Day 21 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather: Ahhh, at last, calm... Seas are down to around 3' waves and gentle, winds are calmer (low teens, dropping less from time to time) - we even had full main and genoa flying for much of yesterday evening. Still overcast and cold (so wrapped up), but it is nice to be able to enjoy this calm; Kyle predicts it is just a brief lull before the next pressure system but he really is NOT complaining about the low winds, AMAZING.  Finally, we can leave the helm to tend for itself for 30 seconds, life is much better.

General Comments: In yesterday's rig check I discovered a hole in my welly (where the boot meets the leg) and we saw 2 ships yesterday. After one of many large waves hitting us, the rudder indicator stopped working and when Kyle went to inspect, luckily, it had just popped off its ball joint so an easy fix. (Kyle complained about this last sentence - he says "the weather in the last few days has been just horrible. As we've mentioned. Yesterday we had a particularly large number of breaking seas that came over and into the boat, probably an interaction with the slight current but very frightening nonetheless. Every time one would hit the boat there was an explosion of water and the boat would slew sideways 30-40 degrees before ending the skid. One of them managed to permanently stretch the life lines (most likely the same one that ripped off the enclosure track). The wave that broke the rudder indicator. Usually the only warning we would get is about 1/2 second of loud hissing before it hit - not enough time to turn the boat to a better angle. Every time I heard that hiss, my stomach would be up in my throat wondering what was about to come. Most of the rest of the time the waves were both impressive and frightening. It is not so much the peaks as the troughs that cause the effect as the boat rides to the top of the wave and you look down into the next trough from atop the helm seat on the boat, it feels as if you are sitting on a lawn chair on someone's roof and about to slide off onto their lawn. Then, of course, immediately behind that is another steep wall of water just as high again. It is always a surprise to both of us when a particularly large and menacing waves, that the boat just floats over uneventfully. Of course, the worst is when you can see the top 5 or 10' of water folding over into a breaker and you know the boat can't get out of the way in time - it feels as though we've been dealing with this for too many days now. Maryanne slept so well on her off watch repeated yelling didn't wake her, I actually had to go into the bedroom to wake her. Today seems like a huge relief.".

Last night on my watch, I spotted a sailboat flying it's illuminated spinnaker, I was just analyzing to determine if we were on a collision course and who had right of way, when the clouds moved and I discovered it was the moon I was trying to avoid!!! 

Aboard Footprint we have a large pump action thermos to allow us to have hot drinks throughout the day without having to keep boiling the kettle; we've not used it at all while in the Carribean, where we mostly have cold drinks at the ready, but need it now.  For the most part we've had a traditional glass/vacuum thermos but after several breakages I recently purchased a fancy stainless steel one... We'll after 4 hours in the pot the water is room temperature - terrible.  I'm not sure if it is the model, or simply the nature of the non-glass thermos but it certainly is NOT doing the job.

Kyle won't let me catch any of the rain water that keeps landing on us as he is seriously monitoring our water usage (we have way more than we'll need for the trip).... I'm tempted to mess with him but he checks so often there is no way I can sneak some in the tank without him knowing.

Food:  We kept it simple yesterday and for lunch we had mini-pizzas (bread rolls: split, covered and grilled) and for lunch some carton soup that I had left over from the USA (It expires June '09 so we'll have to have more of that on this trip).

Progress: Yesterday we made 130, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 2409nm, and have 395 (straight line) to go.

Our arrival destination is Baltimore, Ireland and we are secretly hoping to get there sometime on Thursday (18th), where we plan to seriously deplete the hot water supplies of one of the local hotels, sleep, rest up, and get our body clocks back on the same schedule.

Day 20 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather: Gray, very mixed and big seas (5.5m), winds still in upper 20's constantly, with occasional sustained gusts in the 30's; miserable. Worst of all it is very cold.  We each sit watch with at least 5 layers of clothing, with chemical pocket/glove warmers and are very pleased when our respective watches are over.  Kyle takes the worst of it, and I love him dearly for that. Based on yesterday's forecast, we are expecting calm conditions by Monday Night... and Kyle promises not to complain if there is no wind (We'll see). A wave last night smashed into the side wall of the enclosure and pulled it's track (that the bolt rope slides on) off - so now even colder to sit watch; and there is no hiding inside to warm up, since we have to be at the wheel with no autopilot and in these conditions.

General Comments: Leak resolved (it was just me leaving the rudder compartment door ajar (it caught on the swim ladder as I closed it and so did not fully close down). Of course, water in the rudder compartment should not find its way into the boat, but on the Gemini it does, and we have been living with the trickle for some time while frantically working out how to locate and stop it... This job now seriously moves up the priority list, but we need to be hauled out for it (decent access to this area is only really available from standing about waist high in water otherwise.  It took us around 4 hours to clean up after the leak, and to empty out the buoyancy compartment that was also filled with water (despite also having empty water bottles in there too).  All this did not help our progress towards Ireland. Aghhhh.

