- Passage Log -

Daily Log # 17 - 7th December 2011

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 56nm

Daily Logged Miles – 54 nm (curent is great)

 FINISH TIME – 0848 LT - 1248 GMT – 17 days 3 minutes

Total Logged Miles – 2950nm

 

Lunch -  Ham, Tuna, Egg or Cheese Baguettes

Happy Hour - Salmon Pate on Toast

Dinner - Chicken in a Mushroom and Bacon Sauce served with Rice

 

Approaching St Lucia and the finish line there was a buzz onboard a few people sleeping, a few people on deck in the rain, a few people having showers to make themselves beautiful and fresh for being ashore.

The wind has been NE since about 0200 this morning and has increased to 6 – 10 knots, we sailed along poled out at 3 – 4 knots heading straight for the corner of St Lucia.  At 0700 the wind back around to the North and we dropped the pole only for the wind to veer back around to the East 30 minutes later.  Unable to sail at St Lucia we hoisted the Spinnaker one last time.  With Joy on the helm, James on the spinnaker sheet and David on the winch we start to speed towards the finish line at 7knots (a speed record for the last 48 hours). Before we had time to settle the Spinnaker was back down again and we were closed hauled sailing into Rodney Bay.  4 tacks later and BANG! We had sailing across the finish line.The crew were elated that we had stuck with it even in the light breeze. The rum punch on the dock was a welcome celebration.

The crew  had hand sailed Northern Child across the Atlantic and experienced all the condition the ocean could give us. 0 -35 knots, squalls, light drifting winds, torrential rain, scorching sun, wind shifts, downwind with the spinnaker, beam reaching and beating to windward.

I would like to say Thank you to my crew, they have been a fantastic well spirit bunch that have made sailing across the Atlantic a joyous walk in the park. 

Here are thoughts from the crew at the end of the passage;

David  -  To harness the power of the wind and use it as the only means of propulsion to sail almost 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean has been an ambition of mine for several years. To achieve this has been a truly memorable experience.

Deborah  -  This has been a journey into the unknown for me and has gone a long way to conquer my fears of sailing and given me more self-confidence.  I have enjoyed virtually every minute of it.

Joy  -  An Atlantic crossing has been a long held ambition, on Northern Child I achieved my ambition and proved to myself that I could do it.  This beautiful yacht will always hold a special place in my heart.  Under the unflappable leadership of Lucy and Chris, 10 complete strangers formed into a workable crew and sailed day and night for 3000 nautical miles towards our goal.  Lucy is an extraordinary young woman with a passion for the sea which is inspirational.  I will never forget helming across the finish line, I really special moment - thank you.  I have made myself a promise to sail on Northern Child again - it has been a truly life changing experience.

Rolf and Wolfgang  -  A dream is fulfilled for us, we will remember to this journey for a long time, we are thankful to be in the crew , we wish Northern Child a successful future and many happy returns to UK, so long. 

Daily Log #16 - 6th December 2011

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 115nm
Daily Logged Miles - 104nm
Distance to Go - 56nm

Lunch -  Cauliflower Saga-lou with prawn egg fried rice 
Happy Hour - Selection of Cold Meats: Chorizo, Palma Ham&Salami served with Red, White orRose
Dinner - Sausages and Mixed Potato Mash with Onion Gravy and Green Beans.
Dessert - Tinned Peaches and Custard

As you may have noticed, today our logged miles are less than our daily run towards St Lucia. This is because we have had some current underneath us helping push us towards St Lucia. Much appreciated in our slow fading breeze. With our decreasing daily runs (191, 168, 139, 115) our ETA in St Lucia is slowly being pushed out by hours and days.  I am writing this log in the evening of the 6th. We are now only 39nm from the finish line, 22nm from Martinique. We can see the light on the shore and smell the land. But, and a big but, we have between 1 - 4 knots of breeze and are drifting at 0.9 knots in a westerly direction. The saying so close and yet so far as been worn out over the last few days and has become more and more accentuated with every knot less of wind. 

However on board Northern Child we have mastered looking on the bright side. This morning at 0900 with 0.0 knots of boat speed and 1.5 knots of breeze the crew jumped over the side of the boat and swam in the deep blue Ocean. We debated whether we could tow Northern Child towards St
Lucia as the crew swam around her. 

Whilst I am sat at the chart table writing this daily log, the crew in the cockpit are singing folk songs including "Wild Rover" and Joy sang a Liverpudlian song called "In my Liverpool home".  Spirits are still definitely high. 

