Covid Tests & Truro, Visitors, 'Whoops' and Sweepstake Results (Falmouth 25-27th August)

The above is a photo of the interior of Truro Cathedral. I was surprised to learn it's actually quite recent; built in 1875 or thereabouts when the then new Diocese of Truro was created.

The main reason for being in Truro was to get our 'Day 2' Covid tests. It took ages to find somewhere nearby and Truro was the nearest - half an hour on the train. Even given the rip off price of £129 per head we were pleased to have to make the trip into Truro which is an atttractive town. 

After getting our tests and wandering around we headed off for a walk down the North bank of the Truro River with Malpas being our destination where a local has told us we would find a lovely pub with a view over the river.....

"Now then, what time's high tide? Come to that, where have I gone?"

We did find the lovely pub by the River but unfortunately, we couldn't get in because of ... Covid of course. So we turned round and headed back to Truro town. Fortunately, we found another pub within 45 minutes and so were able to quench our thirsts and fill our tummies. I also phoned my Stepmum and Mum.

The photos of Bonny on the Pontoon at Falmouth with her name prominently displayed on the cockpit dodgers, promted Mum to recount her wartime evacuation experience of farm life including a Carthorse named "Bonny", on which, if she was very good, she was able to ride. That sealed my decision on whether to re-name Bonny or not. "Bonny" will now, most definitely, remain "Bonny".

On our return to Falmouth, we took Agustin for a traditional Cornish treat, a cream tea. Unfortunately, neither tea or cream were to his taste. 

I'm not sure what happened on Thursday other than we did the laundry and cleaned up the boat. Oh yes, and in the afternoon we had OCC visitors. Reg and Nicky on their Rustler 42, who Agustin has met before in Gran Canaria, and John on his Rival 32. I met John when sailing Arctic Smoke on the Jester Baltimore Challenge in 2019. 

Ah, I nearly forgot the "Whoops". As John was leaving he said, "...Oh I see you've taken your hydrovane rudder off" I replied "... no I haven't". "Yes you have" he retorted. "No I haven't I said with equal conviction". "Yes you have"....  "No I haven't, look it's just.... ****ing hell it's gone". The dam thing had dropped off somewhere during the last 50 miles of the passage. We thought it wasn't working too well🤣. Another job to add to the already lengthy list.

On the Friday we went for a morning walk to Pendennis Castle on the Western shore of the harbour entrance....

In the afternoon, Ian and Venessa visited from Barnstaple. Ian's an old Sailing pal and provided us with weather reports via text messages over satalite....

That night we opened the sealed envelope with our predictions in it for the lengthof the passage. My guess that we would cross a line at an angle of 315° through the Lizard Light, at 1600 on 24th of August was the closest. The guys subsequently nought me a bottle of bubbly!

Saturday is the start of a series of Ocean Cruising Club events and Sharon, Stephen, Ines and Amara are driving down to spend the weekend with us.

Arrived Falmouth

We moored up at 0710 this morning, Tuesday, 24/8. 

Celebrations yes, but also countering exasperation at the awful bureaucracy we now have to wade through thanks to Brexit and Covid. The official government process does not for yachts that have spent more than 10 days at sea and so the officials have to advise us to lie on the form! Day 2 Covid test took an age to find and will cost us £129 each.

The Shipping Forecast at 1755 yesterday indicated the possibility of Force 6 North East winds today. That would have been dead on the nose and rather uncomfortable, so at 1820, with 27 miles 5-6 hours) to the Lizard, we turned the engine back on and headed directly for the headland, in the hope that we can make port before the F6 arrives!

We did obviously. However, our new neighbours confirmed that the wind did indeed get up and they had to vacate their anchorage in Helford because it was to rough!

Last Day at Sea? "No" 🤣 (day/night at sea 12 to dawn on 24/8)

This looked like our last dawn and day at sea. At the time of writing (1000 ish on 23/10, we are 47 miles from the Lizard under power at 3 knots (we have a foul tide). Unfortunately, we are having to dodge a number of fishing vessels which means we cannot head directly for the Lizard.

Ha, ha, how quickly things change! As at 1100 it became apparent that we would not get in tonight! We now have a nice breeze (albeit from where we are headed) and the sun is out and Dolphins are playing around the boat so we are sailing once again, heading roughly East. If this breeze continues we will tack North later today.

Further good news is that a liberal application of WD40 to the moving parts of the hydrovane has restored its health and 'Red' is once again at the helm!

