ARC 2010 - 5 Dec, 2010. IRC, Racing, Invitation Cruising, Oysters Only
For the first time in our Atlantic Crossing, we have spent the entire day sailing directly toward St. Lucia. With 15-17 knots on our beam, we spent yesterday afternoon reaching with the shy kite at speeds between 8 and 10 knots. A 3-4 meter swell from the north made the ride a bit rolly, but we were enjoying the fast ride and watching the range number click below 1000 miles to go and the time to go occasionally pop below 100 hours when the speed got up.
By sunset the roll would occasionally pitch us over till the clew of the spinnaker and the boom would touch the water. We decided to play it a bit conservative for the evening and changed down to the jib and staysail. The weather forecast and some lightning flashes to the south had us a bit concerned that we might experience a squall.
At happy hour just before sundown, we celebrated the distance to run dropping down to three digits. After, Merima served up an excellent fish chowder made from the fresh caught mahi-mahi and some other goodies from the galley, along with some fresh baked French rolls. It went well with a bottle of dry El Coto Rioja white wine.
We carried on the celebration after dinner by singing along to some Jimmy Buffett music.
Even after changing down to white sails, which slowed Moonshadow by .5 to 1 knot, we managed to overtake another ARC boat during the evening. We’re not sure who she was, but it must have been one of the larger cruising or race boats in the fleet.
As it turned out, it was another beautiful and uneventful night at sea. With no moon and mostly clear skies, it was bright star light all night.
Winds went fairly soft in the early hours of the morning, and at first light we hoisted the shy kite and got the boat moving a bit better. The breeze clocked and eased a bit so around 1000 we changed up to the big kite, brought the pole aft and got her moving into 8’s and 9’s.
An hour later, the winds were up to 20 knots, gusting to 23, so it was time to change back down. I have to say, the guys have the routine down so we can now get from white sails to kite, kite to white sails, or change kites within a couple minutes. And we are NO race boat.
Our day’s run of 196 nautical miles reduced our distance to run to St. Lucia by the same amount. Our noon position was 13° 58′ north by 46° 40′ west.
The crew are about to declare a beverage mayday. We’ve been out of beer for two days and are almost out of coke (only to be used to mix with rum). The level of intensity in making the boat go faster is increasing as happy hour drink options are reduced and the boys are sussing out local rum distilleries in the islands.
Cheers, the MooCrew
ARC 2010 - 4 Dec, 2010. IRC, Racing, Invitation Cruising, Oysters Only
We’re heading west on the trade wind express! After a frustrating afternoon of light and shifty breezes clocking from south to north, a steady breeze from the north-northeast filled in just before happy hour. We set a shy kite, our 2.2 oz symmetrical spinnaker, and have been close reaching on the great circle route to St. Lucia ever since. The breeze has slowly but steadily improved from 7 knots last evening to the mid-to-high teens today. Speeds over the ground are now in the 8’s and 9’s with the occasional burst in the low 10’s and we’re clicking off the miles at the fastest pace of this passage. If the latest forecast is correct, we should have a fast, non-stop ride the rest of the way to St. Lucia.
With a refreshing gin and tonic at happy hour last night we toasted the arrival in earnest of the trade winds and the last third of our long and unusually slow trans-Atlantic passage.
After, Merima served dinner of barbeque tenderloins of chicken, grilled green peppers with garlic and a couscous salad with feta, marinated peppers and tomatoes. The wine match was a dry Spanish white Rioja.
Sailing conditions were beautiful throughout the evening with a clear starry sky and NO SQUALLS! Early this morning we were all reminded of home as the Southern Cross constellation rose just above the horizon. The last sliver of the moon rose just before a fiery orange sunrise.
After two nights of relatively benign sailing, everyone is feeling pretty rested.
This morning we hooked a nice mahi-mahi as we were honking along with the kite. It ran out all the line on the reel, but when the speed of the boat pulled the fish up on the plane, we were able to reel it in, skipping along the surface, without slowing the boat down. The fish weighed in at 6 kg/13 pounds.
The weather is getting warmer as we are pretty much running along the 14th parallel. Temps this morning were in the low 30’s C/high 80’s F.
The noon to noon run was 164 nautical miles and our position at 1200 hours Central Atlantic time was 13° 48′ north by 43° 19′ west.
Cheers, the MooCrew
ARC 2010 - 3 Dec, 2010. IRC, Racing, Invitation Cruising, Oysters Only
The trade winds stopped trading yesterday afternoon and we have been slowly but steadily working our way through (hopefully) the last patch of light and variable winds before we can get on the westbound train to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. The breeze has mostly been in single digits for the past 24 hours, slowly clocking from the south through to the north, through our course line. We’ve been able to sail all but 20 minutes of it, but we’re tired of playing cat and mouse with the breeze and hoping something strong and steady will fill in from the northeast pretty soon. We ran out of beer at happy hour yesterday so the situation is getting dire. The boy’s beards are getting longer, itchier grayer.
Although we’ve spent the past 24 hours on a tight reach, the sea state has been settled, and it has been very pleasant sailing.