For those that have been looking at the menus with a keen eye might have notice that we have had a lot of Cold meats of the Spanish variety.  When we were in Las Palmas Neil found a Spanish Jamon shop with 100's of legs of ham, chorizo and other speciality meats hanging from the ceiling.  Neil and Will tried lots and in turn bought lots for the passage which has been a very nice treat along the way. In lunches, with our scrambled eggs on the weekends and as starters with our happy hour drinks.  I
think I have eaten more Spanish ham in the last 16 days of my life than I have in the rest of it several times over. 

Anyway I am going to be brief tonight and go back on deck and help keep the boat drifting along positively in the right direction. Tomorrow we will let you know when we arrive and give you the final thoughts from all the crew. 

Good night for now and until tomorrow. 

Lucy and NC crew

Daily Log #15 - 5th December 2011

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 139nm
Daily Logged Miles - 140nm
Distance to Go - 171nm

Lunch -  Canary Island Potato Salad
Dinner - Chicken stuffed with Boursin wrapped in Palma Ham served on a bed of mushroom noodles.
Dessert - Italian Pantone Cake


The past 24 hours with less than 200nm to go have been sent by the wind Gods to test us and challenge our sailing skills. We are all very excited about arriving in St. Lucia imagining the steak we are going to have, the rum punch, a hot shower, the air conditioned hotel rooms. However, the more you wish for something, the more elusive it becomes. 

We have done a little bit of everything in the last 24 hours. Yesterday afternoon we had the blue and white asymmetric spinnaker up on the pole.  The wind shifted around to 130 degrees so we moved the pole forward and sailed the asymmetric spinnaker on a broad reach.  This involved lots of
concentration from David's watch to maintain our course of 270 degrees as the wind gusted up to 24 knots for a time as we tried to make as much from it as possible with the looming light winds forecast.  Just before happy hour, Chris and a team of helpers unfurled the headsails, dropped the headsails, removed the number 3 from the forestay and re hoisted the number 1 ready for the night ahead as the wind was forecast to be more on the beam than behind us.

We held the spinnaker until the last bit of light was disappearing across the horizon, dropped it down the hatch and unfurled the headsail.  The crew had been issued strict instructions, sail trim was key to keeping us moving overnight. The crew all sat to the leeward side to give Northern Child a little bit of heel to help keep the sails filled, the helm rotated every 15 minutes to ensure concentration was maintained in the fickle breeze.  At times everyone got a little frustrated and felt helpless as the 6 knots which was pushing as along gentle dropped to 3 knots and the sails started to clatter.  Then the breeze would creep back up we would start gliding through the mill pond once again. For the first time the 4 hours night watches seemed like a very long four hours.

Things were made worse when Northern Child a very British boat ran out of builders teabags, which over the past two weeks has given the crew the rush of caffeine needed to stay awake in the wee hours of the night.  Lucy instead kept us going with chocolate bars, for that much needed sugar rush.

Other yachts started to appear on the horizons all around, one yacht stood apart it was approaching quickly and had it steaming light on. It had chosen to deal with the light winds by turning the engine on and motoring towards St Lucia.   This was not an option for us:
A. We are in racing class. 
B. When we sat in Las Palmas on the dock preparing for this Atlantic crossing we set out what our objectives were.  We all agreed we wanted to sail across the Atlantic. This meant not using the engine so relying on the wind and not using the autopilot so we would hand steer Northern Child the whole way across the Atlantic just as Christopher Columbus did before us.   A true Atlantic crossing relying on the wind and a helmsman to steer the yacht.

By the morning, the situation couldn't have been more dire. There was a miniscule 3 knots of air wafting across the deck.  In desperation we hoisted up the lighter cloth 200 meter square racing spinnaker which normally stays firmly in its bag for the crossing. Initially the only benefit was that it wasn't as noisy as the flip flopping of the head sail but slowly and surely 5 knots of breeze filled it and we started to sail along. By lunchtime we had 10knots just aft of the beam and were sailing along at 7.5 knots. Yippi, smiles started to appear on all of the crews faces.  

In reality things were never that bad.  I always knew in the back of my mind that getting in on Monday was very optimistic and Tuesday would be more realistic.  Our ETA still suggest we will get in some time tomorrow.  We just have to take a deep breath and remember what a wonderful place we are in. The sun is shining , we are surrounded by the beautiful deep blue Atlantic and we are in good company.  Read a book and relax as when we are old and wrinkly, we won't remember what day we arrived in St Lucia but the wonderful sailing, amazing night skies, the food and the friends we have made ......