In coming friendlies at 3, 6, & 9 o'clock; where has all the power gone?.... (Day/Night 11 at sea to Dawn 22/8)

A truly wonderful experience this morning. We were accompanied for a couple of hours by a large pod - multiple scores of- these beautiful creatures, which, I think, are Pilot Whales. Fortunately, they travel at a more sedate pace than their Dolphin cousins and so it was possible to get some half decent pictures...

Despite their more restrained manners, they were just as inquisitive as Dolphins. Many times, groups of them were almost rubbing against the boat rather like a cat rubs against your leg when asking for food. The biggest ones were about 4 meters long. I spotted at least one baby amongst them, who, under supervision, came right alongside, only inches from the boat. He, or she, was about a 1.5 metres long. They were jet black, as can be seen, with sizeable dorsal fins and large rounded heads.

It's nearly 1700 BST, the sun is out and we are running directly for the Lizard, 190 miles off at 5+ knots. This morning, progress was very slow at a measly 1.5-3 knots, but we finally broke through into slightly fresher winds at around midday and at about 1500 put in the course change from our previous Northerly heading on which we had been in pursuit of more wind. 

Given the forecast (we are now able to pick up the shipping forecast on LW - the Navtex, our only other on-board source of weather info, with a range of about 270 miles, sadly seems to have expired) is for these winds to hold over the next day or so; it therefore doesn't seem too unreasonable to expect tha we'll be in Falmouth sometime on Monday.

This afternoon I re-organised the mainsail preventer system (the rope that goes forward from the end of the boom to a block (pulley) forward and then back to the cockpit. It's used to stop the boom from uncontrollably slamming from one side of the boat to the other when changing direction with the wind behind (gybing), so that it blows from the other side of the boat 

A stanchion (the short upright poles you can see in the photos above) had got bent through careless use of the preventer (my fault). I therefore moved the block forward and whilst I was at it added a second preventer attached to the boom at the same place but rigged on the other side of the boat so that once the gybe has been completed we can just tighten that rather than having to move the single preventer acrosd the boat. 

Once I had done that, I realised that all moving the blocks would achieve  - unless the preventer was fully slackened before the gybe - would be to put the strain on a different stanchion!

Still, at least I had hopefully, made it a little easier to manage the gybing process.

I then tried to straighten the bent stanchion. I couldn't, it was too strong - that repair will require heat to soften the stainless steel. However, in the process of trying, the eye at the end of the guard rail wire, got stuck in the plastic anti- chafe tube through which it ran (see last but one photo above). I tried for two hours unsuccessfully to get it out. Finally, I followed Agustin's suggestion to pull it right out, attach a line to it, apply some grease and then pull it back through the tube. It worked! 

Three hours after starting the job to straighten the the stanchion, things were no better, but now at least no worse, than when I started! 

My turn to cook. The last of the beef burgers were still fine despite turning off the fridge the previous night and so they were delivered along with braised red cabbage (still fine) and oven chips. Desert, was the last sweet pineapple (one had to be consigned to the deep).

The wind got up just before I went off watch and so with the possibility of more to come (up to Force 6) we put 2 reefs in. That slowed us down more than I expected from 6+ knots to around 4 knots. I had a sneaking suspicion that someone was playing tricks and turned the fan down as soon as we had reefed but I was too lazy ro stay up and monitor the situation and so went ro bed. I woke a number of times and each time it felt like we were only making 3 or so knots and sometimes the rolling was as a consequence, severe. 

At 0400 when i took over from Agustin it was clear that we were indeed down to crawling speed once again and so I shook out the two reefs in the mainsail. That improved matters a little, taking us back up to around 4.5 knots. 

But by dawn, that was back down to around 3 knots. Now, what was that about arriving on Monday!?

The swell was still dominating the wind and so we continued to rock and roll and slap and crash. 

Power continues to be a problem. Despite a good day yesterday for both sun and wind which got the domestic batteries back up to 12.9 volts, by the evening they were back down to 12.2. It's beginning to look as if they will need replacing. 

The mystery as to why the engine/alternator is not charging the domestic batteries continues and will probably require the equivalent of open heart surgery on the boat's electrical system, which given our proximity to Falmouth - now (0530)  will be put off until then. Unfortunately, we didn't think to check that aspect of the charging system when we replaced the engine battery in Funchal.

This feels all to familiar...(day/night 12 at sea to dawn on 23/8)

Surprise, surprise with only 116 nautical miles to go to the Lizard, in the extremities of the 'Western Approaches', it's wet and foggy. The wind has dropped further and we are now under power making about 4.5 knots. Even for me, there is little attraction to sitting around in the damp fog waiting for wind when burning some deisel will should get us in to Falmouth within 36 hours.