Food: More weevils found in another batch of Pasta - Must remember not to use that store in the BVI again (Or was it St Maarten?)!

Progress: Yesterday we made 100 nm, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 2295 nm, and have 506 nm (straight line) to go.

Day 19 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather: I woke up around 8:45 boat time to a blue sky above and the sun shining through the window... I stepped down from my bed and into a puddle of water - we have a leak somewhere in the Starboard hull and we've just finished pumping out the water. Now Kyle is trying to source the leak while I get this update sent out. I'm pretty sure we'll find it, and then we'll have to work out what to do about it. We pump out the bilges regularly (using the manual pump) and I did it around 3am this morning to clear the couple of quarts that pool at the bottom - but this is quite different.  Kyle would have found the water much earlier if we were not having to hand steer. For now we are hove to.  Since we are in strong winds the wind generator more than compensated for the electric bilge pumps/sump pump.

NOTE. although we have a leak, we are in no danger of sinking.

*UPDATE I think we've found the reason for the extra water (I'd left open the rudder compartment locker door last night) so we're cleaning up and keeping an eye on things... This has been an existing leak that we've never been able to source - and we're waiting for our next time on the hard to really solve it. Leaving the door open means that a LOT more water is pushed through this existing leak.

In the mean time, Kyle got thrown off his feet and smashed into his glasses. He lost his needed lens overboard, but at least we had a spare pair for him aboard to use. In the middle of all this, our VHF suddenly started reporting "BATTERY HIGH". A quick check of the system shows our solar controller is wet and has stopped working, preventing the batteries from overcharging. We have a spare, but for now this is not a priority so we've just tilted the solar panel away from the sun. For now (10:30 GMT), we're are cleaning up the mess from the leak. Nothing for you guys to worry about.. For us, it's not a fun morning so far, but I guess nobody said it would be easy right?

General Comments: Sick of the weather, although things do seem to be calming down we now have this leak to occupy us. Apart from that, the other news of the last 24 hours is we saw a BIG ship... actually it seemed to come over to check us out.  It was just passing at its closest as Kyle woke me for my watch - oh and that Rainbow leading to Ireland keeps on appearing just before sunset.

Oh, and we've crossed the mid-Atlantic ridge.

Food: Indian Curry and we broke out the jelly beans from the goody tub!

Progress: Yesterday we made 126nm, So far on this trip we have travelled (through the water) 2192nm, and have 605nm (straight line) to go.

Day 18 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather / Sea State:  For the record - I don't like it. The sun occasionally peeks out from behind a cloud, it rains from time to time, but the worst are the seas - they are a real mess, and the winds are strong. Each time we think we've broken out of the system we are right back into it - it seems to be hovering over us and not letting us out of its grasp. We are sailing nearly constantly with double reefed main, downwind, in winds of mid 20's, with gusts into the 30's and the very odd 40 (Kyle saw 46.7kt last night, that is 54mph)... I'm about ready for an anchorage and some calm; actually I'm overdue for all that in my book and I'm already talking about splashing out for a hotel for a day or two once we arrive in Ireland. 

Our pilot chart (with the probability of weather and seas for the month of June) suggests typical winds for this area are force 4 (11-16kts), where we've been experiencing force 7 and 8, and for the area we should apparently expect only a 10% chance of seas over 12' - we are clearly in an exceptional month (unfortunately for us). When you plan a journey of this length, there are no forecasts that can predict your weather for the full expected journey duration - all you can do is set off in a good weather forecast and work with the pilot charts for the longer range planning. Here we are complaining about too much wind and too big seas, there is probably a bunch of boats elsewhere complaining about the opposite problems.

General Comments: I awoke from my morning off watch thinking someone was knocking on the hull (common in an anchorage if you have a visitor) I got up to find out what was going on and found Kyle "fixing" the helm seat.  The metal attachment point has broken (weld released half way) and the seat was rocking back and forth with the motion of the boat. Kyle's put in a temporary fix for now, but we sure hope it lasts the journey. It is hard enough to be at the wheel all watch without also having to stand there (and If I stand at the wheel, I'm so short, I can't even see where I'm going without a step of some kind; that would not work in these seas). The enclosure is protecting us from the worst of the weather and the waves, but it is also suffering - chafe from the main sheet is causing wear in some patches, and loss of zipper teeth, and the occasional snap too.

