Mother Nature, however, decided to have a giggle and throw us a curveball today; during Elaine and Justine’s early morning watch this morning, squall after squall passed over us, having us reefing, un-reefing, re-reefing. We were up and down the helmstation stairs like yo-yos as the wind strengthened then weakened then strengthened again, as the rain started and stopped and restarted and as the waves and swell built and slammed into Paw Paw from every direction, including on her beam, the latter caused by swell propagation from the north to the northwest caused by a distant storm, making for rougher seas, but we soldiered on!
During Roy’s morning watch, with Justine standing in for Paul at the start of the watch, the mayhem continued, but by the time Elaine surfaced at around noon, we had sunny blue skies, moderate winds, the headsail was double-reefed and the starboard engine was purring away to help keep Paw Paw stable, instead of skidding down the waves sideways. Apparently at around 1000 the squalls and associated rain dissipated and by noon we had 150NM to go, giving us an ETA (Expected Time of Arrival) into St Lucia of around noon tomorrow.
A perusal of the latest weather forecasts suggested the stronger winds and higher seas would continue through tomorrow, so there was no respite in sight. We had hoped, with a bit of luck, that the forecasts would be wrong, as they usually are and we would get to enjoy a more peaceful night, our last of our circumnavigation. Sadly, that didn’t happened, but we still moved forward in the right direction.
Everyone, however, looked forward to our dinner tonight; fish and chips, complements of Roy, after Paul caught a reasonably sized wahoo yesterday evening. In the hours leading up to dinner, though, Elaine got to enjoy her quiet time this afternoon after everyone was fed and watered at lunchtime, then trundled off to catch up on lost sleep.
Her quiet time today, however, also had her thinking about what the future holds for us after completing our circumnavigation; will Paw Paw be sold quickly, will we have another sailing season in the Caribbean ahead of us, where will we be for Christmas this year, when will we get to see Keenan, Brooke and the grandchildren, will we be living in Ireland before the new year is out? There were definitely more questions than answers, but at least we knew what our immediate future held following our arrival in St Lucia; CELEBRATIONS, then giving Paw Paw a thoroughly good cleaning inside and out for a job well done, in keeping us safe and sound over tens of thousands of nautical miles!
Tonight, as our last night at sea progresses, Elaine and Justine enjoyed stargazing again, given that we had a relatively clear night sky and, with that, our penultimate day of our circumnavigation drew to a close.
Having set the ship’s clock back by an hour yesterday meant Elaine and Justine had an hour less of darkness on their early morning watch this morning, although the waning crescent moon provided some light through the clouds.
With stronger winds out of the northeast, we remained on our starboard tack under full headsail and enjoyed an average SOG (Speed Over Ground) in excess of 6-6.5 Kts, ensuring a Sunday arrival. This also allowed us to switch off the engine at the start of Roy and Paul’s watch.
We are, however, all counting down the number of “no sleeps” and watches we have left, so another night at sea will simply not suffice; roll on Sunday and rolling we are in the persistent conditions that have the wind, waves and swell in different directions. Throw in all the squalls that keep popping up and we’re all feeling the effects of a long, uncomfortable and tiring passage. Regardless, everyone is managing to get enough sleep, although we’re all definitely looking forward to a night of uninterrupted sleep, that’s for sure!
As usual, after making breakfast, Elaine left Roy on watch and headed to bed, surfacing around noon to the smell of freshly baked bread. Guess what everyone had for lunch! Yummy! One of the highlights of all our passages has been the fresh bread the Captain ensured we always had and this passage has been no exception.
When Elaine took over the afternoon watch, she was delighted to find that we only had 290NM to go, we were still on the starboard tack and we had enjoyed an average SOG (Speed Over Ground) for the morning of 6.5 Kts reaching 7-8 Kts in the afternoon, as the wind strengthened and weakened in bands.
Yachts were also coming out of the woodwork from every direction, popping up all over our chartplotter, given that they were now in AIS (Automatic Identification System) range of us, as we all honed in on St Lucia; the finish line was going to be rather congested it seemed!