In response to the limericks that the crew onboard Northern Child came up with we have received several poems in from readers of the log.  The first one was written by Atlanticus Minor, a friend of Saba's and the second poem was written by Jean Fry, Lucy the skippers Granny. 

"Chay Blythe said to me
When setting out to sea
There's only one way you can win
Sail hard and trim, trim, trim

Spinny out by day and night
Chase those wind shifts left and right
The pressure test for moral fibre
Is just another dip pole gyber

The crew can take it, to be sure
With teutonic singing at the fore
But heros all, let's not forget
Who holds the boat speed record yet

Chay told me all I have to know
Like helming downwind in a blow
But he was short on data
When it came to generator

But lacking all electric power
No showers and the milk goes sour
All credit to the team called SWAT
They soon determined what is WATT

The moral of this little tale
It's not enough to learn to sail
To cross an ocean without fear
You have to be an engineer!"

Poem 2

I looked up at the Moon so bright
And call across the night
Sail well my lovely Lucy!

With care and happy delight
the Dolphins know and sing to you
the waves join in with white caps and deepest blue.

The sails go up - the sails come down
the Crew are working well
Oh, Opps! Was that the Spinnaker flying past as well?

'All hands to the rescue' goes the shout
'Heave Ho' my hearties - lets get you out
the Spinnaker - very wet - has failed to escape
As in the Bag - its soon encased.

Next morning bright and early
Nature watches - much to their surprise
A strange two legged flying fish - seventy feet high!

It swayed to Port - it swayed to starboard!
But Chris and James with a big Heave Ho
Released the stricken bird.

A smile on Skipper Lucy's face and the Halyard in her hand
Shipmates all a merry band - sang
'Hooray up she rises - early in the morning!'

Till the final log hopefully tomorrow,

Lucy & NC crew

Daily log #14 - 4th December

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 168nm
Daily Logged Miles - 184nm
Distance to Go - 310nm

Lunch -  Cheese Burgers with Corn on the Cob
Happy Hour - Sangria
Dinner - Pork & Vegetable Curry, with Naan Bread and Rice
Dessert - Yogurts 


The fishing team enthusiastic from their success the previous day put the rod out again. At about 1500 the real started to wiz, they had caught a big one... David and Rolf are at the transom reeling it in slowly when SNAP the end of the rod snapped off and cut the line at the same time. That was the end of the fishing. 

In the aftermath, the price of the fish the night before came up. The rod and reel which Neil had bought especially for the ARC had caught one fish and then had been broken. We all agreed we could have had several good meals in a restaurant for the same price as the fish we shared last night. But that is not the point - to share Sashimi straight from the sea caught by your own fair hand in wonderful company - priceless.

During the afternoon we had company in the ocean once again.  There was a yacht to our North slowing approaching.  By dusk the yacht was less than a mile away.  We thought it was EHO1, a First 47.7 due to their position in the last ARC position report and we tried hailing them on the radio but we got no response.  The were on a course 20-30 degrees higher than us so slowly drifted out of view to the South.  

The night was an eventful one, with lots of rain cloud causing the wind to veer and back at regular intervals or drop off completely.  You may be able to see from the yellow brick tracker our course wave about the Atlantic as the wind shifted through 90 degrees with each cloud that passed over.  All of this made me very fidgety through the night as the sails banged and clattered in the lulls. My head could be seen popping out of the companionway hatch sporadically through the night as I debated whether there was anything I could do to improve the situation apart from sit on my hands and wait for the wind to reappear. 

The morning was a little better as the wind direction became more steady but still lighter than the forecast. We decided to hoist the spinnaker and try to improve our speed which worked. Still not record braking speeds but we were moving positively towards St Lucia again. 

I completed my usual morning routine of requesting and downloading more weather information. Until today my weather forecasts have shown the wind decreasing towards St Lucia but still 14-15 knots all the way.  Today however the forecast showed the wind disappearing completely tomorrow afternoon.  Noooo!!!  We could quite possibly be in sight of St Lucia and becalmed.  I didn't like this forecast so I decided to try and hunt for a better one.  I emailed Christian (my husband) asking for a St Lucia forecast in case there might be local winds effects that might give us some breeze.  The forecast Christian sent back unfortunately looks very similar to the one I have.  So, I have decided to cross my fingers and toes, and ordered the crew to sing and dance to the wind Gods. 

Pray to the wind Gods for us! 