It finally feels as if we are on the home stretch now - with (hopefully) no more than a week to go, we'd love to see this weather system leave soon. In "normal" wind and sea conditions, it is easy to leave the helm for a few minutes, even without the autopilot, but we've not been able to do that for days now; I'd trade a slower home stretch for some kind weather and seas right now.

The galley centerboard lifting line has broken - we can put the board down, or we can release it so it floats up, but we can't fully raise it at the moment - something else for the "to fix" list once things calm down - most likely once we've arrived in Ireland (and taken a few days of R&R).

By the end of the day we'll have been at sea for our longest time ever, we've already broken our distance record for a single journey. 

Remember the shearwaters I'd been admiring on this journey? I've taken to disliking them now... flying around like this weather and seas are just wonderful, they use little effort to just keep above the ever changing sea surface and seem to taunt us "what a great day at sea".. "NO, it ISN'T!" I want to yell back at them.

[Kyle]Gaining experience sailing is a process of gradually increasing your exposure/tolerance/understanding to/of a wider range of conditions. With the storm of the last few days we've finally got to the point where the weather is now simply more irritating than scary (most of the time, anyway).  Now when we hand over watches, if the report is 40kt gusts, 20' seas, we just think, "Oh, the usual, then".  The boat is handling well, but I'm getting sick of it. I need a good night of sleep, and I'd like to be able to take 3 steps in any direction without being lurched into something.

Food: Keeping it simple, just cereal, snacks and pasta with pesto yesterday

Progress: Yesterday we made 108nm (going fast, but heaving to so often cancels that out big time), So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 2052nm, and have 736 nm (straight line) to go.

Day 17 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather: Rain on and off yesterday, but now dry, sun peaking through gaps in clouds, still cold

General Comments: Kyle has lots to say, so I'll be brief: Things are definitely feeling colder (16C feels cold to us, and there are big winds to make it feel even colder), Kyle added a 2nd quilt to the bed for us. I had a hint of an ear infection (not sure how/where from) and decided to self medicate before things got painful (all is better already). We have a huge medical kit put together after a LOT of research and with help from our Dr. We have a few catch phrases in regular use on this trip.  Before Kyle goes to bed on his off watch he'll say "Don't hit that ship!" and I'll reply "Which one"....Of course we haven't seen a ship in days (weeks?). After yesterday's storm (not too bad) passed, Kyle assured me that was it, we should have winds in the teens now all the way to Ireland (as long as we didn't get delayed and got caught up in yet another predicted front coming later. That was a huge relief to hear. So when Kyle went to bed last night and I find myself putting a second reef in the main (already the genoa was furled) and then deciding that even that was too much sail (regular 35 knot winds and 42 kt gusts), I was not happy with the weather forecasters. I was happy, however, to hand over my watch to Kyle at 3am GMT this morning. Amazingly, I slept really well too. We are still (obviously) hand steering and waves and wind are such that we dare not spare a moment's inattention of the helm. During yesterday's calm, when we thought we had easy sailing the rest of the way, a full rainbow appeared with one end clearly set over Ireland - a good omen (we hoped).
Rainbow ahead - setting the path to Ireland - oh and a big ship...
[Kyle]Yesterday's storm was short lived with lots of rain but it did clear up just as Maryanne came on watch and the wind shifted to a nice tailwind with following seas for dinner.  The skies cleared up and a rainbow came out - lovely!  Bad weather - Done :-).  After dinner, the seas started to build and got quite large but manageable and I handed over the watch to Maryanne.  Later last night at what I thought was 15 minutes before my watch was due, but was actually 2 hours prior to that, I woke up to a strange boat motion and the sound of a howling wind over the boat - even louder than the usual stuff.  At first I thought, "I'll wait, she'll call me in 15 minutes anyway", but when I realized my error on the time I got up to see what was going on.  Maryanne was concentrating INTENTLY on the instruments trying to keep the boat straight in what had built to about 20' seas and 40kt winds. We both agreed it was time to switch tactics (probably past time) and heave to instead. I went back to bed. Maryanne had wanted to pull down the sail and run under bare poles and after a few minutes I decided that was probably better to protect our main. Poor Maryanne - up she went to wrestle the sail down and lash it to the boom, while I lay in bed comfy and cozy under two quilts (I only felt a bit guilty). The boat is very stable, keeping the wind to one side under bare poles, but Maryanne was not able to get the boat to steer to get us to run down wind (but we drifted in the right direction anyway).  {Maryanne: I didn't like this much either as it left us beam to the waves}. [Kyle]The boat was comfortable and stable ahull, but we did take one big wave which rocked us and left us each checking the other was OK (and then that the boat was OK). We left the boat that way until Maryanne handed over to me for my watch, at which point the winds were still gusting in the 40's. I decided to try steering under bare poles - it occurred to me that If I put a board down it may give a pivot point to help steering. While having coffee, I was able to sail the boat under bare poles at about 4-6kt. 

