Back in Blighty

I actually got back last Friday. Early. At 0300. After a hire car dash back from T2 at Heathrow.
Had to wake Tracy to let me in. Oops! But why did I need house keys at sea?

Glad I'm back. I was away for quite a long time when viewed from a four year old's perspective. And they all missed me. Tracy posted on Facebook that she was pleased I was back.

Eclipse is off on her tour of the islands with Greg. and his partner. Then she will be joined by her new crew for the trip back to the UK.

I may see them all at Cowes for the crew celebrations. I need to get my sleeping bag back!

This is all.
DBM

Horta At Last.

Position: 38N31.865 028W37.510

 

We're here. Just waiting for Rick to clear us through Customs.

Then it's beers all round -"empregado seis biero se faz favor, we've earned it"

 

This is Eclipse blog signing off.

 

-... -.-- . / - --- / .- .-.. .-.. / -- -.-- / .-. . .- -.. . .-. ... /

.- -. -.. / - .... .- -. -.- ... / ..-. --- .-. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / ... ..- .--. .--. --- .-. - /

 

.-.-.-

 

 

Land Ahoy.

Position: 38N34 29W07

 

Nearly there. 30 miles to go.

Faial is now big in front of us. Well we think it's big as the largest thing we've seen has been a whale!!

Horta. Beer. More beer. Sleep. Home.

 

Nearly the end. 1886 miles so far. 30 or so to go.

Sad and happy.

 

DBM

Downwind checks through to Final approach.

Position: 38N35 029W29

 

Brakes off. Undercarriage down. Carb heat hot. Mixture rich. Fuel on and sufficient.

Sorry, wrong type of flying.

 

The previous watch, Dean & Lucy, woke us up at 0440 this AM as the wind rose to 8Kn. Time to fly the kite.

Took time to set it all up properly before making a leisurely raise. All good.

 

Flew it until 0740 until the heavens threatened to open. Got it down just before the rain came.

And did it come!!

 

Heading DIRECTLY at the breakwater.

 

40 miles to go

 

We'll BE BACK SOON

 

L8r d00dz

DBM   =8-))

Steaming towards Horta

Position: 38N47 031W30

 

Yesterday there was NO WIND. Well as close to not enough to push a heavy boat along as to call it zero. So we put the motor on.

 

Did I tell you that we hit a whale. No. Well we were under sail and gybed. Thirty seconds later BANG. Just like hitting a road calming bump at speed. And a big black tail flipped us the fluke, as if to say "$(*&^%R£$ tourists, don't you know which side of the sea to drive on??" We checked the bilges and keel bolts for signs of water ingress / damage. There was neither.

 

Sooo when we put the motor on there was a horrid knocking coming from the propeller. We went along for a while until we decided to go and have a look underneath. After we'd put down the diving platform, Dean stuck his head under the boat. We have a bent propeller blade. The sound is probably cavitation. And there were lots of jellyfish suddenly came into view under the boat.

 

At dusk we got wind. Suddenly. So up went the Asymmetric Kite. And we got between 5 & 8 Knots for 9 hours. Free miles towards Horta. We now have enough fuel to motor all the way. Hoorah. Beer and the big silver freedom bird await.

 

We've just caught a fish. Then it got away. It was THIS BIG ... (At least 15 LB, Greg)

 

135 miles to go.

 

DBM

Where are they now ..

Position: 38N27 33W42

 

Yesterday was a showering and laundry day; we have sufficient water to use the fresh water supply for this. Hoorah. The greasy feeling left after washing in salt water is just not nice.

 

We've changed course. This is just so dissimilar from racing, where the sails are constantly being trimmed for maximum speed. Here we need a good average speed towards our destination. So we are heading north to get round the expected hole in the wind. The gybes are getting better. Fewer mistakes and lots of learning going on.

 

More dolphins  - this time their timing was better and we weren't in the middle of a gybe! So we got video and pictures.