Lucy & Northern Childs merry crew



Our fishermen made another attempt to catch fish, the reel started
whizzing and it looked like we had caught something big! Whatever it was
put up a fight. Not only did we lose the reel but the fishing rod
snapped aswell. Fishing days over for now. 

It was a frustrating night of sailing, with the sails flapping around in
the light winds and continuous squalls. Just after dawn we dropped the
headsails and hoisted the asymmetric spinnaker. We were 20 miles ahead
of Lancelot II, much to the delight of Chris. 

With less than 300 miles to go we're trying to gain as much distance
towards St. Lucia before the winds drop.

Wildlife Watch: 1 booby

Daily Log #13 - 3rd December 2011

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 191nm
Daily Logged Miles - 205nm
Distance to Go - 478nm

Lunch -  Selection of Freshly Baked Baguettes with a selection of fillings

Happy Hour - Freshly Caught Dolphin Fish (Mahi Mahi); 1/2 lightly pan fried in lime juice and olive oil, 1/2 Finely sliced served with soy sauce, Pickled Ginger & Wasabi. 

Dinner - Beef Bourguignon with Jacket Potatoes 

Yesterday our fishermen were finally rewarded for their persistence. Mid afternoon the fishing line whizzed away from the boat.  There was a scramble of bodies to the back of the boat to retrieve the rod. The remainder of the crew furled away the genoa to try and slow the boat but even after this the boat was still flying along at 8 knots.  Slowly but surely Rolf and David reeled in the catch. The aft cockpit was stripped of cushions and hosed down in preparation. The fish was lifted in to the cockpit and rum was poured in to its gills - the most humain way to kill your catch.  David who appears to be a quite a professional fisherman gutted the dolphin fish or Mahi Mahi on deck before passing it down to Lucy in the galley who spent the next 30 minutes cutting the fillets off the bone and removing the skin. There was nervousness in the crew about eating raw fish so Lucy prepared half for Sashimi and lightly cooked the other half in lime juice and olive oil. Catching the fish also meant we could finally break in to the fine bottle of wine that Rolf and Wolfgang had bought from Germany which we had been saving till we had our catch. It was a delicious slightly sparkling wine which complemented the fish beautifully.  To carry on with the German theme we had postponed the singing of the German Christmas songs till the 3/4 mark. So at happy hour Chris and I had to judge the singing competition between the two watches. The song choices were Stille Nacht (Silent Night) by Richard's watch and O Tanenbaum (Oh Christmas tree) by David's watch. The harmonious tones of David's watch won the competition. 

Rolf and Wolfgang had also prepared us a surprise song with a theme from the October fest. Wolfgang taught us a chorus and then Rolf and Wolfgang sang the verses and we joined in each chorus. 

Chorus: 

Holla dre-i-a, Holla-dre-o,  Holla-dri-hopp-sa-sa, Holla-dre-o

The entertainment for the night was not over yet.  At half way we told you about a limerick competition between the watches.  A reader of the log replied with another limerick which you might like to read from Atlanticus Minor the skipper who Saba sails with back in the UK.

Northern Child
Running Wild
Going Frantic
'cross Atlantic
Trim, Trim, Trim

Skipper Lucy calling shot,
Crew giving everything they've got,
No wind hole,
With starboard pole,
So Trim, Trim, Trim.

No way back,
(You'd have to tack)
So westward ho,
Go NC go.
And Trim, Trim, Trim.er 1 sail.

After a very happy happy hour, in preparation for the night ahead we put a reef into the main and sailed with just the number 3 headsail.  Overnight we had some heavy rain and some large squalls causing the wind to veer or back and increase to 30+knots.  The crew are so happy with how Northern Child was sailing that they didn't feel they needed to wake me up with the squall overhead in a constant 30knots across the deck with gusts of 32-33knots.  I awoke thinking that the water going past the hull felt very fast. I poked my head out the hatch to find a watch full of broad smiles with Northern Child hurtling through the water effortlessly. 

This morning  we gybed and dropped the number 3 and re-hoisted both the number 3 and the repaired number 1 headsail on the forestay and are now sailing at 8 knots straight towards St Lucia.  Yippi

Wildlife watch: Tropic bird and a Booby (type of Gannett)

CREW PROFILE - Rolf-Dieter Kley, Retired Dentist Rolf is a dentist from Lauder in Baden Wurtenberg, Germany. He has always dreamed of crossing the Atlantic. So far the trip has more than met his expectations. He didn't know that Northern Child was in the racing division but feels that it has been very enjoyable. He says that he feels very lucky to be travelling with a group of Tommies!