By then, the wind was starting to die down further and I was considering putting the main up (double reefed) in an attempt to steer/drive the boat, but before I did I decided to round the boat back up into the wind to take the time to do the coffee dishes, tidy up, etc. I put on some warm clothes and went out into the cockpit to pump the bilges with the manual pump. About a minute later I heard a loud hiss, and I had just enough time to jump up to the far corner step as a BIG wave broke over the boat.  It popped the snaps off the side enclosure and filled the cockpit to about 12" high.   The water rolled over to my side of the cockpit and drenched me below the waist: so now all the nice warm clothes I was planning to wear under my foul weather gear were wet - I needed a complete change of wardrobe. Once I had on the full Earnest Shackleton head to toe foul weather gear (properly dressed this time) I crawled up to the mast to raise the sail (leaving it double reefed). As I was about to hoist, I noticed the cover on the halyard line had chafed through (where it passes through the sheave at the top of the mast)... I spent some time checking over the length of line that was visible and it seemed OK otherwise. I was able to shorten the halyard by a foot. As I went to reattach it to the shackle on top of the main sail, I noticed the halyard was missing.

Usually, when we put the sail down we pass the halyard over a lower horn on one of the cleats, so that pulling on the halyard pulls the sail further down and prevents it from accidentally raising itself.  Even though I knew this from doing it 100's of times, for some reason I had thought it was cleated as I cut the line, and It didn't occur to me until I could not find the halyard; I looked to the top of the mast .... "Oh,"... I said as I watched it streaming downwind - "that ain't good".   The halyard streamed practically horizontally and 40' up in the air, but since the waves were so huge (luckily?), when the boat would get rolled by a wave, and with a slight temporary lull in the wind, the halyard would whip back towards the boat and temporarily wrap around some of the rigging. After several comic attempts at catching hold of it (including one time when it hit me on my hat), an hour later I was finally able to recover it with one foot on the mast winch, one on the boom, one arm clutching the mast tightly and the other waving a boat hook around. {Maryanne: This is the first I've heard of this, I was sound asleep, and would not have been too happy.... the best solution I've ever seen to recover a lost halyard is a slingshot type mechanism. There is no way I could have watched Kyle do this in those seas/conditions, but he is busy assuring me he was clipped in at 2 points, and is very proud of himself}.

Having recovered the halyard, I then only had the slightly less complicated task of unwrapping it from all the rigging, which involved me crawling all over the boat moving my various attachment points. By now, the wind was down to low-mid 30's. I got the double reefed main up, and was finally able to drive the boat in the right direction, with some fast surfing down some big waves. At one point , we got to 12.2 kt. It was like cresting the hill on a roller coaster. The boat kept just pitching down and accelerating. By the time Maryanne came on for the morning chores, the waves were around 20' and some 25-30' (and all close together - a very mixed sea). When Maryanne popped her head out to see how I was doing, she had dinner plate eyes as she watched one of the waves behind bear over us (it passed with no impact). Hopefully, the last forecast will be true from now on... The barometer is slowly starting to climb, and seas do seem calmer - wind currently 28kt from the west and we are sailing about 120 degrees at about 6kt with 2 reefs in the main. (Max winds last night were 46kt)

Food: During the relative calm yesterday I made potato soup for us, the weather started to build as we ate it, and Kyle lost most of his seconds (spilled. He was not happy)

Progress: Yesterday we made 122nm, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 1934nm, and have 856 nm (straight line) to go.

Day 16 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather: It's been overcast for days now with the occasional peak of sun. Last night, the barometer finally started climbing, tentatively, and the waves were slightly subsiding around 9pm - by 9am this morning conditions are almost "fine", but that is a momentary reprieve as we can already see the next system headed our way... Still, its nice to have a little calm around here however short lived.  The good news with all this wind is that our batteries are all topped up; I guess not using the autopilot helps too.

[Kyle] The waves yesterday were really horrible, very large,  a couple even broke completely over the boat. In spite of the fact of a few hard hits, the boat just slipped sideways and showed no tendency to flip. [Maryanne] Often a particularly large wave would approach and the person on watch would shout down "hold on", but that nasty looking wave would then just gently lift and lower the boat without the slightest knock. It seemed impossible to predict which waves would impact us the most.

