Merry Xmas

Barbuda, a week on the beech and nothing else, then it was Virgin Gorda, Spanish Town and now Xmas and Boxing day here at Road Harbour Torotola. All is well

Antigua and Beyound

Antigua,

17*04.32
61*53.29

Historic and great Anchorage at English Harbour and no shortage of waterside pubs to sample the local Wadadli Beer, Red Stripe the well know Jamaican brand is brewed and bottle here also very good. Also had a chance to sample the "Carib Beer" a few times although flavourless, does have good tasteless ads, the type with hot models, bikini clad, plastic boobs and all holding/grasping and clinging all over their bottles, I digress.. We are now in Jolly Harbour, a marine suburban neighbourhood where all the houses and villas have their own dock. Suspect they spent millions in dredging this all out.
Ton of Canadian flags here there and everywhere, met a neat couple from South Coast of Nova Scotia in their very classy classic schooner, one of the gals on board was Chief Officer
of our Bluenose II. Yesterday it was a couple from Sidney with their boat Registered also in Victoria. Two of us were moored side by side here in Jolly Harbour. They had just purchased one of the Villa here, dock included, so unlikely the will see Victoria for sometime.
Well I have to go and try and find space for all the Xmas stuff (small made in China tree included) Vicky picked up today.
Off tomorrow to Barbuda, apparently nothing but beeches and crystal clear water, no Internet or phones....should be good, we really haven't had the classic sit on the beech and swim all day since we left on this trip..

ciao

Channels...

Definition of Channels: the night before returning back to home port, that something feeling that keeps you up after being out at sea for sometime"

Everyone has the Channels this evening.....We have great winds now which are pushing us along at over 8 knots, so the miles are just going fast. We are about to arrive in English Harbour, Landfall early tomorrow morning (with luck). I suppose this will concludes our sail across the Atlantic for this year. Essentially take out our stop over in Cape Verde's It took 17 days to cross from The Gambia in Africa to Antigua in the Caribbean, a distance of about 2,800 nautical miles as the crow flies. All down-wind with the current to our back. Our average speed over ground was about 6. 5 knots so we traveled about 165 miles per day. Our best day was 201 miles. We used the engine a little too much during our last week racking up almost a 100 hours, alot considering most will not use their engines at all.....plus we have only 900 hrs total on our engine.

Average wind speed was 10 knots (kind of light), and the winds seldom exceeded 20 knots or dipped below 6 knots. After almost six months without rain, we were delighted to get a few pours offered on by Mother Nature as we approached Antigua. Kids really enjoyed the colorful double rainbows.

Fishing would have been good, but without our reel, I settled with just teasing the kids with the flying fish that landed on our decks, cockpit, and head on an almost daily basis.

A Day in the Life

12/04/2009
01:07:52 GMT
17° 10.13' N
51° 13.18' W

0200hrs Nothing Happens, 0300hrs nothing happening. 0400hrs still nothing happening. If we kept an hourly log it would read something like that, the days melting into each other. Although we did see a couple of boat or at least their lights, was almost going to call them on the radio but chicken out at the last moment realizing I really didn't have anything to say. More flying fishing, the coolest creatures this side of the Arctic Circle, one flew into our shower last night through an open port, didn't discover it till the morning however. We also had some dolphins with us, which kept the kids busy for a whole two minutes before they got bored watching them. I guess they didn't talk or weren't on a rescue mission with Dora the explorer.

Well e probably have less than 4 days left to cover off the remaining 578 miles. Unfortunately there remains very little wind, the boss even agreed to flying the spinnaker provided 1) it was taken down for her watch and 2) I stop using the blogs to communicate with her ,3) no more poop stories.

Well had everything set up yesterday, then the wind decided to shift on the nose, making it impossible to fly,thus we have decided to keep the engine going anytime the sails start flogging, which has practically been for the last three days. Although expensive and not so eco friendly we do have enough fuel to keep motoring the rest of the way and then some.

It's time to check the forecast, see how long or where we can find some wind.

Olous Out

Point of no Return Dec 01

12/01/2009
17:42:42 GMT
17° 08.51' N
45° 00.93' W


We passed the half way point earlier today. We are now just 7 days away from Antigua. The last few days from an emergency/safety point of view are always a little scarey, especially when your looking at 1400nm (10 days) to get nearest Carrib port or 800nm against wind and current to get back to closest African port. Georgetown Barbados is now within 6 days and if one of the kids got sick Vicky would let fly the Spinnaker and we could do it in less than 5 days.
Spoke too soon yesterday, about the wind.. despite the forecast and trends we are in a big windless hole. Presently the winds have died below 6 knots which (without a spinnaker flying) if difficult to sail in without flogging our stiff full batten main and rigging to death. Spent the morning playing with the lines and sails to absorb the flogging as best we can. We are now motoring charging the batteries and helping our movement forward. Was hoping we'd get across without any motoring at all.
Vicky is refreshed having her first shower this trip and now battling Nyah in some school work, it's a even tie so far... Rogan is building the new world with help of the Lego corporation and his fathers occasional direction.

Well better go.... working SPINNAKER on my subtle SPINNAKER subliminal messages SPINNAKER about SPINNAKER what sail SPINNAKER we need to fly.

Spinnaker Out

She Steers Herself

Still at sea, 7 days since departure from Mindelo, out side some minor tweeking, that's 7 days and over 1000nm with out a sail adjustment, not even a course adjustments. Winds have been essentially E-NE, ranging from 10-18 knots.
This is all just as well as Vicky and I both lost a day or so laid up in the bunk, sick.
We thought maybe food poisioning or bad water but after some reflection we now suspect Rogan. Well if we were looking where to point the finger, it would probably start at Nyah, she wouldn't want to be left out of any story!
Nyah lately hasn't been happy with all the attention Rogan has been getting for using the potty, so she started to show Rogan (and us) that she can poop better, in number of times a day and quantity. We have been trying to ignore this, as they spend time aurguing who has gone the most today or their favourite topic which includes stairing sp? into the bowl discussing log counts.
Well should have cut it off immediately as Rogan now spend the best part of his day on and off the potty in an effort to claim the title to the Throne, plus the side benifit of one gummie bear each time he goes.
This process in itself didn't seem to be a problem, however where we did start having trouble was a few days ago and trying to catch Rogan everytime he did go. He really hasn't mastered the concept of wiping or even putting on underwear after his business... it's a mom and dad job at best, but for the most part he considers it optional. The other day we totally missed poop no. 10+ and by the time I could smell something was wrong, it was smeared everywhere, beds, countertops, decks and bulkheads, it amazing how much stuff that tactile kid of ours touches in a run of 30 minutes.
We thought we got it all but we suspect we may have missed some and contact was made starting our Mal de Rogan.

Bon Appetite

Olous Out.