Rolf learnt lots of English sayings when he was at school. When we were caught in the squalls he enquired whether it was raining cats and dogs?  Rolf's next adventure is to sail the Southern Ocean to Antarctica in a 20 metre yacht in February.

Lucy & NC crew

Daily Log # 12 2nd December 2011

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 194nm
Daily Logged Miles - 209nm
Distance to Go - 863nm

Lunch -  Homemade Pizza followed by warm cookies
Happy Hour - Popcorn and Spanish Wine 
Dinner - Sausage Casserole

The last 24 hours can be described as twelve days at sea all packed into one day!

Last night after a fine meal, we decided to put a reef into the main and reduce the headsails in preparation for the night ahead. 

Overnight the sea was turbulent and the breeze building to around 28 knots and gusting to 31knots. We had some squally showers overnight. As dawn broke, the sea was very grey, choppy with sizeable waves with black menacing clouds constantly over us. We sat through the squalls and
everybody on watch ended up drenched. 

A tear in the number 1 headsail had developed overnight to several feet long. We dropped both the number 1 and number 3 headsails. Hoisted the smaller number 3 back up again, shook out the reef and started the repairs on the number 1 headsail. We cut off any fluffy treads along the edges of the rip. Taped both edges, stitched the sail back together then added more tape on top. A long process but hopefully it will last us to St Lucia. 

Late morning with the number 1 headsail stretched out in the cockpit, with the sun shining and the wind steady at 20knots. Lucy decided that it was time to put up the asymmetric spinnaker. Repairs were temporarily stopped as the sheets and guys were prepared for a hoist. The asymmetric was up. A very short time later the wind speed picked up to 25knots.  Once again the dark squally clouds were coming our way, very fast. The spinnaker was over sheeted. The wind started pulling the spinnaker
violently towards starboard. The helmsman, Richard tried to over correct it. The boat lurched to port. We broached with the port side of the boat in the water. Joy and Neil had an unexpected dip in the Atlantic as the leeward hull became submerged. 

Lucy then jumped on the helm to control the broach, at the same time the squally cloud was  getting very close and so was the rain. As the crew readied to drop the spinnaker once more the spinnaker managed to wrap itself around the forestay. It took several minutes to unravel, by dipping the pole and lowering several meters of halyard. Once free from the forestay we quickly dropped the spinnaker but unfortunately by this point the rain was upon us and we dropped a very wet spinnaker into the salon. 

Whilst all this was going on, Will was in his bunk, oblivious to the commotion around him and slept through the whole saga like a baby!!!


CREW PROFILE - Deborah Faulder, Partner in an opticians practice with her husband David.
Deborah works mainly on the bookkeeping and administration. She also describes herself as housewife extraordinaire.

Deborah wanted to do the ARC as a personal challenge and push the boundaries. She sees the Atlantic crossing as a total adventure. She also says that it was the only way she could get a week in St. Lucia by sailing across the Atlantic!

Daily log #11 - 1st December

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 202nm
Daily Logged Miles - 217nm
Distance to Go - 863nm

Lunch -  Spanish Omelette with Waldorf Salad
Happy Hour - An Assortment of Cold Meats; Palma Ham, Chorizo and Salami
Dinner - Jerk Chicken with Pea Rice and Homemade Pineapple Chutney

Wind - 20 knots from the ENE

A Pinch and a Punch for the first of the month. (No returns)

St Lucia is now on a bearing of 265 degrees true this is the course you read off the charts and corresponds to a course of 282 degrees magnetic.  The Magnetic Variation right now is 17 degrees.  Charts show North as True or Geographic North.  A compass can only point to Magnetic North,
so the difference between the two is called Variation.  In the English Channel from East to West the Variation is only 1 to 3 degrees so most sailors can almost ignore this when passage planning.  If we ignored the variation and set a course of 265 we would end up in Venezuela not St
Lucia, 300nm out.  

For any non nautical folk;  a nautical mile is 1.15 of a statute mile.  To be precise, a statute (or land) mile is 1609m whereas a nautical mile is 1853m.  This is because the length of a nautical mile is derived from the average circumference of the Earth. This is divided by 360 degrees and the then each degree is subdivided into 60 minutes and a nautical mile is the distance of one minute.