We have made some progress on understanding the mysteries of the boat's charging system. The alternator is charging the domestic batteries but it appears that is refusing to increase their voltage beyond we 12.4 with no load and that the Fridge is consuming more power than the Alternator is delivering. Quite why will require further investigation.

We hope we have now found where the power is going and why the alternator is not charging the domestic batteries properly.... There are three domestic batteries connected in parallel and so act as one big battery la; two of them are identical and were probably installed fairly recently at the same time. The third is a different make and looks older. To test the possibility that it is draining power from the other two, we disconnected it and measured its voltage and compared it with that of the other two. We got 12.4 v 12.6. Agustin thought that was enough to drain power from the other two. We therefore left it disconnected and monitored the voltage on the other two. It went up to 13.1 within the hour - a reading we had not seen for several days. However, with declining sunlight the volt levels dropped during the day until at around 1900 the reading was 12.1. At that point we switched the engine on to charge the batteries. Initially the voltage read 12.7 but then dropped to 12.3! So the mystery remains!

Despite the wet foggy start to the day the afternoon has been bright with just enough breeze to keep us sailing (since 1330)...

We have also been visited twice by Dolphins today and I managed to get one passable photo of a couple...

Excitement is now mounting amongst the crew because, barring very unfortunate events, we should pass the Lizard tomorrow afternoon/evening and indeed make Falmouth a few hours later. The Lizard is THE landfall reference for all vessels entering The English Channel, but it has additional significance for the crew of the good ship Bonny. A vast fortune is at stake in the shape of our sweepstake predictions of the date and time we transit the line running North West/South East through the Lizard Lighthouse. The crew's secret predictions are in a sealed in an envelope in the chart table. He, whose prediction is nearest to our actual transit will win his fortune - well a bottle of something up to the value of £25 anyway! None of us know what the others have predicted. We will mark/record our crossing of the transit when we pass it and open the envelope once we have moored up and have our celebratory drinks!

I noticed another problem after dinner. On checking the exhaust (we were running the engine to chare the batteries).  I noticed there was no water coming out. Luckily, with two very mechanical minded crew (Agustin is an Airplane Engineer) we had an abundance of skills and experience to address the problem. First the water filter on the engine inlet was checked and cleaned and secondly the water pump impeller was checked. It turned out to be shredded! The guys replaced it with a spare and all is now well.

It's now nearly 0500 there are 60 miles to go to the Lizard and we are under power. The engine went on during the previous Watch due to lack of wind. I had hoped we would be able to sail the remainder of the way but even I can't really face going at 1 knot or less when we are so close to making Port and we have the option of the engine.

After the Blow (10th Day/Night at sea until dawn 21/8)

Sunrise on Saturday 21st August at 0648 BST

Agustin took over at 0700 and no sooner had he got out on deck than the wind stopped. Dead. Completely. Utterly. One minute we were creaming along at 7 knots the next we were being tossed like a cork, on a large and chaotic swell, going nowhere except possibly backwards. It was as if a switch had been thrown and the fan turned off 

The barometer had dropped 10 millibars in the 24 hours prior to the blow, but had remained steady since at 1021 (probably reading 10millibars too high given weather reports) and indeed at the time of writing - 1500 on 21/8) is still there. I now wonder if we had sailed right into the middle of a low. The conditions preceding the 'switch off' seemed to tally pretty with that scenario.

What little wind followed, was from the South West and to make any progress at all, we would need to shake out the reefs and rig the pole so that we could goosewing the genoa. I wasn't looking forward to the prospect with the boat rolling and pitching violently, but if we were to make any progress at all, it had to be done. 

Agustin and I set too and left Mick to his well earned rest in 'Bonny the washing machine'. He had already complained that the rinse cycle was stuck on 'On' with large quantities of the Atlantic Ocean finding its way through the poorly fitting forehatch onto his bed! (In return for a small surcharge, I therefore temporarily relocated him to my bunk - the pilot berth).

First job was to furl the currently useless and flogging genoa and to then shake out the reefs in the main. That all went as smoothly as possible given the conditions. Next - rig the pole. Things rather went downhill from this point. It didn't help that one second the foredeck was on top of a mini mountain and the next it was burried in a trough with heavy water streaming across it, but I can't blame the ensuing fiasco entirely on the conditions. Simple stupidity was the main cause. I managed to run both guys (the ropes that attach to the end of the pole) through the wrong way AND through the wrong leads on multiple occasions. Poor Agustin must have wondered what sort of idiot he had hitched a ride with! Could an OCC qualifying passage really be worth putting up with this clown 🤡! 