General Comments: In the crazy motion yesterday I got up in the middle of my off watch to use the bathroom, and somehow (while crossing from one hull to the other) managed to fall badly and hard into the shelf by the door - grazing my leg and badly bruising it on a fire extinguisher spout. It looks impressive enough for Kyle to feel very sorry for me this morning, and I can hardly sit on that side - it's going to make for a very uncomfortable watch for a few days..

Despite my initial fear, I managed fine on my night watch, and by the 2nd night of rough weather had stopped imagining each dark shadow in the water was a shark waiting for dinner. Crossing the Atlantic on a sail boat was my one item, by bucket list item, that I was perhaps the least likely to achieve - thanks to Kyle I've (almost) done that now. I'm glad, but I can't say I would not prefer a 757 generally.

Amazingly, in all that chaos, we had 3 separate visits from a new (to this passage) species of dolphin yesterday; these were especially playful, jumping out of the water and surfing in the waves all around us. [Kyle] During all these big waves and crazed seas, the dolphins would show up surfing down faces that were 10-15' high. We could see whole pods of them tracing down the wave front at the same angle a surfer would use. Once they'd reach the bows, they would use the crest to help launch them from the water and over to the other bow, where they would make a quick turn and zigzag back and forth in the bow wave before heading off for another round. We ourselves were surfing between 9-12kt at times, so there was plenty of bow wave for them to play with - at least someone was having fun.

With one reason and another (mostly procrastinating) we've not even attempted fishing, but once we are through these storm systems I think it is time; the fridge is getting emptied out so there is space now.

Food: We finished the last of the big batch of chili yesterday (with cous cous), I was really hungry and ready for food.

Progress: Yesterday we made 137nm, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 1825 nm, and have 983 nm (straight line) to go.

GEMINI OWNERS:  Kyle and I believe that the damage to the autopilot motor was not necessarily caused by lots of use, but by a point of strong resistance as the wheel is turned - this point coincides with the point the steering lines become taught and we are now also trying to turn the (lifted) drive leg.  It takes quite a bit of "welly" even when hand steering to get over this resistance.  We are not sure why this is happening: Have the lines shrunk?  Has a groove been warn causing the drive leg to drop further than normal?  Either way, this has to be resolved before we put in a new autopilot motor.  I suggest other owners look out for that; a stitch in time...... Kyle says he's pretty sure a groove has been worn on the metal/metal contact where the drive leg falls to one side. He says (but it not yet sharing) he has a simple solution and will share it once he's installed it (proved it) on Footprint.

Day 15 - Bermuda to Ireland

Position: 42° 36.364 N, 033° 38.186 W
Weather: Overcast, cold (we are both spending watches bundled up, with pocket warmers and Elmer Fudd hats - the enclosure at least stops us getting wet too.
General Comments: Oh my, that hint of a climb on the barometer yesterday - was just a game, it has stayed low, see-sawing slightly up, then back down since then. The seas continued to build with at least 5m waves for a significant time, really not very pleasant.

On top of that, the autopilot failed again. We hove to and took it apart (thankfully we are now experts at removing the wheel - just two whacks with the hammer), cleaned what we could and put it back together again, but 10 minutes later it was broken again. Basically, the motor is fried, it keeps trying to work but cannot be trusted so we are now hand steering. This totally changes life aboard - we have to heave to if we want to use the bathroom, or update on the log, and we spend much less time together (while one is cooking or washing up, the other MUST be at the wheel at all times, so no easy chatter to help the day pass). With the prospect of big seas, and hand steering all night, and now totally distrusting of a forecast that had it all over by now, I wanted to heave to. We have a number of heavy weather sailing and oceanography books aboard, and one phrase I read that keeps springing to mind is "Big waves don't capsize boats - breaking waves do", it is hard enough to predict/avoid breaking waves in daylight I was not looking forward to doing it all night. I even had a big girly sob about it, but Kyle calmed me down gave me a good hug, and before long I was at the wheel as if 5m seas and 35kt gusts were perfectly normal... We've had a few scary gusts (43kt), but mostly we've been sailing in winds of high 20's with gusts in the low-mid 30's - and it is constant. We are still sailing downwind so that helps reduce the effectiveness of the gusts, but every so often a BIG wave likes to slam into us and douse the boat. The breaking waves this morning have dramatically reduced (Kyle says none around in the last hour) - and this is a huge relief. We both wish were were somewhere else right now, I guess. In the middle of all this chaos at sea, the shearwaters glide around us like this is standard fare, they seem happy, and remain graceful - amazing.

Today seems much easier than yesterday, seas are only 3m, and winds around 25kt gusting in the higher 20's.

Food: You're kidding me right? we did have some cereal and some cheese and crackers.

Progress: Yesterday we made 125nm (we had expected much more, but were hove to for much of the time), So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 1690nm, and have 1125nm (straight line) to go.