Back to the sailing. The exciting sailing conditions over the past 24hours has seen a number of records being broken. Rolf in a gusts of 25knots managed to surf a wave at 15.5knots. Not once but twice. James followed suit surfing down a wave at 14.8knots. Saba dropped to third place at 14.4knots. Currently the top 3 surfing records are all held by Richards watch so they are leading the surfing competition overall.

WARNING NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR THOSE THAT DONT LIKE HEIGHTS.
First thing in the Morning, Lucy secured in a bosuns chair was hoisted to the top of the 70foot swaying mast by Chris and James with winds gusting 24knots to retrieve the spinnaker halyard left up there when the head of the spinnaker exploded yesterday. You could see her swaying to and fro as the boat rocked from side to side with the waves. We all looked on in complete admiration as she retrieved the halyard and was lowered down again.  

After all of this we haven't used a spinnaker at all today as we have been averaging 9 knots all day which is at the top end for Northern Child.  The spinnaker would not add any more speed just complication and hassle for the helm when a gust comes through or a wave catches you on the quarter. It is safer to sail with poled out headsail as we can furl it away quickly if the wind builds.  

Last night saw another pivotal moment where we now have less than a thousand miles to go to St. Lucia! We have not seen any yachts or shipping for the past four days. Finally last night we spotted a
commercial vessel which thankfully was heading east and in the opposite direction to us.

With heavy gusts last night and excessive power in the main sail, it was becoming a challenge to helm with people being thrown around in their bunks and periodic juddering of the rigging which is not conducive to a restful nights sleep. So we decided to put in a reef, once again in the dark. Richard was at the helm, with his watch scurrying around the deck; releasing the halyard, pulling on the reef line  and securing sail ties.  Just like an well oiled machine it all went to plan. After that we were all given a helming coaching session by Lucy. Northern Child is a thoroughbred and needs to be treated as such with the lightest touch on the helm. It worked! She sailed beautifully throughout the night,
gliding gracefully through the water. 

Wildlife Watch:  Even more flying fish and lots of yellow seaweed 

CREW PROFILE - James Murray, Senior VP for Sales EMEA at Autonomy James decided to do the ARC because he had a life time ambition to sail the Atlantic. He wanted to use the time away to reflect on life, plan for the future and develop his next ambition to sail around the world.  Within the next year James is planning to complete his Yachtmaster, charter boats in Croatia, do Cowes week and possibly sail in the BVI's this winter with his sons. Within the next 5 to 10 years he hopes to
purchase his own sailing boat. I've also noticed that he's been getting into celestial navigation on the night watches. James is hoping that David will catch a tuna so that he can make some sashimi to complement happy hour.

Lucy & NC crew

Daily log #10 - 30th November

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 162nm
Daily Logged Miles - 180nm
Distance to Go - 1065nm

Lunch -  Pasta Carbonara 
Happy Hour - Rioja with Chorizo Pate on Toast
Dinner - Meat Balls

Wind - 20 knots from the ENE

Sailing can conjure up such romantic images:

" I must go down to the seas again to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by..." Be careful what you wish for because when the generator stops working and the main engine fails to start there's trouble ahead.... and you might just need the stars to steer by..." Saba

At 0600 after watch change, I tried starting the generator and then the engine, but both failed to start. The 12v battery bank used to start the generator and the engine were indicating an 11.3 voltage (empty). The starter batteries were totally discharged. The SWAT team made up of Neil, Richard and Lucy after much discussion and pouring over manuals discovered that the new generator did not charge its own starter battery; why when the generator was installed the engineers didn't mention this is a mystery.  In addition, the domestic batteries were low and currently the only means of charging them was the wind generator, which when sailing downwind with an apparent wind of 6 - 10 knots is only producing a few amps of power per hour. With this I turned off all electrical equipment to conserve the little power we had (lights, instruments, fans, fridge and freezer....)

The implications of no power is primarily comfort. Northern Child doesn't need electricity to sail across the Atlantic; the wind is blowing, we know where we are and where St Lucia is. We have paper
charts, hand held emergency GPS, handhelf VHF and a Sextant if required.  However electricity is very useful. The crew on several nights recently have described how sailing at 8 - 10 knots feels incredible and the sailing is like a white knuckle ride at the theme park but you get to ride it for hours not just 3 minutes. I bring this up because probably the 3 most useful bits of equipment to help the crew sail at night are the B&G Instruments (electronic compass, wind speed & direction), the navigation lights and the compass light. So imagine the white knuckle ride at the theme park trying to steer a straight course with 3- 5 meters waves coming up behind you with no instruments and a small moon.