Finally, after half a dozen attempts I got it right and I heeved all three or so metres of the wildly swinging pole into position without knocking myself out. Then it was a simple matter to set the Genoa and we were off - at the giddy pace of 1 to 2 knots - with the sails flapping and slamming with every roll (about every second). But at least we were now moving and in roughly the right direction.

The one remaining problem was steering the boat. The combination of very light winds and sunstantial and confused swell was just too much for the Hydrovane and so I steered by hand for the next couple of hours before handing over to Mick. I suggested he could make use of the autohelm if he preferred.

When I re-emerged a few hours later, the sky had cleared and it was sufficiently pleasant to hang our wet gear out to dry (not that clothing soaked in salt water will ever dry). The wind had not changed though, we were still creeping along at 1-2 knots. Somewhat tantalisingly, the Lizard was now (at 1645 BST), only 261 nautical miles off, or at this speed, a mere four and a half days😂!

Time for lunch! Mick was still asleep and so Agustin and I started without him...

He soon surfaced however and over sandwiches, we all marvelled at the strange weather of the previous night.

What next? We should be able to pick up the BBC shipping forecast on Long Wave at 1755. Hopefully, that will give grounds for optimism!

Well, according to the forecast we should have a South Westerly wind of force 3-5. We still have aboutfor force 1-2, barely enough to give us stearage way and not enough for the Hydrovane to operate [It may well now need stripping down and a full service. It's not as responsive as it was and I spotted one component that is damaged and needs replacing. 

With the Hydrovane out of action we either have to hand steer or use the Autohelm. The latter uses electricity and our domestic batteries are running low due to lack of sun and wind. We are therefore running the engine for a while to give them a boost. However, that's not working for some reason which we have yet to ascertain, so we now need to economise on our use of electricity! Everything not absolutely necessary was turned off and first to go was the fridge. We may have to throw our last packet of beef burgers away!

Overnight the wind died further and so at 0140 with a about 280 miles to go to the Lizard we resorted to the engine. However, by the time I was back on Watch at 0400 the breeze had returned with sufficient strength to sail once more.  Both the mainsail and the pole were set to starboard now and so I stowed the pole and prepared the guys for its use on the port side should it be needed there and then set sail and turned the engine off. We are now (0700) heading for the Lizard at 4 knots with 218 miles to go! 

'Visitors'; and a 'bit of a Blow' (9th Day/Night at sea, to dawn on 20/8)

The above is, I'm afraid, the only image I managed to capture of, possibly, hundreds of dolphins that came to say "hello" to us this afternoon. They kept our company for almost an hour and performed their usual dare-devil stunts around the bow of the boat. I even saw a calf join in - it kept up with its adult minder with apparent ease - as they both darted backwards and forwards across the bow. They all sliced theough the water at speed without appearing to make the slightest effort and it seemed like they were all simply showing off and having fun.

Further away others occasionally leapt clean out of the water as they raced towards us. They came from multiple directions at the same time and so it appeared that we had sailed into a very large social gathering. Then, off in a couple of different directions I could see the surface foaming with numerous dolphins churning up the sea. In one of the closer disturbances I saw fish jumping out of the water and at least one sea bird make off with a prize! The dolphins were clearly hunting and presumably it was this, that has brought them together in such large numbers. 

Earlier, on completing my Watch at 0700, I returned to my bunk for more sleep. I normally do for a couple of hours, but this time having slept so badly during the night, I stayed in bed until my next Watch at midday!

Around 1700 we decided we could head directly for The Lizard without an excessive risk of ending up in the clutches of the high pressure zone (no wind) lurking in the Bay of Biscay. This required dispensing with the pole used to gooswing the genoa and then gybing the boat.

A little earlier we had received a message from Ian warning us of 25k winds forecast for our area in the morning. Nothing to worry about especially as they will be from the south but we will put a reef in before dark in preparation.

Well we did put a reef in and then another and the another! By MIDNIGHT the wind was whistling through the rigging, the mainsail waa reefed right down and nearly half the genoa was furled and we were hurtling through near zero visability in driving rain at 7 knots. It took some time to set up the sails and vane so that the boat would steer herself but eventually by around 0200 we got things sorted. 