 

Then, I'm not sure all this excitement is good for us, Dean spied a yacht on the horizon. We just had to catch it. At 7 knots we were there in about 2.5 hours. This was Jess, an IP350 - quite heavy and slow - on an independant passage from Miami to the UK, with a week stopover in the Azores. He seemed pleased for the call - another "fast boat" had passed by the previous day and had not raised them. We got pictures of them - they got pictures of us. We'll swap ix in Horta or by email. It's just fantastic to get within a couple of boatlengths of another vessel this far out at sea. Marvelous.

 

We're all well and looking forward to a cheeky beer in Horta.

Can't wait to get there now

 

Thanks for the comments and the emails.

DBM  

I don't know what day it is.

Position: 38N11 36W50

 

Another disaster.

We've run out of instant coffee.

And all we have is ground coffee.

But no coffee maker.

 

Have you seen the shenanigans that a Texan will go through to get his morning coffee.

We now have a pan on the stove heating water and coffee grounds. Then they'll strain it through the electric kettle.

Whatever.

 

We found a 4" squid on the sidedeck this morning. After looking at it for a few minutes. And taking a couple of pictures, we skewered it on a fishing hook and sent it for a swim. I'll get back to you if it snares us a bigger fish.

 

The 1.5 oz kite is still flying (and in one piece). We've had some good progress overnight.

But the gybe last night left something to be desired.

All had looked well on the initial hoist yesterday morning. All the sheets and guys looked correct and the kite was flying well. Only when we came to gybe did we find that the downhaul had been connected between the starboard sheet and guy and stopped the pole from coming back on the gybe. Fraught times. I should cocoa. So we had some knotty issues to sort out during a quite unstable point of sail. However the resourceful Anna managed to order us out of the mess.

 

Only 350 miles to go. But there is a hole in the wind between here and our destination. We do however have 150 miles of fuel. Hoorah.

 

I'll be home soon. I'm intending to take enough time in Horta to buy pressies, then I'm outa there.

DBM

Sleep

Position: 37N31 39W43

 

I'm not sure what's been happening lately. It seems that I have been in a sleep - watch - sleep cycle.

At about 17:30 yesterday, I hit my bunk. And slept.

Lucy tried to raise me for dinner - pasta and sauce  (A DEFINITE FAVOURITE) -  but I was not to be woken.

And it took her an age to wake me for my shift at 23:00. Even Rick was tired on the watch - I think he sang for the whole time he was at the wheel to try to keep awake !

Then back to sleep for another 6 hours until the next watch.

 

What a way to live!

 

And with the weather promising to offer us very light wind within the next few hours, I can see us getting back to finding and fixing faults for the next few days.

 

Still 4 ( or 5 ) days to go on our drifting match to Horta !!

 

A big shout goes out to "everyone who knows us" from Lucy and the Gloucestershire massif .

 

You couldn't make it up.

DBM

 

Oh No ...

Position 36N54 041W00

 

Disaster.

We spilt some tea in the cockpit this morning.

Someone must have knocked it over whilst we were pulling the ripped spinnaker down.

 

It was quite a rude awakening. Trucking along at ~8 Kn and then rrriiiiiippppppp.

Everyone was up on deck within a moment and we were quite quick at retrieving the kite.

It has ripped the edge tape from top to bottom, but it  is (hopefully) retrievable.

 

Then the engine wouldn't start. Bleeding and fettling the diesel system had that sorted within an hour.

So now we can get the batteries charged.

 

This early rising has left us all quite tired, so we have been topping up our tans.

 

And now we see that there is soon to be a big hole in the wind right in front of us. Turning left and heading north for a while should see us past it and up to 37N30 quite soon.

 

Just 4 (or 5 ) days still to run

We'll be there soon

 

DBM

More from the boat

this is the best sailing so far this trip - SW winds around 12-16 Kn.

We've managed to maintain 7 Kn peaking at 10.3 Kn - and the spinnaker is still flying. It's been up for about 30 hours.

 

Sorry for the duplicated blogs yesterday. This was a picnic - Problem In Chair Not In Computer !!