Fortunately, as you can tell because you have received this email we have managed to sort everything out. However if we hadn't even downwind the wind generator could produce enough power to run Nav lights and B&G.

Comfort is still a good enough reason to try and make everything work. Without electricity there would have been no watermaker to enable us to have showers daily and now that we are down at 15 degrees North the temperature below decks doesn't fall below 29C which is a little warm, so the bunk fans would also have been missed!

So while the SWAT team were busy trouble shooting, David's watch with Will at the helm hoisted the spinnaker and continued Northern Child's good progress towards St Lucia. David's watch were doing a great job on the wheel and with the spinnaker. With the one exception when they accidentally rounded up on a wave and nearly broached NC.  Down below, everything lurch suddenly to one side and the SWAT team were thrown across the boat with everything else in the saloon which was not secured down. 

After a couple of satellite calls to the UK, the SWAT team took two of the 6 volt domestic batteries connected them in series and then in parallel to the engine batteries in order to start the engine and the generator. The engine needs to be run to charge the engine batteries and the generator to charge the house batteries.

To add to the entertainment mid morning and mid way through moving batteries around the saloon the SWAT team were interrupted rudely when suddenly there was an almighty bang. The spinnaker head which Chris had preformed a series of repairs to over the past few days gave way and the
spinnaker fell into the sea on the starboard side. It was all hands on deck to pull it out of the water and bag it as quickly as possible. The ring on the head of the spinnaker had completely torn away and was still attached to the halyard at the top of the mast.

After all this frenzy of activity Deborah made a very simple but much appreciated Pasta Carbonara for lunch. After some further tinkering and leaving everything to charge for several hours the SWAT team could rebuild the salon, turn all the system back on, breath in deeply andwipe their brows before emerging on deck to start cooling down.  With the instruments back on the bimini could be unwrapped and the crew could shelter from the blistering hot sun. At happy hour the crew gave Neil,
Richard and Lucy and round of applause. 

With everyone's minds back on St Lucia the crew all made guesses about when NC would arrive which ranged from Monday 5th at 1200hrs to Thursday the 8th at 0500hrs.  To arrive on Monday the 5th would require us to maintain 8.5 knots towards St Lucia and to arrive by Thursday the
8th we would need to maintain 6.1 knots.  I am sure that Northern Child will arrive somewhere in this range and I will let you know the winner when we arrive in St Lucia. 

Lucy and NC crew

Daily log #9 - 29th November

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 142nm
Distance to Go - 1227nm

Lunch -  An assortment of Baguettes
Happy Hour - Rum Cocktails and Crisps with a Guacamole Dip  
Dinner - Spaghetti Bolognaise with Garlic Bread

Wind - 18 - 22 knots from the ENE

A pivotal day for Northern Child and her crew. We reached the halfway mark of 1350 miles. There is no going back. We are in the middle of this vast ocean, it is now St. Lucia or bust!!

We also changed the clock back another hour, which meant two happy hours for the crew!! We celebrated in style with the cocktail competition between the two watches. Richard conjured up the cocktail 'the Northern Child sinker' This consisted of lots of orange, mango and ginger.  Wolfgang the other watches cocktail king created "the painkiller". The judges Lucy and Chris decided that Wolfgang's concoction was the winner on the day. The two teams have also gone head to head on a limerick competition, singing German songs and the fastest surf along a wave. The record is still 14.4knots set by Saba in Richard's group. Final results to be announced:

Limericks - Richard's watch (Deborah, James, Rolf & Saba)

Nothern Child is the boat that left home, with twelve of us all quite unknown
We've used halyard and winch, we've reefed without flinch
Our skills we are trying to hone

Lucy the skipper is amazing, her skills on the boat are quite fazing
She puts up with us, without any fuss
Her patience is quite hair raising

We have to mention Chris Watts, who's an expert on ropework and knots
He nips around the boat, like a young mountain goat
We can't help liking him lots

Great fun, not always plain sailing, but when Lucy went over the railing
without any care and her feet in the air
Shouted "let's win through good trimming and tailing"

Now we're halfway across the ocean, sipping a celebratory rum potion
With a fabulous crew
Who know what to do to keep Northern Child in perpetual motion

Limerick - David's watch (Neil, Joy, Wolfgang, Will)

There was a yacht called Northern Child, whose mast was tall and hull was styled
She sailed the seas, she shot the breeze, Her crew were all beguiled

The skipper's name was Lucy, cool calm and juicy
Her spinney kit and quick pole dip would whisk you to saint Looshy

The first mates name was Chris, tattoed and tall and swish
He liked a fag, a girly mag and cooked a mean boat dish!


