Apologies for the extended break since the last post to this blog. It’s over 2 months since we set sail from Tenerife on 9 January. And so much has happened since Follyfin landed in Martinique 6 weeks ago on 1 February, including a 10-day visit to UK to meet our new grand-daughter Flora who had just turned 2 weeks old when I arrived in London.
Additionally I have been undergoing digital detox (expression aptly coined by 2nd Mate) as well as recovering from a hectic year of Odyssey planning. Now relaxing in the Caribbean sunshine I suddenly felt like opening the log book of the voyage again and had some fun compiling some statistics as follows:
TIMING AND DISTANCE
-Total time taken for passage: 23 days, 1 hr, 45 mins
-Total mileage covered: 2942.3 nm
-Deviation from the rhumb line: 142.3 nm
-Greatest mileage covered in 24-hour period: 157 nm on 11/12 January from 16:00. This unusually high mileage presumably was achieved as we felt the effects of Hurricane Alex which passed to the north of us. More usually, once the Trade winds had established in week 2, the daily average was nearer to 135/140 and occasionally around 150 nm.
-Lowest mileage covered in 24-hour period: 84 nm on 9/10 January from 19:00, i.e.the very first night!
MOTOR USAGE
Total time engine used on passage: 89 hours 5 mins, i.e. 3 days 17 hours 5 mins motor sailing
Diesel used: 90 litres, i.e. approx 1 litre per hour.
Longest single period motor sailing: 17 h 45 min on 15 January.
WINDS AND SPEEDS
Maximum boat speed recorded: 10.3 knots (kn)
Average boat speed over whole passage: 5.3 kn
Average boat speed over first 2 days of passage: 4.1 kn
Average boat speed over last 16 days of passage: 5.6 kn
Maximum wind speed recorded: 34.6 kn, force 7 to 8, mainly E or NE
GLOBAL POSITIONING
Departed Tenerife 09/01/16 28 degrees 22 minutes N,16 degrees 16 minutes W
Arrived Martinique 01/02/16 14 degrees 28 minutes N, 60 degrees 52 minutes W
Degrees of Latitude crossed: 15 (going South)
Degrees of Longitude crossed: 44 (going West)
FISH AND CETACEANS
Numerous pods of dolphins swimming all around the boat plus...
One Grouper
Three Dorado (aka Mahi Mahi)
and one that got away - ‘huge’ according to 2nd Mate
PROVISIONING
Menus were worked out in advance so provisioning reflected this. We had hoped to catch fish, which we did but just in case we didn't, or in case something untoward happened necessitating us staying at sea longer than the 25 days expected as the upper limit, extra allowance had to be made. You can easily skip the next bit which is only a list!
Amongst other things…
Water - 390 litres drinking in bottles, all masterfully stowed by the skipper (playing to his strengths)
Milk (long-life) - 24 litres
Fruit juice - 38 litres
Tomatoes (chopped) - 22 packs
Baked beans - 17 tins (emergencies only!)
Tuna - 9x 200 g tins
Sardines - 10x 100 g tins
Anchovies - 14x 50 g tins
Weetabix - 8x 24 biscuits
Muesli - 6x 500 g
Various tinned fruit and vegetables, about 6 tins of each
Dried beans and chick peas
Rice, pasta, 30 flour tortilla wraps
Flour for bread-making - 9 kg (Cabin Boy Special)
Fridge
Cheese - 3 kg
Butter & Spread - 1 kg each
Eggs - 5 dozen
10 chicken thighs
3x 500 g chorizo sausages
500 g minced steak
1 kg braising beef
600 g diced lamb leg
600 g fish fillet
Fresh fruit and veg
27 onions
6 heads garlic
30 large potatoes
12 large carrots
6 cabbages
2 heads celery
12 large tomatoes
6 courgettes
3 aubergines
24 lemons
24 oranges
6 limes
24 green bananas
Cabbages kept really well; we even had one left over which was still edible when we arrived. Citrus fruits good too, and onions and potatoes. Other fresh stuff was consumed pretty quickly, as was the meat in the fridge, so no chance for it to go off.
MISCELLANY
As dedicated followers of this blog will know, a few posts were managed en route, with the help of Our Girl on the Ground, by using the Iridium satellite connection to send drafts by email. Second Mate was also using the Iridium ‘Go’ to send tweets on a daily basis and these can be seen on Twitter.com by searching for @Ivorbennett. The ‘Go’ acted as a satellite hub, allowing all the crew to use private email for communications via smart phone and/or tablet. Also was very quick and efficient at sending SMS text messages - essential when birth of a grand child is imminent!
The weather was mainly warm, fine and sunny, occasionally overcast, with only a few really wet squalls experienced towards the end of the voyage. A Follyfin milestone was passed on the 3rd day out when her mileage log reached 10,000 nm. This was cause for a small celebration with a drop of port after dinner… although initially this was intended to be ‘dry’ voyage, Skipper was fearful of a mutiny and therefore took various opportunities to splice the mainbrace whenever a celebration was called for. These included the catching of a fish, Noah's birthday, Flora’s birth, above-average daily mileage, logging 1000 miles under the keel, the arrival of the Trade Winds on 17 January (at last!) passing half-way mark in estimated passage time, and again in distance. Then there was occasionally a need for a little cheering up, notably around the end of week 1 when everyone seemed slightly depressed and a bit tetchy, mainly because by this time we should have covered a third of the estimated distance (about 960 nm) but had actually only covered just over 800 nm.
From week 2 the rig we used was ‘gull-winged’ with the jib poled out on one side and the main let right out on the opposite side (usually on starboard tack). We learned to reef the main sail just before night-fall, usually two or three reefs. This for safety in case a squall came up. Reefing the main sail in pitch dark is not easy! Fortunately there were no serious breakages or malfunctions. There were two accidental jibes in quick succession towards end of week 2. A potential breakage was discovered after making landfall: the main halyard, which holds the main sail up, was almost worn through. Had it broken whilst on passage, that would have caused a major problem.
Minor difficulties were encountered because of the increasing prevalence of the Sargassum weed as we progressed south and west. It clogged the fishing lines, the Duogen propeller and the Hydrovane rudder.
Very few other vessels were sighted nearby after the first few hours. One tanker British Ruby, one sail boat Tamala, and one rowing boat Washingtons Crossing - a contestant in the Talisker Challenge for Rowers, it was 23 ft long and only its light was visible 3 nm off when we overtook during the night of 24 January. Otherwise a few tankers were picked up on the AIS but usually over 10 nm away. The Atlantic Ocean is a very big and lonely place!
BEST PIECE OF KIT
Hydrovane “Jane”, allowing the watch-keeper to relax whilst she ‘steered’ the vessel without using any battery power.
MOST DISAPPOINTING PIECE OF KIT
The Duogen water/wind-driven battery charger turned out to lose too much voltage across the regulator, thus not charging the batteries as efficiently as it should.
MOST EXHILARATING MOMENTS
Swimming in the Atlantic 14 deg 44’ N, 59 deg 40’ W on 31 January, whilst boat ‘hove to’ but still moving at 1-1.5 kn in the current.
MOST EXCITING MOMENT
Receiving news of safe arrival of grand-daughter Flora.
WORST ASPECT OF THE VOYAGE
The constant roll of the boat, every kind of which way! There was a cross-swell from different directions for almost the entire voyage, making sleep very difficult and patchy, and preparing meals very challenging.
BEST ASPECT OF THE VOYAGE
We did it! And all remain friends at the end of it!
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