Agustin and I and then just me, took the first Watch and Mick took over around 0500. At the end of his Watch at 0700, he reported that the wind may be moderating and that he had just experienced the heaviest rain ever at sea! Agustin said that from his berth on the quarter, it sounded like a road drill being used on deck!  I must have slept through it all because I didn't hear a thing.

TBC...

"The Sea, The Sea" & 'A taste of what's to come'? (8th day/night at sea to dawn 19/8)

Apart from us in our little plastic shell, that and the odd show-off Shearwater, is all there is to see...

The photos do make it appear rather monotonous, but after a few days on the ocean, it starts to work its mystic magic on my senses and I begin to hear faint echoes of its call to Mointisier all those years ago. It's a bit like the feeling I remember having as a child asleep in the car on a long journey. This time, instead of the swaying of the car, it's the endless ocean vista and the rythmic rolling to and fro, as our little ship, slips, seemingly effortlessly, through the sea, that creates the feeling of being in nature's own realm; cut off from the demands and anxieties of life back in the 'material world'. After 7 days at sea, my body has tuned in to the relaxed watch system that a 3 person crew allows (3 hours on and 6 hours off) and the main decision to make in this realm, is (off watch in my bunk) when to cross the void seperating dreams from reality. Sometimes, however, in the early hours, my slumbers have been so deep, that the vibration alarm set on my watch for 0345, has failed to stir me and poor Agustin has had to prod me gently into wakefulness.

Perhaps I was tempting fate to describe our vista as "monotonous" because shortly afterwards the view from the companionway looked like this....

The weather had quickly taken on an all too familiar feel. Does more of this lurk conspiratorially, with European fishing fleets in the western approaches, to welcome us home? It's a gauntlet I have run before, but it will be no less irksome for that!

A warm front was probably passing. We therefore had lunch below for the first time on the passage. Once again, the core ingredient of which, was a freshly baked loaf, cooked by Agustin ☺️.

Within a couple of hours the bulk of the front had passed and the sun was piercing the blankets of grey above. 

We've been rolling more over the last couple of hours (since 1600 BST), courtesy of a swell from the South West, now on our port quarter, which is overwhelming that produced by the wind from our starboard quarter. The rolling frequently gets more erratic when the swell from starboard decides to fight back! It was a similar, but much more extreme situation with a third swell from astern, that Mick and I had to live with for 15 days on board Arctic Smoke, when we crossed from the Cape Verde to the Carribbean in 2016!

There's nothing more guaranteed to make me lose faith in nature and contemplate the use of unnatural means of propulsion than the absence of wind and that is just what plagued us during the first three or four hours of my off-watch. That, coupled with the ever present ocean swell, sent the boat rocking and jerking back and forth and the sails slamming and snapping loudly. I got not a wink of sleep and so at the change of Watch, with all crew present and my spirits at a low ebb, all thoughts of nature's harmony were forgottten and I committed the gravest of sins and suggested use of the engine to go in search of wind.

The mate, as is his want in such situations adopted his 'Mr Spock' persona and made two points in response. Firstly, despite the noisy and jerky ride, we had in fact never sailed slower than 1 knot and had quite frequently touched 2. Secondly, we really had little idea of where to head in search of wind. The information we had indicated there was decent wind where we were and without more information, we could just as easily move away from wind as towars it. 

I therefore muttered something sarcastic under my breath and returned to my bunk for a further installment of that well known nautical volume, "How to sleep in a tumble dryer in the company of a tin can"!

Things must have improved shortly afterwards because I did finally get some disturbed sleep and when I took over the Watch from Agustin at 0400, he reported that we were racing along at 3 knots! We were heading for Ireland with the wind from behind and the barometer had fallen 5 millibars in the last 16 hours (the crew, including the skipper, having neglected their duty in recording its reading at the end of every Watch) and so there seemed some hope that more wind would turn up before too long. Indeed, as I write this at 0522, I think I can detect a slight freshening of the very light breeze from astern.

Shooting Stars & Orion Rising (2nd day/night at sea)

The day started like this and ended like this...

In between it was sunny all day! The night was however significantly cooler than the previous one - I donned jeans, a fleece and a jacket for the first time when not required by breaking waves!

Dinner comprised Soup made from the veg left over from the previous meal with a tin of peas and a packet of instant soup thrown in. It turned out all right. 