 

My Leatherman has been put to good use today; we've made a fishing handle from some wood we found under the cabin sole (floor). And the sawing and shaping was done using this very useful tool.

 

The radio is still not 100%. But people out there can hear us - faint but readable. So tomorrow we'll be turfing everything out of the aft locker AGAIN and looking inside the tuner unit. Hopefully there's a bad connection in there. Otherwise we'll have to send an intrepid explorer up the backstay to check connections further up!.

 

We've not fixed anything else today. But we have compiled a snagging list.

 

Sightings:

One ship carrying Liquid Gas, six dolphins which didn't wait around and six that came and jumped and frolicked (good word that) under the bow. No pix I'm afraid. I was driving again. !!!

The last pod came just as dinner arrived on the table. Everyone rushed upstairs to look, and when they went back down, one of the dinners was on the floor. Oops. Sorry Mike. Dinner was salt fish baked in salt. Delicious? Go figure!! 

 

There will be more days of sun and wind. Hopefully we'll be in the Azores in 4 or 5 days.

 

Thanks for sticking with us.

DBM

Steaming along ... North East

Position 35N13 046W53

 

What a wonderful day. After seeing a turtle, a shark and a ship yesterday, today we saw a pod (?) of pilot whales. Unfortunately we couldn't get good pictures due to the distance.

 

The wind is light here. So we're heading northeast in an attempt to get to 35N and some westerly 15 knot winds. Just to make it interesting, we're doing it under spinnaker.

 

We think we have fixed the SSB radio problem - we may have put everything back to default when we took it apart last time !  

 

Just had the radio net and no-one could hear us - again.

 

 

 

 

Steaming along ... North East

Position 35N13 046W53

 

What a wonderful day. After seeing a turtle, a shark and a ship yesterday, today we saw a pod (?) of pilot whales. Unfortunately we couldn't get good pictures due to the distance.

 

The wind is light here. So we're heading northeast in an attempt to get to 35N and some westerly 15 knot winds. Just to make it interesting, we're doing it under spinnaker.

 

We think we have fixed the SSB radio problem - we may have put everything back to default when we took it apart last time !  

 

Just had the radio net and no-one could hear us - again.

 

 

 

 

Steaming along ... North East

Position 35N13 046W53

 

What a wonderful day. After seeing a turtle, a shark and a ship yesterday, today we saw a pod (?) of pilot whales. Unfortunately we couldn't get good pictures due to the distance.

 

The wind is light here. So we're heading northeast in an attempt to get to 35N and some westerly 15 knot winds. Just to make it interesting, we're doing it under spinnaker.

 

We think we have fixed the SSB radio problem - we may have put everything back to default when we took it apart last time !  

 

Just had the radio net and no-one could hear us - again.

 

 

 

 

Steaming along ... North East

Position 35N13 046W53

 

What a wonderful day. After seeing a turtle, a shark and a ship yesterday, today we saw a pod (?) of pilot whales. Unfortunately we couldn't get good pictures due to the distance.

 

The wind is light here. So we're heading northeast in an attempt to get to 35N and some westerly 15 knot winds. Just to make it interesting, we're doing it under spinnaker.

 

We think we have fixed the SSB radio problem - we may have put everything back to default when we took it apart last time !  

 

Just had the radio net and no-one could hear us - again.

 

 

 

 

Steaming along ... North East

Position 35N13 046W53

 

What a wonderful day. WE ARE PAST HALF WAY.

 

After seeing a turtle, a shark and a ship yesterday, today we saw a pod (?) of pilot whales. Unfortunately we couldn't get good pictures due to the distance. We also altered course to investigate an orange buoy and radar reflector floating in the water. No idea what it's for, but there was no need for further action. Several of the other boats reported seeing such things at  various  locations.

 

The wind is light here. So we're heading northeast in an attempt to get to 35N and some westerly 15 knot winds. Just to make it interesting, we're doing it under spinnaker.

 

We think we have fixed the SSB radio problem - we may have put everything back to default when we took it apart last time !  