The Captain’s music hour was enjoyed with dinner, the latter thanks to a team effort from Justine and Paul. Our evening came to a close on a high note with Paul catching another fish; this time a reasonably large wahoo. If nothing else, he’s kept us well fed on a nice variety of fish; first tuna, then mahi mahi and now wahoo. Guess what we’re having for dinner tomorrow.
Before we knew it, though, our penultimate round of watches commenced. On Elaine and Justine’s watch, given that there wasn’t a moon and we had our first somewhat clear night sky, the first in a while, we took the opportunity to do some stargazing again. There’s simply nothing like a starry night at sea! These will be missed indeed!
On other news, “Sweetiegate” fortunately didn’t turn into the bloodbath Elaine had expected, with both Roy and Paul giving up their last chocolates to their respective wives; wise men indeed!
As the finish line draws closer, so too are these logs, started on 9th January 2016, to document our circumnavigation. It’s hard to believe Elaine has been writing these for almost eight years. What’s even harder to believe is we are about to become circumnavigators; something Elaine never thought would be possible after her diagnosis in Australia. If nothing else, this circumnavigation has taught us that daring to dream, regardless of the obstacles, mixed with tenacity and determination, makes those dreams come true. 230NM to go to fulfil our dream!
Elaine and Justine’s early morning watch started the same as every other one they’ve done together on this passage; after the watch handover briefing, Justine made herself comfortable at the navigation station to keep a vigilant eye on the instruments, including the radar, for any signs of a change in the weather or traffic to bring to Elaine’s attention, in the event the change warranted the headsail having to be reefed or jibed or indeed prompted an alteration required to our course, etc. Elaine, on the other hand, made herself a cup of tea and some toast; something Justine declines more often than not.
Afterwards, Elaine sat at the helmstation to listen and to feel how Paw Paw was moving, as well as to get a better feel of our surroundings in terms of cloud cover, direction of the waves and swell, she examined the sail to make sure everything was in order there and spent some time monitoring the instruments to ensure there was a consistent pattern in the numbers.
Once satisfied that nothing needed to be tuned or tweaked, she returned to the saloon to start the daily blog, send the status email to loved ones, download the weather provided by ARC 2023 and peruse the latter. At one point, though, she did have to put a couple of turns in the headsail as the wind strengthened.
In between the set timeframes for checking the radar and instruments, which varies depending on the conditions, as well as updating the deck log every hour, Justine entertained herself in her usual way; playing solitaire on her phone.
Before we knew it, daylight was breaking in the east and the boys had surfaced; it was time for breakfast, something Justine skipped this morning, although Paul enjoyed his morning coffee.
With that, the girls were off watch and Elaine headed to bed, only to be woken by her stomach revolting against the constant roll; inevitable, given the contrasting directions of the wind, waves and swell that have continue to plague us throughout this passage.
Fortunately she managed to get back to sleep after her incident, surfacing around 1100, which was, in fact, 1200, given that the ship’s clock was turned back by another hour. Finding Roy at the navigation station navigating squalls and Justine and Paul in the cockpit, she made lunch so that Roy could get some sleep.
Back on watch and getting her cleaning activities completed too, she, however, could have done without more squalls to deal with. Quite frankly we were over this unsettled weather that’s been with us for most of this past week. Coupled with the persistent horrible sea state, we definitely weren’t having a comfortable passage. Feast or famine it seems!
By the time dinnertime rolled around, no one felt like a cooked meal, so we settled for tuna wraps, complements of Justine, following which Elaine took advantage of having an extra hour’s sleep.
However, before she could settle, with the weather continuing to deteriorate, she made sure Roy was clipped on and assisted him in reefing the headsail, given the enormous squalls that had developed either side of us. With an engine running to maintain our speed and everything under control, she could rest easy then.