With the fun over, we settled into the night watch. Richard's team were ready and on deck by 2am. The crescent moon gave us a bit of light on the water. Just as we started the watch, the wind suddenly shifted by about 50 degrees. It eventually went back to between 80 to 90 degrees. The moonlight disappeared and we were under a dark squally cloud. We had heavy rain showers which lasted 15minutes. The wind was gusting to about 22knots plus. The sea was very confused with large waves coming under the rudder and carrying us off at an angle. We all took the helm for 30 minutes each but found it very difficult to hold the wheel and helm in pitch darkness. The boat was swinging within a 40 degree range like a pendulum. Controlling it was hair raising at the best of times.

The main was clearly overpowered. We decided to speak to Lucy about putting in a reef. The preventer was off. It was tricky getting the main sail in because we were being flung from side to side. We managed to reduce the sail area. As Richard and Lucy were tying the earring and sail ties around the boom, we almost went into an uncontrolled gybe. 

Wildlife watch: Yet more flying fish landing on deck 

CREW PROFILE - Neil Edmunds - Navel Architect and Technology Consultant Neil is a man of numerous talents. He has worked on building racing yachts and designing yacht instrumentation. Neil has also run a series of retail shops selling up market furniture and is a Director of a
technology training company.

Neil has always wanted to do the ARC but feels that he has procrastinated for far too long! Life is too short and that you have no idea how long you have to do things. He has come equipped with lots of
interesting gadgets like the video cam. There will be more on Neil's talents tomorrow!!

Lucy & NC crew

Daily Log # 8 - 28th November 2011

Daily Run towards St Lucia - 175nm
Daily Logged Miles - 192nm
Distance to Go - 1428nm

Lunch -  Pesto Pasta with Chicken, Spinach, Cherry Tomatoes and Roasted Pine Nuts
Happy Hour - White or Rose Wine with mixed Nuts
Dinner - Fish Pie with Peas
Dessert - Banoffee Pie

Wind - 15 - 25 knots from the ENE, Northern Child has started to steam towards St Lucia again

Late this evening we will be half way to St Lucia with 1350nm to go.  The weather so far has been kind to us with only small showers and a fair breeze between 12 - 20 knots occasionally slightly less and occasionally slightly more from the NE or E.  If you had asked me in Gran Canaria what my ideal winds would be I would have said 15 - 20knots from the NE or E. Most sailors who have ventured across the Atlantic will agree that these conditions are ideal.  However over the last week this has made the crew slightly complacent. If the wind drops below 12 knots and the boat speed drops to 6knots or less the crew think there is no wind and that we have virtually stopped.  I remind the crew that last year we had wind from all points of the compass and it wasn't until day 14 that we had a daily run towards St Lucia over 150nm, every day of this passage we have covered more than 150nm towards St Lucia.

Looking forward the forecast for the next 5 days is just as good with winds forecast from the East of 19 - 24 knots which for the ever improving crew onboard Northern Child will be an exhilarating and
enjoyable sail as Northern Child shows her true colours as an ocean going yacht. 

Onboard Northern Child we get our weather information through a system call Bon Voyage.  We decide what area we want weather information for, decide what information we want; barometric pressure, wind strength and direction, precipitation, swell, current etc and send an email off using
the satellite phone. We then get a grib file back showing us in detail the weather for the next 5 days allowing us to plan our course and make decisions about sail plan.  I am always looking several days ahead to work out where I want to be then so that I can set our course appropriately now.  The system we have onboard are very accurate and enable to us avoid bad weather. I have great respect for the sailor before us who did not have the luxury of the modern technology we now
take for granted. 

CREW PROFILE - Will Stephenson, school leaver 

Will left Ampleforth School in Yorkshire only last June. His ambition is to study product design at a University in the North. This is the longest time ever that Will has spent out of North Yorkshire. He sees the ARC as a way of getting some fresh air and assessing his options.  Wills father has done the ARC a couple of times and he wanted to follow in his wake. Will has the title of the "onboard captain of sleep". He works intensively during his watch, then disappears to recuperate. We think it is an intensive work out shedule in readiness for meeting his girldfriend in St. Lucia! Before Will goes to University he would like to do the following: Climb Kilamanjaro, run a full marathon (he completed half a marathon last year), learn kite surfing, go skiing and watch Middlesborough his favourite team enter the premiership. An all round action man and a thoroughly nice chap!!!!

Lucy & NC crew