 

Just had the radio net and we actually got through - quite quietly though. But it's progress.

 

Thanks to all who have sent us messages to the boat and via the blog.

 

More soon

DBM

 

 

 

Wash day in the blue.

Position: 34N23 049W14

 

No, not crew shower, but laundry duties. That's what happens when you pack for a week, but sail for two.

The crew shower happens on the foredeck (pointy end) with  a bucket of sea water over the head. Girly screams abound, especially from yours truly.

 

And we passed 050W on Lucy and Dean's watch. They had been watching the longitude reducing for most of their watch, so they extended for an extra 15 minutes so that the crossing was on their watch. With the variation between Magnetic & True meaning that we are actually travelling ENE, maintaining our course of 090 degrees magnetic will take us right up to the Azores.   

 

We're moving our time forward by one hour - daybreak was at ~0400 this morning, which is a ridiculous time for that.

So at 0801 this morning we moved forward to 0901. Which means that the 0800-1200 & the 1200-1600 watches become 0900-1230 & 1230-1600 to absorb the hour change. You have no idea how long it took us to calculate that on the night shift!!

 

We still haven't caught any fish. Maybe we're trying too hard, or moving too fast!

 

So we'll just have to take the opportunity of a flat sea to do a bit of fishing and sunbathing.

 

And here's a shout from the Gloucestershire posse - if anyone who knows Dean & Lucy would like an email from them, please send us an email so that we have your email address !!

 

Blue Skies. Fair Winds

DBM

One Third of the way to Horta.

33N28 051W48

It's now Monday at 12:00 Ships time.

And as of 0800 this morning we are past one third distance. Partay later !!

 

We are still heading east, and still being pushed slightly north by the seas.

When we get to 050W,we will head straight for Horta. We get a daily weather report and it seems that the winds are favourable all the way.

 

I am learning so much about driving a boat at sea; I am now trying to "use the force" rather than slavishly reacting to the compass needle moving away from the required course. I even managed to set up the sails and rudder so that the boat sailed itself. Just for half an hour. It was so good not to be concentrating on steering the whole time.

 

We still can't transmit on the SSB radio -we had Dean up the backstay in the bosuns chair moving the aerial away from the backstay with small chocks of wood. Apparently in the installation manual it says that is how it should have been installed.

 

Unfortunately, last night I was back under the weather. Much improved now, thanks. 

And the really annoying thing is that my waterproof watch is full of condensation. That will have to go back!

 

More later

DBM

Saturday 1700 Ship's Time

Position: 32N50  057W02

 

Finally the sickness has gone and I feel more a crew member than passenger.

But we are still fixing stuff that has either failed or is not working properly because it wasn't installed correctly.This is no fault of Greg's, before we left he was doing everything he could to make our trip as safe as possible. Unfortunately, the technician that came to fix the autopilot couldn't get it working. So we are hand-steering across the Atlantic. Who needs the gym when you get this much exercise!

 

It seems that we all now have our sea legs, so we're eating properly - pasta, spag boll, sandwiches etc.

Rather than breakfast bars & Gatorade which is what has helped fuel my recovery.

 

During the night, Anna was hit by a flying fish, which she killed (it WAS in self-defence, your honour) and Dean used it this morning as bait. Not caught anything yet, but something big took a big chunk out of the lure

we had been using. We will hook it right to the tail next time.

We also saw another ship - in all this water, we had to change course to miss it!

 

Big "Hello"s from the crew to friends and family from Dean & Lucy, Dave/Perry.Mike,Anna & Skipper Rick.

 

Bye for now

DBM

We're under way at last

We left St George's at 16:20 Wed. 21-May.

And I've b een sea sick ever since. Until last night when Anna gave me DiaOralite drink. it's fantastic.

it's now 23-May 10:00 ship's time. We left our time set to Bermuda time.

 

On watch yesterday, we saw a pod of dolphins and a bird. This morning a ship passed by and the sun came out.

Aren't we easily pleased!