 It took until the late afternoon before we finally lost sight of Sao Miguel astrern. The winds for the most part during the daylight hours were light and we made slow progress. We spent a few hours yesterday morning (12/8) heading North West in search of wind and then headed North East again. After a 6 hours or so it ran out again and we continued at a slow 2-3 knots with the 'promise' of more to come in a few hours. It was actually well into the middle night watch (0100-0400) before it returned. We're now (at 0630 on 13/8) heading NNE at around 5k with the wind behind us. I plan to gybe once it's light and head NE. We have an area of low pressure to our NW that looks like it will continue to provide us with good winds from the SW for the next couple of days. Hopefully we'll stay sufficiently South of it to avoid winds of 25k + but sufficiently North to avoid a big area of light winds to our East. 

Orion has been rising in the East for the last couple of hours and the first hint of dawn at 0630 (BST) is beging to rub out the sars in the East - Orion will follow bthem soon.

When I came on watch at 0400, Agustin said there had been lots of shooting stars and they continued through the night. The planet must be going through a meteor shower.

Another dawn....

We've had two days at sea without a drop of water in the cockpit which feels like something of record. However, we expect a mixture of calms and headwinds ahead and so that is likely ro change.

Whoops! (7th day/ night at sea to dawn Wednesday 18/8)

That's the block and now broken shackle that until around 1930 on Tuesday, had been holding the cruising chute haliyard to the top of the mast! I was having a pee when, out of the window in the loo, I saw the chute fall into the sea!

An hour and a half later after considerable effort, we had managed to get it back on board and bagged and have our much delayed spag bol dinner provided by Mick...

The Chef had requsted red whine for the dish and somewhat surprisingly the Purser had agreed. Of course, that then created the tricky problem of how best to store the remaining contents of the bottle. Conditions being benign, the crafty crew persuaded the skipper that crossing the half way mark and surviving a close encounter with a whale, were sufficient justifications for accepting their own suggestion. Dinner was therefore subsequently dispatched with even more than the usual enthusiasm! 

Not to be outdone, the Purser reminded the skipper and crew that only a measly 2 bottles of the red stuff has been loaded in Ponta Delgada and the remaining 1 was therefore under lock and key until the ship was safely in port!

The chute had finally been deployed at around 1300. The skipper having pleaded tiredness at the end of his night watch, when reminded by the mate, of his previous instructions to deploy the chute should daylight bring appropriate conditions. Until rhe chute has parted company with the mast, the day had been uneventful and we had continued to make steady if slow progress North Eastwards towards the Lizard.

Whilst the previous night had been a good deal chillier than previousl ones, high pressure had delivered another warm and sunny day. A further weather update from Ian suggested the situation would continue for the next few days and the main question remined whether we would make the Western Approaches to the Channel quickly enough to hitch a ride on the shallow low waiting for us over the Celtic Sea.

Atlantic Bread Revisited and a Close Encounter (6th Day/Night at sea to Tuesday Dawn)

Readers of "The Adventures of Arctic Smoke" will recall the disappointment of the crew when, with anticipation that sadly remained unfulfilled, they hungrilly bit chunks out of Bursill's 2016 Atlantic Bread vintage. Then, at the insistence of the skipper, the inexperienced Bursill Baker, added only a modicum of salt. The result was a most insipid loaf. We were so disappointed that the attempt was not repeated and it was only when the Baker later honed his skills back at home, that the reason was diagnosed.

On this occasion however, we are most fortunate to have on the crew, Agustin Martin, renowned Canarian Baker, and award winning, Grand Canarian 'Port Officer Representative' of the Ocean Cruising Club (soon to be a fully fledged 'Port Officer', once his 1000 + mile qualifying passage from Ponta Delgada to Falmouth, has been completed and officially sanctioned by the OCC).

With our stock of Azorean fresh bread now exhausted, Agustin responded to the crisis with his customary enthusiasm and zeal (for which he is renown within the OCC) and produced this lovely looking loaf which tasted as good as it looked. Half was immediately consumed with lunch by the crew and only a stern threat to rig the grating and deliver two dozen lashes to any miscreants found nicking more of it, ensured its safe preservation for captain's breakfast table this morning!

Meanwhile back on the Ocean, progress continued slowly but surely at around 3 knots in a broadly North Easterly direction. It was actually very pleasant sailing albeit that for the second day in a row we forgot to deploy the crusing chute. The previous evening the same thought had occurred and I had instructed the crew, that, in the event of similar conditions prevailing the following morning, they were to remind their senile skipper to fly the chute. However,  to a man, every last one of the lazy jacks failed to execute this simple instruction! 