Day 14 - Bermuda to Ireland

We are sailing downwind with following seas (and this looks set for a while). The Barometer has just started to climb following yesterday's storm. We are currently on 29.53 n Mg) after dropping all night, bottoming at 29.50. The sun is finally peeking through. Last night was raining and dreary. The storm did not turn out as bad as we thought, mostly because we were traveling with it, which reduced the effective speeds of the wind we actually experienced, and we had the seas with us. The autopilot managed well, as long as we didn't head directly down wind, and bore off 15-20 degrees either side. In the wee hours, a 2nd wave train from the west interfered with the one following us (from the SW) giving us steep and nasty waves, which slewed us around and caused the boat to roll - the most threatening risk being from an accidental gybe from a sudden heading change. With the sun now peeking through, things seem much calmer (although that could be an illusion). Waves are currently 3.5 m high (10-11') and with the occasional bigger (15' one). From time to time, one comes and rolls under the boat just slightly faster than boat speed, breaking and bubbling as it passes. It seems to take an age to pass under us. The noise and the motion is very peculiar. IF this storm is finally subsiding (we are not yet 100% sure), then there is still another in a couple of days - I should get some time for some more cooking in between.

A preventer does not come with the boat but is essential in these conditions to stop the boom accidentally flying across the boat as  the wind or boat direction changes unintentionally (an accidental gybe) and potentially damaging the boom or the rigging. For all points of sail we set our preventer out of habit, but downwind it is the most important. Our preventers are rigged one on each
side. All we have to do is tighten/loosen the relevant sides from within the cockpit. The connection point forward of the mast is the same point where the life lines terminate at the bows (other end is at the end of the boom). Yesterday afternoon an accidental gybe tugged so hard on the preventer that it actually broke one of the lifeline fittings (half of which was lost overboard) - so we had to repair that yesterday to ensure we had good lifelines. The good news is we are finally actually pointing and sailing directly towards Ireland. For a while it looked as though we were trying to head to the Azores which at one point were only 250 miles away.

Yikes, is it ONLY day 14? It seems like we've been out here a month already. I've moved onto my next book (by Emile Zola - new to me but a Penguin Classic).

Despite the weather and sea state, Dolphins still came and visited again yesterday - although it was hard to fully enjoy them given the conditions, they certainly help the mood of the day.

Food: Chili with cous cous (Surprised?).
Progress: Yesterday we made 111nm, today already (9am GMT) we've made 52 nm; things are definitely speeding up. So far on this trip
we have traveled (through the water) 1575 nm, and have 1235nm (straight line) to go.

Day 13 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather: Very overcast, drizzly - getting much colder, down to around 16 C.

General Comments: Too many overcast and low wind days again, so another 2 hours of engine running last night to top up the batteries. Kyle actually spotted a large commercial fishing boat out here too last night. Yesterday morning we had spotted a small orange fishing buoy with a radio antenna (not sure if the two are related). Yesterday as we changed watch we had a large pod of especially playful dolphins visit. They were a different species and a quick check in our guide book has our best guess at Clymene Dolphins - but My guidebook is for N. America / Caribbean only - so we could still be wrong.

Yesterday after Kyle checked the weather and found our best route, we prepared for a storm. I cooked up a big batch of chili so that if either of us feel like eating we only have to heat things up, and we tidied the boat to reduce the number of things that might fall in the bigger seas. We took down the screacher and stowed it, and as Kyle left for his off watch, we expected a lull before the storm, but so far it has not arrived, we've been moving steadily east at a reasonable pace. As I went to bed, the seas we're still pretty calm, but they are much more choppy now (but still not even bad). We'll be keeping an eye on the weather, and get the latest grib file (grib is a special format for weather files) as we go on line to send this update.

Food: Quesadillas for lunch and an orange/honey/ginger glazed chicken on cous cous for dinner. Generally we eat dinner sat at the table on plates with a glass of wine or a beer - but when on a passage that image changes somewhat - no alcohol, no table, and no plates - we eat out of bowls, and everything that can be served (and even things that should not be served) in a bowl is. Cous Cous is the perfect passage food, it is a very small pasta (about the size of course sand grains) - I just pop 1/4 cup in the bowl, add 1/4 cup of boiling water and leave it for 3-5 minutes, pile whatever else we are having on top - easy. And I have no qualms about using chili, indian, or any other nationality food with cous cous. It makes for a one pot dinner (no extra pans or dishes, so Kyle especially loves it).

Progress: Yesterday we made 126nm, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 1446nm, and have 1375nm (straight line) to go.

Day 12 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather:  Dry, mixed clouds, still relatively smooth seas (long swells, little chop), sailing mostly down wind (currently on a broad reach).