 

Here are some positions for Georgia  & Alex ...

start 32N22.75 064W40

22-may 09:00 32N54 062W41

23-may 09:00 33N15 059W43

 

more when I feel better

Final preparations

So here we are at The St Georges Dinghy & Sports Club (32N 23' 064W 38') getting our ship shipshape and doing any final jobs to get the list closed off.
The autopilot man is here adding a new "pod". When he's finished, we need to go out into the bay and turn the boat slowly through 360 degrees to make sure Real North is pointed at by our North.

We'll be getting the weather soon and will sort out our routing.
Then we can do any final stowing and get started towards Horta, The Azores.


Next blog will be when I get a chance from the boat.

DBM

Catching Up ...

Monday
The jetlag got me at about 0400 local time by waking me up. As that is 0800 BST that was a lie in for a Monday! But wakiness was short lived and I finally got dragged from my pit at 0820 by the Owner. So much to do. We needed to get to Hamilton to do a bit of boaty shopping at one of the many chandleries there. And it is SO expensive to buy stuff here. There's a 35% import tax on the stuff we needed. Just like the 22 dollars I had to pay on entry just because I didn't have a return ticket! (The duty would have been included if I was travelling on).

So we went by bus. What an interesting ride. You'll remember that I was plied with rum the previous night. What with the ups and downs and the sharp curves, I wasn't on top form. But the island is beautiful.

We went to the first chandlery and were part way through buying own stuff, when Mike and Rick turned up with their wives. We decided that Greg would continue buying stuff for the boat, and that I would tag along with them. Greg did another four hours shopping whilst we explored the island!

We took the FastCat ferry from Hamilton (in the centre of Bermuda) to the Royal Dockyard at the westmost point. This seems to be the equivalent of the Long Island ferry - and 20 minutes rather than a one hour bus ride. Unfortunately as we came off the ferry a young girl collapsed in front of us and we had to administer First Aid until the ambulance arrived. That was a long 3 minutes!! Good job we'd done the course.

So we wended our way back to Hamilton via the Museum and a Lighthouse - There is so much history here. Mostly slaves and convicts. And yacht racing. Imagine trying to navigate to an island 22 miles long and two miles wide about 600 miles off the American coast. In the 1800s! Before GPS.

Dean and Lucy arrived at Eclipse while I was still out on the town.
So we just had to catch up in the bar. !

Tuesday.
Fixing the boat. There was so much to do. It's mostly fixed now. Except for the autopilot which requires outside experts who are coming by 0900 Bermudan (or whenever - they are rather relaxed about deadlines), on the day we leave to cross the Atlantic. Cutting it fine, but if it fails again, we'll steer by hand.

The next post may well be from the boat.

Thanks to Robert for pointing his readers my way. I'll try to do as well as he did.

Thanks to you all for your supportive texts.

Azores here we come.
DBM

I'm here - sorry for the delaly.

Firstly. I'm in Bermuda. Got here yesterday. And today I did the tourist thing and visited a few places.

The journey
All went well for the Doncaster to Kings Cross leg of the journey. My family dropped me off at Doncaster station - it was hard to be leaving them for this long time - but when I got to the Underground - shock horror - the Victoria line was shut. Detoured via the Circle line. we actually went up into the sunlight for a short time. Victoria to Gatwick was ok. Then trying to check in my bag, the previously agreed carriage of my lifejacket caused me to have to stay at check in FOR OVER HALF AN HOUR. I was not happy. At all. But I then passed through the rest of Customs / passport control quite quickly.

On the plane, a Boeing 777, and taxiing. Stop then WHOOSH, I got pushed hard into my seat. Those Rolls Royce engines certainly do the job. And they continued pushing us up to 40,000 feet - I got pictures of the Atlantic from 8 miles up ! Wow.

On arrival in Bermuda, I took a couple of pictures - Plane, Entrance Hall, Queues, a couple of brasses I saw. But I was seen. And had to delete them because you can't take 'photos in an airport.