Bloody hell. Just had quite fright! I'm writing the recent paragraphs in the inky blackness of the night at 0515; when I hear a whale blowing alongside the boat. By the time I had stopped shaking and found a torch, which anyway hardly penetrated the murk, the creature had gone. How close had we come to our doom? I would at least have had some sort of fleeting understanding of events but imagine being woken from your slumbers by your bedroom being tossed around, whilst its fragile plastic walls are rent apart and the chilly waters of the North Atlantic Ocean are poured all over your bed!

Thoughts of various tales of yachts colliding with whales (at least one of which I have heard first hand) and of more recent and widely reported attacks by Orcas, continued to tumble around my mind for some time to come. I also remembered how I had laughed at my brother Isaac's account of a whale 'stalking' us on Arctic Smoke in just these waters in 2017. He heard a whale blowing behind the boat and was too frightened to turn round and look! Now I know how he felt!

Meanwhile, Orion has risen, Neptune is the brightest object in the sky and the Big Dipper is being slowly erased from the heavens as pre-dawn light gropes its way across the Eastern sky. What's more, three souls, extinguished in another Universe, continue to exist in this one - for now at least!

5th Day and Night at sea (to Monday dawn)

Well the "red sky in the morning" suggested rather more than it delivered. It was rhough a largely overcast day with only occasional sunny periods and it did rain or rather drizzle on and off during the day. The good news though was that we kept a decent breeze for the day and following night and must have averaged almost 6 knots. 

Based on information received from Ian, our on-shore weather man, we now have hopes that we may get lucky and make the Western approaches in time to hitch a ride on a shallow low due to develop in the area in a few days and so keep a fair breeze all the way to Falmouth! 

It is a bit perverse that having gone to all the expense and effort to put to sea we are so focussed on how quickly we will arrive at our destination. My rationalisation for this on this occasion has two elements. Firstly and for me, this applies to every passage, short or long; I love the feeling of the boat sailing/performing well - when she's 'in the grove". When coastal sailing this can include ghosting along with barely a breeze in flat water but in the open ocean there is nearly always a  swell running and for a boat like Bonny that means that with winds below 10 knots the swell is constantly rolling the wind out of the sails. The sails slap about, make a horrible noise, wear out themselves and the rigging more quickly, the boat rolls more and goes even slower. That all adds up to a sense of frustration and disatiafaction and the desire to do better - to go faster even when there's no timetable to keep. 

On this occasion another couple of factors are in play too. We have booked and most importantly paid for, two dinners at the Ocean Cruising Club's 'West Country Meet' in Falmouth and Helford, over the bank holiday weekend and even more importantly, Sharon is driving down with Stephen, Ines and Amara to spend that weekend with us. 

It'a 0636 and dawn is breaking to welcome what looks like is going to be a grey damp day - it's beginning to feel like home already! 

When I took ovee the Watch at 0400 it was raining and it looks like it will again. I therefore rigged the extension to the Sprayhood which provides a little more shelter...

The wind has eased and backed a little since yesterday afternoon - probably down to 12 knots but we're still making about 6 knots over the bottom with the wind just aft of the beam. nj j  

First Night at Sea Part 2 & Dawn Day 2

It's turned out to be an almost perfect night (I'm goong to get terriblys muddled up with my tenses as we continue this voyage).

As I write this dawn is breaking on Thursday morning 12th August and we are headed North East at 3.5 - 4 knots with a gentle breeze directly from behind. The decks and the cockpit have been completely dry and I very nearly slept on deck! The only spoiler is the banging of gear as the boat rolls in the swell. Oh and Sao Miguel is still in view.

The plan now is to ride this wind until it turns too far (from the) south in perhaps a day's time when we'll take it more in the quarter in order to continue North Eastwards. There's a big calm patch due ro develop up ahead not far to the north of our route so we need to avoid that. To the south of it, a narrow band of reasonably fair winds should open up but to the south of that, will be headwinds which we will want to avoid. We have enlisted Ian to help with weather routing. He can sent us text messages via the Yellowbrick in an effort to keep us in the best wind corridors.

The night sky has been crystal clear and the stars have been magnificent. I've been able to improve my constellation identification and have added Lyra, Cassopea and Drago to my limited catch hitherto of the big and small dippers and Scorpio. Earlier on in the night as we were eating dinner in the cockpit, I saw the most magnificent shooting star. I saw another later just before dawn.

3rd to 4th Nights at Sea (to Sunday dawn)

Friday daytime saw great downwind sailing as we made 6-7 knots for most of the day. During Friday night the wind eased off again and by Saturday vmoening our speed had reduced to about 3 knots. Friday night was another gloriously clear night with the shooting star display continuing and Saturday was another veey warm sunny day. 

