hot!”
“There’s not enough wind!”
“Where’s my coffee?!”
But other than that all is good.
Sextant has seen a bit more use. At evening twilight I took a shot of the moon and was happy to see that the GPS agreed pretty much exactly with my calculations. This morning’s sun sight shows that the GPS has again developed an error of 1.5 miles, so I have just taken a noon sight to see if I can figure out the source of the GPS error. Probably Russian hacking? Will do the calculations shortly and expect to know the answer soon. Unlikely to be my 50 year old East German made sextant or my maths, so I can only put it down to something sinister.
Since midnight we have completed a series of gybes, trying to eke out every mile possible from the wind shifts as we try to make for a target directly downwind. It will be interesting to see today’s position report. Less than 500 miles to go…
Fryd
Day whatever on our voyage to St. Helena. We have passed the Greenwich line!
So first the good news. We caught a fish!
Then the not so good news. The total weight of our catch was about 175 grams. Yes, unfortunately you read it correctly. Not 175 kilograms, but a simple 175 grams. Not much to celebrate, but then Andrew found a nice piece of gammon in the fridge and cocked us a fantastic oven baked gammon dinner. On Fryd, Andrew and I take turns on making dinner and since it is my turn tonight, I think I can only top Andrew’s gammon steak with some Swedish fish balls!
Oh yes, we also had to focus on some sailing yesterday, jybing the spinnaker back and forth as the wind changed quite a lot. Typical tropical sailing! Then late last night, we got quite a squall and took the big kite down. By then, we were so tired of managing the big orange sail that we let it rest, winged out the jib and all of us went to bed, leaving all the sailing to Stig Helmer, our autopilot.
Short before daybreak, the wind alarm went off and it was time to jybe and get the big kite back flying. Half an our later, we were hit by another big squall and the kite went down, just to come back up again shortly thereafter. We are really putting Lars to work, and he is performing great with a steep learning curve.
Starting to plan for dinner tonight, I just remembered that we are carrying a lot of supplies for Umoya, so I decided to have a look at the stuff we have stored for them, potentially thinking that there may be some goodies that we could use…
Unfortunately, it was a sad discovery. Two equal amounts of dry food and toilet paper.
Ugh, there must be a serious digestion problem onboard the Umoya. Are you guys related to elephants, where 90 %of what you eat come out the back door…?
So, dinner for tonight on board Fryd will be Swedish fish balls. Can’t wait to see the reaction from my two South African crew!
Flica
Last night we went through a series of 3 squalls in quick succession, each one with increasing wind strength. The final on had sustained winds of 27knts and gusts well into the 30ths. We had our biggest kite up at the time (our A2), so it was quite a wild ride. Lucky we came through with the kite still in the air and still in one piece.
Good pressure today and we are charging along towards the island.
Umoya
Hope you’re enjoying St Helena as much as we are enjoying the trades.
One Eighty Magnus
Greetings from SV Magnus on this beautiful Sunday. All well on board Magnus. Light and variable winds prevailing and persistently “trapping” us on our way to the island. . Crew in good spirits, lots of music and laughter aboard while chess “championship is taking place in the galley. Fair winds to one and all on this final stretch. From the Magnus crew.
Magic Dragon
I’m not sure whether it was Peter’s wind dance or the baked beans that we had for dinner, but thankfully the normal morning calms have been replaced by a lovely 10-12 knots pushing us in the right direction which has enabled us to make some reasonable speed (and cheered me up no end). The sea has been incredible though – probably the flattest crossing with (some) wind that we have ever had and when she does blow, Magic Dragon just sits beautifully as she glides through the water.
Given how long this passage is taking and how many miles more we have to do in the next 8 months to get home (10,000nm) we have broken our rule of no school at sea and persuaded the children do some school today. Only maths and slightly helped by bribing them with pancakes for breakfast but painful nonetheless. They were not impressed at all!
Three days of fishing, three lures lost, but no fish. There must be some MONSTERS out there – snapping heavy metal leaders like they are string! Peter, our keen fisherman remains convinced that we’ll land a huge Marlin….
Hats off to Flica and Atalanta! 2 miles apart after nearly 1,400 Nautical Miles…. Best of luck to you both.
Mwera
Don’t Panic. Time is an illusion Had a fat JOL at club Mwera last night. #thanksgrootconstantiaandapplefriends. Don’t Panic. Time is an illusion More speakers are working; the Den, the Saloon, Cockpit. The organised chaos is seeing order #allthingsaretemporary. Found the hatch covers under stuff and things – boat is slightly cooler – still hot. Lastly; A towel is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can carry. Partly because it has great practical value. Never cryise the galaxy without it. #poetic license (gifted by the Flying Spaghetti himself) OUT
Atalanta
The made contact with Race Control to give their position – however no news today.