The crew were in the bar, as expected, and pushed rum on me as soon as I arrived. After only eating airline food, and as it was now after midnight UK time, it had the required effect.

It's late now. I'm going to bed.
Goodnight. Thanks for reading. There will be more tomorrow.

Last full day at home

Well not all at home - I've been spending some quality time with the family, before abandoning them for three weeks. Pancakes for breakfast, Wii Games, Hollywood Bowl-ing and Dinner interspersed with a little shopping. Now there's just time for a swift half before bed. I hope I've got everything I need. I'm new at this crossing oceans thing.
And with the wonders of technology, I'm already checked in for the flight. Computers eh ?!
Thanks for reading -
DBM

Getting closer

Another week over with. That's my last day at work for a while. Just need to do that final bit of packing - the stuff you didn't know you hadn't packed until you move the books from the beside the bed and "OMG".
I've decided to vacuum pack my sleeping bag for on the way out. In it's stuff sack it's still cylindrical. And I don't have a hole that shape in my bag;I would have needed another bag. So I bought some of those storage bags where you hoover out the air from blankets before you store them in the loft. Now my sleeping bag is flat and on the bottom of the bag. Sorted. On the way back I'll probably have another bag for the presents, so it's not such a problem that I don't have the Portugese for "Please can I borrow your Hoover". Probably best thinking of the looks such a request may get!
[I had to wash the Jeep in Saudi so "Please can I borrow your bucket" / "Mumkin astaherr sad'lak" came in useful)

More soon
DBM

From my mobile

Just testing blogging from the mobile. Plus Hello to all of you who are now getting this via email. DBM

test from Elcipse email

Hi Dave,

If this works you'll be able to post from the boat. Your comment arrived in the eclipse inbox ok.

Regards,

Robert

First email blog - Thursday, that's 10 sleeps until leaving..

Must start to ramp up the blogging thing now. Robert emailed from the boat
telling of how he has been posting via email. Let's see if it works for me
...
Perry

My first trip of a lifetime.

So, you may ask, why has he started blogging now ?

It's simple really. I'm going to sail across the Atlantic.
Well the bit of it between Bermuda and Horta in the Azores.

My friend Greg. has a Bénéteau 42s7 sailing yacht 'Eclipse' in Clear Lake, Texas and he wants her in Cowes, Isle of Wight in time for Cowes Week 2008. So he has organised a group of interested souls into crews to cover the four legs of the trip - Texas to Florida, Florida to Bermuda, Bermuda to The Azores, The Azores to The UK.

I can't afford to not work for the two months the full trip will take, so I'm doing the Transat bit.

To view a map of the route go to: This Link

There is also be a web page to track our progress - http://www.kemahportal.com/

Eclipse will be joining the ARC Europe rally from Florida, so there will be about 35 yachts crossing the pond approximately together. From a safety and organisational standpoint that makes everyone happier. Especially those back home.

And this blog is a way of keeping everyone up to date. During the next couple of months, I'll be posting to this blog regularly with updates on where I am physically, mentally and logistically.
We've got laptops and a Sat phone on board Eclipse - we have to report our position every day via email to the ARC organisers, so I'll hopefully be able to blog from the boat!

When I work out how to drive the blog properly, I'll have a comments thing so you can ask questions or remark on my lunacy. These will then be emailed to me. But we're on a slow SatPhone connection to the boat, so please keep them short so I can be up top taking pictures, rather than down below on the computer!

So, where am I at now?

I fly out from Gatwick to Bermuda on Sun 18th May. We then get ourselves organised for food, fuel, prezzies etc for a couple of days. On Wed 21st we set sail. During the next couple of weeks we head approx. NorthEast dependant on breeze and weather, taking pictures and drinking ... Tea - Eclipse is a dry boat. ie No alcohol. We plan to reach Horta in The Azores on 2nd June. Here we meet Greg., who is holidaying amongst the islands before he takes Eclipse back to Blighty. We can then fly home, job jobbed.

I'm now thinking about packing - AAARGH

Thanks for reading.