Once Paul joined Roy on watch, they continued to face squalls, but, thankfully, by the time Elaine and Justine came on watch, the weather had settled. Keeping the one engine switched on, though, we continued to motor-sail, given that the flaky winds were back and, by this stage of this long, drawn out passage, we were definitely not in the mood for faffing around; keeping the engine on helped keep up our speed to ensure a Sunday arrival. Burning some diesel was the perfect solution! We clearly had “get-there-itis” now with just 380NM to go!
On other news, Daphne, our orchid plant, has bloomed and presented us with a deep claret flower, christened Dahlia by Aunty Justine. Having nurtured her since leaving Turkey in April, she continues to brighten our day.
Once on our new heading, Elaine and Justine made breakfast for the three of us; Paul was still catching up on lost sleep, following which Elaine headed to bed, leaving Justine to stand in for Paul on watch with Roy.
At some point during their watch another squall developed bringing some rain with it, but Elaine slept through it all. When she surfaced around noon, she found Roy on watch, Justine resting in her cabin and Paul fast asleep in the cockpit. Roy had also baked during his watch; this time baguettes. Soon thereafter, while dishing up tinned peaches and custard for Roy and herself as a midday snack, Justine and Paul appeared, having heard movement in the galley; they too then opted for a midday snack; tinned apricots and custard.
With everyone’s hunger pangs satisfied, Roy and Paul trundled off to their respective beds, Justine assumed her position in the cockpit and Elaine made her lunch using the last of the bread Roy had baked yesterday, but not before she discovered a Treasure Hunt that Justine and Paul had created for her. With a little help from them both, Elaine managed to find all the clues hidden in various places around Paw Paw, including the fridge, Roy’s cabin, the rope bag at the helmstation, the tea canister and eventually the oven glove, discovering a Crunchie, one of Elaine’s favourite chocolates, hidden inside it, kindly donated by Paul from his goodie bag. What a lovely surprise and a fun way to take her mind off her methotrexate day. Thank you Justine and Paul!
Around 1400, Roy surfaced briefly to have some of his baguette for lunch, then trundled back to bed, while Elaine and Justine took care of reefing and unreefing the headsail for the afternoon squalls that appeared to our stern, but, thankfully, passed to starboard without incident.
By 1500, after pursuing a more direct route to St Lucia over the past number of days, we’d managed to shave just over 100NM from our passage, leaving us with 575NM to go, although it was still debatable as to what day we would actually arrive in Rodney Bay on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. Hopefully we can hold this course, regardless of the very lumpy, confused and uncomfortable seas. A washing machine has nothing on this ocean!
At around 1600 Roy and Paul had both surfaced and Roy commenced his regular inspection of all the rigging, including the water tanks, since it won’t be long before we can start filling one of the tanks with the excess emergency drinking water we have in jerry cans, thereby lightening Paw Paw’s load a little. Although we’d made a good dent in our provisions too, given how long our fresh produce lasted, we’ll definitely have an excess number of tins to donate to charity following our arrival in St Lucia.
Before we knew it, though, another very dark, moonless night had descended upon us once more and the watch schedule had started, but not before Elaine and Roy had jibed Paw Paw one more time, putting us on a port tack for the night with a COG (Course Over Ground) of 260T, under a full headsail alone. Unfortunately, without an anemometer we can’t report the wind speed, but our SOG (Speed Over Ground) remained in excess of 6 Kts on average and by 2300, we had 530 NM to go.
We would also like to wish Elaine’s great-niece, Taylor, a very Happy 16th Birthday for yesterday and hope that she had a wonderful “sweet sixteen” day!
By the time Elaine and Justine went off watch, though, the night skies had started to lighten as the moon rose behind the clouds. In the distance, to the southeast of us, we could also see flashes of sheet lightening, which continued through Roy and Paul’s watch and was still occurring when the girls came back on watch for their early morning shift, except it had moved almost due south of us. This was an indication that the tropical wave was continuing to move westward as forecast. We were relieved, though, that this weather had stayed south of us and remained grateful for the continuation of the stronger winds that had filled in yesterday morning.