With light winds from behind and a stable barometer suggesting little change we rigged the sun awning, normally only used in harbour. It made life much more pleasant. 

On Saturday afternoon we saw one container ship crossing our stern from west to east and then picked up a slow moving vessel with restricted manouvrebility on the AIS. I thought it was probably a tug engaged in towing but it changed its heading a few times until we eventually lost contact with it. 

I cooked dinner - a chicken pesto with potatoes and cabbage which seemed to go down well. We now have three meals worth of meat left in the fridge. Once that's gone it will be tins and dried food. We still have plenty of potatoes and onions. We had one of three pineapples after dinner and very good it was.

When I went to bed at 2200 we were still wallowing around in veey little wind and a sloppy swell which made the mode roll quite a bit and sleep difficult to come by, but after a while I felt the boat's motion change as the wind returned. At the change of watch I overheard conversation indicating that we were still heading East of North and therefore as I had indicated earlier, no change to the wind vane/ sails was required.

When I took over the watch deom Agustin at 0100 on Sunday morning our heading was 10-20°M and we were makiang 4-5k and had reached 42°, 05 North, just about level with the northern Portuguese/Spanish border.

When Mick takes bthe Watch at 0700 BST I think we'll change course and head further East.  We have up to date weather information but hope we'll get an update from Ian over the Yellowbrick later. Our last grib file downloaded before we lost contact with San Miguel shows Northerly winds and we actually have Southerlies! We also have this....

.... which may indicate more unsettled weather to come.

We did indeed change course and are now heading about 50° on a beam reach in a fresh SE breeze. The barometer has dropped a point and a half in the last 3 hours snd there are signs of a Low developing to our West.

And then sunrise brought this.....

First Night

The wind filled in and we are now sailing Eastwards (i may have said West earlier - LOL) at 4.5 - 5 knots with the wind behind us - we have yet cleared the island which is still to our north.

We're off!

That's Sao Miguel. We are motoring Westwards in light following winds along her south coast. The weather is complicated. We are trying to get into an area of moderate following winds to the North East of the islands. We have to get round the South East corner first....

If we are too slow we could get stuck in a big calm patch for days! We may have to motor for most of the night which will be a drag. We also have to be mindful of our fuel consumption. We may have enough for 4 days of motoring but of course we will need to keep enough for entering port at the other end, so this is a roll of the dice - can we get to and hold on to, decent wind quickly enough and without burning too much fuel? 

Brief updates will be posted on the Yellowbrick tracker blog from time to time. Position reports will be posted every 6 hours.🤞

Ponta Delgada & goodbye to the boys

Our passage to Ponta Delgada went as expected - gentle sailing with the wind behind us first with the cruising chute and then when the wind increased, goosewinged with the genoa poled out. We left Velas around 1900 last Wednesday and moored up in Ponta Delgada at around 0500 on Friday morning.

The boys had their flight to catch on the Saturday evening and just had time to squeeze in a Jet Ski session before the left which they thoroughly enjoyed....

It was great having them on the crew for the last couple of weeks and they enjoyed it too. Our Azorean cruise was a big success and the boat felt strangely quiet after they had gone. 

Nexf though we had to get the boat ready for the long haul back to the UK. Our jobs' list ....

[ ] Covid Tests

[ ] Galley drawer

[ ] Navtext

[ ] Seal Galley work top area

[ ] Stern light/stb nav

[ ] Sprayhood zip

[ ] Lee cloths

[ ] Mainsail Clue

[ ] Spreader Protector

[ ] Check pole haliyard strop

[ ] Check rigging

[ ] Check engine oil and checks

[ ] Fill up with Deisel

[ ] Fill up water

[ ] Check Gas bottle

Thanks to the strenuous efforts of the crew which now included my good friend Agustin from Gran Canaria who we met up with in Horta, all but the Povisioning, Deisel and Water top ups have been completed and we are now on shore leave. We are on the bus to one of the islands famous beauty spots - the Sete Cidades - the Seven Cities in the North West of the Island.

In addition to the above jobs we have spent hours between us fighting/playing with, weather routing software, in an attempt to plan our route back to the UK to avoid calms and gales. We intend to leave tomorrow afternoon and a more or less direct route back looks probable. Thankfully it looks like the worst of the weather will pass to the North West of our route home. Of course the live weather we encounter may be quite different from that which is forecast!

Our actual route travelled can be tracked via the yellow brick page.