General Comments:  After all that heading North, we are now heading SE, S to get away from (well, through a more comfortable path through) two low pressure systems in our path.  Kyle does a FANTASTIC job of analyzing the weather using our daily grib files, and the seas and wind conditions on our initial route are forecast to be quite rough ahead - so a change of course - it won't change the route to a nice smooth sail, Kyle says we are still expecting 30kt winds and 15-20' seas - but the alternative is 40kt winds and even higher seas.... Although (if the forecast doesn't change) we won't see those conditions until Sunday-Tuesday. 

** CORRECTION ** While confessing to my plotting snafu yesterday, I made yet another silly mistake in my math(s).  One degree is 60 nautical miles (nm) - so 2 degrees is 120nm  - I Had us almost 120 nm North of where we actually were, and hence was worrying about ice bergs that most likely were not going to be there (although that still doesn't rule them out completely). - I assume many reading the blog spotted it - I wonder who/how many actually wrote to correct my math(s).

During yesterday's rig check, we decided we should replace the split pin on the gooseneck - the connection of the boom (at the bottom of the sail) to the mast.  It was starting to look a little worn - and that pin that the split pin secures is something we don't have any spares for (note for future!).

We've seen no ships for possibly a week now, but I did hear a little radio crackle yesterday, indicating someone was not far over the horizon.

Kyle had dolphins visit him again at Sunrise, but they didn't stay long - just checking us out.  He thought since we were going at a good speed they might stay longer, they are said to favor 7kts - exactly the speed we were going - but they only made a couple of passes before moving on.

Food: An easy food day yesterday - cereal, egg fried rice for lunch and by special request, for Kyle, Macaroni Cheese (out of a packet).  I had sworn Kyle NEVER to let his mother know I feed him such junk food, but I guess the cat is out the bag now!  I refused and just boiled up some extra pasta and had that with a pesto sauce.  However I still couldn't resist a few spoons of Kyle's Mac Cheese.

Progress: Yesterday we made 120nm, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 1340nm, and have 1455nm (straight line) to go.

Day 11 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather: Dry, clouds come and go constantly but we do get some sunshine, seas currently a gentle roll.

General Comments: We've spent most of the last 2 days now wing on wing with the screacher and main. Kyle estimates 80% of our journey so far has been on the screacher (Our light wind sail).

Kyle and I generally each have a book on the go, but we also have a book that we read to each other when we get time together on a passage. Currently we are reading 'An embarrassment of Mangoes', a story of a Canadian couple who take 2 years off 'real life' to go cruising in the Caribbean. It is beautifully written and we've enjoyed reading how this couple discovered some of the very same
treasures as we did - 'ti punch, rum distilleries Presedente beer, etc. They too had a case of Old Milwaukee that they struggled to drink (In my defense I'd never heard of it, didn't know it was so bad, and it does say on the can "America's best beer" - I was duped by the marketing) - Kyle was none to impressed when he saw what I'd bought for him.  I'm reading Obama's "The Audacity of
Hope" and Kyle has Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion" he's re-reading, generally a page at a watch - just before he goes to sleep on his off watch.

The clearer skies have allowed us to use the sextant.  We don't really need it to find out where we are (we have at least 3 GPS's aboard that can tell us that) but we like to know we could use it if we had to - actually we have 2 sextants aboard). Kyle discovered his first few attempts were "within 5-6 miles" of our GPS position (Kyle wanted to ask what was wrong with the GPS), then he realized there was an index error (so the angle reading on the sextant was slightly off). The sextant should be checked on each use, but we hadn't calibrated it since our Antigua passage - he corrected that and now can get a line within 0.25 miles of our known GPS position. Kyle says he's happy the GPS is working better now. Despite using it many times, I'm suddenly having problems with sun sights and the use of the shades, but I've plenty of time to practice.

Currents in the open ocean act in a rotary manner; throughout the day they basically swing through all points, although they are not the same strength in every direction. We often find we are going with or against a 1 kt current. Then we find ourselves in the gulf stream and this is giving us a bit more of an advantage as it is always in the direction we are traveling (currently we have a 1.7kt advantage - which is good since we are not going too fast through the water (currently between .5 and 1.5 kt).