After a stunning crimson red sunset, Merima served up the last mahi-mahi we caught for dinner in a tasty turmeric sauce, and served it with sides of dahl and a radicchio salad. The accompaniment for dinner was a dry Spanish white wine.
The MooCrew all enjoyed their night watches for a change, thanks to the absence of any squalls, calm conditions and a beautiful, clear starlit night. Perhaps each of us wants to be on deck to call the arrival of the trades when we can once again set the spinnaker.
Charles and Graham continue to potter about, making minor repairs as little items come up so we’re pretty ship shape thanks to their efforts.
Today Merima declared that it was the day to change bed sheets. None of the boys could agree upon who was going to change with who, so each was issued a clean set to put on their berths.
ARC Rally Control sent an email yesterday rescheduling some of the events in St. Lucia due to the unusually slow sailing conditions this year. The big Welcome Party scheduled for Wednesday 8 December has been renamed the Early Arrivals Party. Yikes! 17 days is an “early arrival.” We have a shot at making that gig so will be sailing hard to get there in time.
We logged 132 nautical miles in the 24 hours from noon yesterday to noon today, and our position at noon today was 13° 45′ north by 40° 32′ west.
Cheers, George, Merima, Charles, Graham and Kurt
ARC 2010 - 2 Dec, 2010. IRC, Racing, Invitation Cruising, Oysters Only
The trade winds remain fickle. In the last 24 hours, wind speeds have ranged from less than one knot to a peak of 30 knots and have come from almost every direction. The MooCrew have been working very hard trimming, tweaking and changing sails in order to keep the boat moving toward St. Lucia without using up precious diesel.
We were able to carry the big spinnaker all of yesterday afternoon and most of last evening in absolutely perfect downwind sailing conditions.
We finally hooked another fish yesterday, but whatever we had on the line had sharp teeth as it managed to cut through the steel trace, taking our brand new lure.
Graham continued his on the job training in B & G instrument repair by repairing the forward cockpit cruise repeater that had locked up on one setting. This is an essential piece of gear that gives us important information such as true wind speed, true wind angle, boat speed, velocity made good, etc. Graham spent three hours in a delicate surgery and was able to rebuild the keypad so the gauge works perfectly again.
As we were celebrating passing the half-way mark on the passage with a bottle of bubbles around sundown, we spotted a red spinnaker off our starboard quarter. Hailing the yacht, we found out she was Lionessa, a beautiful new Swan 66 that is sailing in the Invitation Cruising division with us. We also spotted the lights of two other yachts participating in the rally just after dark. It is amazing that after ten days of sailing, we have other yachts in sight. It is even more amazing that we have been able to lead the way for a 25 year younger, larger and supposedly faster yacht kitted out with all the latest and most expensive go-faster gear. In any event, I guess we’re going the right way.
Merima, ably assisted by Charles, turned out a great dinner of pork schnitzel, fried zucchini and potato salad which was enjoyed with a bottle of Spanish rosé.
The wind clocked to the south last night and at about 2200 hours we changed down to the jib, carrying on a two-sail reach in the mid to high 8 knot range directly toward St. Lucia.
At about 0030 hours this morning we got absolutely pummeled by a squall. This one was particularly nasty as it was packing winds of 30 knots from the west (the direction we we’re headed) and punishing rain. The decks, sails and rigging received at least an hour of serious water blasting as we struggled to keep Moonshadow moving and under control. We were all aware of at least three other yachts in close proximity and the heavy rain was painting the radar screen white. Attempts to peek out around the dodger to keep a lookout were met with a painful blast of horizontal rain assaulting the eyes. Charles, Kurt and George were on deck most of the morning monitoring the situation-in other words they did not get much sleep last night.
The squall hovered over us, moving in the same direction, for at least three hours. Conditions moderated to about a 15 knot westerly wind and gentle rain after an hour or so. By 0600 the wind speed indicator was showing goose eggs and we were a soggy mess.
After motoring west for less than an hour the breeze picked up to the three to four knot range. I was able to cut the engine, roll out the jib and get Moonshadow moving at a steady 1.5 to 2 knots on a WSW’ly course. The breeze built as the sun rose and at 0900 all hands were called on deck to set the big spinnaker.
As the groggy crew assembled on deck, the fishing reel went off with a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Kurt reeled in a small mahi-mahi. After it was put to sleep with some cheap Thai whiskey and the kite was set, George gave Kurt a lesson on how to fillet a fish.
Fresh fish is always welcomed on board, especially when a passage is taking a bit longer than anticipated, and Merima was happy she wouldn’t have to dig into the freezer for dinner.
We’re banging the western the edge of the Mid-Atlantic time zone, so the ship’s clocks were retarded one hour today at noon. Our position at that time was north 13° 41′ by west 38° 33′ and our 24 hour run was 153 miles. We now have approximately 1300 miles to run to St. Lucia. We’re hoping out dive to the south will pay off in the rally standings. We’re now sitting at 8th in the Invitation Cruising division and 21st in the overall fleet of approximately 240 boats. That said, we heard that 40 yachts had stopped in the Cape Verde Islands to wait for better sailing conditions. It’s a shame they’ll miss all the great ARC parties.
Cheers, the MooCrew
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