I spent my night watch staring intently out to sea on look out for ice bergs. Kyle carefully plotted a course that would keep us clear of the ice area, but when I check our position on the pilot chart we were well into one area and I didn't want to risk anything. Unfortunately, it was NIGHT watch and the clouds kept the moon obscured, so there was very little light. Oh, and a mist/light fog added to the event - I had to either stand half outside, or keep cleaning the windows of the water droplets that accumulated.  I took down the screacher to give me better visibility (and it was a bit rolly for the point of sail anyway). I had no idea what size ice bergs I might expect, the only plus was the water was relatively smooth so if there was something out there, I expected the waves breaking on it would show. For a whole watch I had horror movie tension music in my head and a real feeling of
anxiousness.  If there was something out there, we could NOT afford to hit. When I woke Kyle to hand over the watch to him, he scoffed at me, went over to the pilot chart and said we're no where near the ice berg line! I'd made a really elementary navigation error and while we were at 40 degrees and 2 minutes North, I'd plotted 42 degrees off the chart, putting us 60 miles north of where we actually were. Actually Kyle is complaining as I read this back to him, that I mentioned we were in the iceberg zone while he was off watch, causing him a very disturbed night of sleep. Oh, he wants to dictate:

It went like this - she comes in, sort of nervously mentions she is in an iceberg zone, she can't see well, it's getting foggy, and then says 'Ok, Honey, get some good sleep!', which of course I didn't. I tossed and turned wondering what it would be like to have the boat grind against an iceberg. This is
one of Maryanne's favorite things - she just plants a seed of a thought and then disappears to leave you to ruminate on it.

Anyway, keeping a good watch didn't do us any harm, and there was no Titanic incident.

Food: Breakfast was oatmeal, but made with some of the coconut milk I had. I loved it, but Kyle found it too sweet - strange coming from a guy that basically always has sugar coated cereal (practically candy) for breakfast. A light lunch of nibbles and then a Chinese chicken and pineapple with rice for dinner (made from scratch and using our great free range chicken find from Bermuda.

Progress: Yesterday we made 128 nm, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 1201 nm, and have 1543 nm (straight
line) to go.

Day 10 - Bermda to Ireland

Weather: SUNSHINE AT LAST! Not a cloud in the sky. After so many overcast days, we celebrated with a solar shower... still not hot enough for me (fine for Kyle) but we smell better.  Yesterday was frustratingly slow, and in one particular 3 hour period we only moved (through the water) 1/4nm.

General Comments: We spent yesterday keeping South of a line - the line indicating June max mean iceberg limit on our Pilot Chart (the Pilot Charts show average wind and sea conditions and other related issues over 100s of years of observation for each month of the year).. Even so, we were keeping a good lookout for possible Icebergs.  We are also using the June chart to plot our course as we move towards Ireland. The little orange highlights now stretch over a 1/3 of the way.

Given the boat wasn't moving fast for most of yesterday, we took some time for some additional reading and things. We read our Ireland guides and now have a good idea of what things we might want to do as tourists once we get there. I wanted to try to fish, but doubted there would be anything to catch.  During my 5pm rig check however I found 2 fish (a small, 12" black thing, and a 18" parrot fish?!!!) hanging out (swimming) in the boat's shadow. I was quite surprised; Parrot fish are normally considered dangerous to eat as they are toxic, but away from the reefs in the open ocean, that is not the case (so I read)... Hmm easy catch, but Kyle, having seen the the fish, now considered them wards of Footprint, - almost pets - and would not consider any attempt to catch them and eat them. Oh well, we have plenty of other food aboard.

We were visited again by Dolphins; for what appears to be an empty ocean there sure are plenty of dolphins. They visited at sunset last night and again at sunrise this morning. Kyle suspects they are the same pod, watching over us (he is such a romantic). When they came yesterday, we were hardly moving through the water and could have been no fun for them (our bow wave was not going to allow them to surf), but they played up there anyway as if to say "come on, get a move on, this way". Today the boat is moving again and they were much impressed with our progress, and enjoyed the bow waves - they streaked back and forth, zigzagging, across the bows.

This morning we found 4" of water in our forward starboard "buoyancy" tank, and pumped it out (around 9 gallons). The port one is dry, but we'll need to keep an eye on the stb one and source the leak once we are back to land. This is the first time we've ever had water in this particular tank.

The good news is that our email send/receive yesterday was back down to 6-7 minutes, rather than the 14-20 it has been taking... since we budget 10 minutes a day this is a huge relief. I'd assumed we had a weaker satellite signal out at sea and had been grumbling about Iridium, but it turns out it was simply SKYPE on my computer competing for internet access.

Food: With the lack of progress, we decided a treat was in order and had a big fry up for Breakfast, a light snack for lunch and then pasta (can sauce) for Dinner - all basic stuff.   I also made yogurt yesterday and so we had yogurt layered with fresh kiwi fruit and granola for desert (sweetened with Bermuda honey) - Yummy.

Progress: Yesterday we made 73 nm, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 1080 nm, and have 1673 nm (straight line) to go.