At the end of her watch, Elaine made Roy boiled eggs and toast for breakfast before she scooted off to bed, having struggled through her watch with Justine. It hadn’t helped matters that she kept having to reef the headsail as the wind continued to strengthen. Instead of heading to bed, Justine had decided to skip an early morning breakfast and wait until Paul surfaced to make them omelettes, given that we still had an inordinate number of eggs for this stage of the passage.
Elaine only surfaced after 1300 to find Roy on watch, Paul sleeping and Justine enjoying the cool breeze in the cockpit; it was certainly getting hotter and more humid as we continued west.
During Roy’s morning watch he let out the reef Elaine had added, but added it back in soon thereafter as the wind strengthened yet again, so onwards we went on a double-reefed headsail alone. Of course, it definitely didn’t help matters that our anemometer had decided to then go on the brink, leaving us without wind speed, although we still had wind direction; not ideal, but better than nothing.
The swell had also remained at around 3 metres as forecast, but was expected to start easing sometime tomorrow. More importantly, though, it was expected to change direction to coincide with the wind direction as apposed to the current situation of remaining on our starboard quarter, coupled with a separate northerly swell which continued to have us rockin’ and rollin’ as each wave hit Paw Paw on the beam.
When Elaine was back on watch after Roy had headed to bed, she did her usual cleaning of the galley and saloon, breaking a glass in the process with all the wobbling around we were doing in the unrelenting side swell.
On the upside our DMG (Distance Made Good) was sitting at 2020NM by the time the 1500 deck log readings rolled around, the storms appeared to be staying south of us, the sun was trying to break through the overcast skies and we were continuing west with S/Y Wilma for company.
Additionally, our orchid plant, Daphne, had definitely moved to the maternity ward as one of her buds had started to open and it was looking likely that two more would follow suit in quick succession.
Dinner was a humble affair as we worked our way through the last of the fresh produce onboard; besides oranges, we still had potatoes, onions, garlic and the last packet of chopped carrots and string beans. All things considered, we’d done well to still have fresh anything at this stage of the passage.
Since it was Elaine’s turn to cook, she decided that some potatoes needed to be consumed before they went off, so dinner was tuna fishcakes and chips, accompanied by a tartar sauce; a nice garden salad would have gone down like a treat, but the meal was tasty enough.
Before long it was time for the girls to head to bed. The boys, however, had plenty to deal with on their watch due to the squalls that popped up to our stern then passed overhead, bringing with them rain and stronger winds, including a wind shift.
Once the girls came on watch and following the handover briefing, we decided that sitting at the helmstation was probably a good idea and a better place to be to manage any squalls, if need be. Elaine also decided to add the third reef to the headsail; it was staggering that we were still flying along at 6.5-7.5 Kts on a handkerchief of sail. Elaine and Justine then spent the next three hours managing squalls that, fortunately, passed to the south of us, and had a good chinwag, given that we didn’t have to whisper; no one could hear our voices over the noise of the ocean as Paw Paw glided over the waves.
At the stroke of midnight, with an hour left of our watch, we had a smidgen of over 750 NM to go. Slowly, but surely we were getting there!
Having set the ship’s clock back yesterday as well and moved our watches forward by an hour too, sunrise was at a more appropriate time this morning of 0710, with daylight starting to break just after 0615.
By 1300 we’d passed the 2/3-way mark and we had less than 878NM to go.
Our day took on the usual routine; Elaine and Justine went off watch after breakfast. Before Elaine headed to bed for the morning, though, leaving Roy and Paul on watch, the decision was taken to stay on the headsail alone and all unused sheets were stowed, including the preventer, following which the saloon windows were washed, the latter thanks to Paul and the former required due to the deteriorating weather conditions expected from later today through to Wednesday as a result of a tropical wave that had formed to the south of us, plus a strengthening ridge to the north of us. Thankful for the stronger winds, we, however, had to reef the headsail a tad to accommodate the sea state and prevent Paw Paw from surfing down waves or, indeed, skidding down sideways.
Elaine surfaced around noon and assumed her afternoon watch, which included removing the bread from the oven at the appropriate time which Roy had started to bake on his watch and making chocolate chip muffins, the latter to celebrate reaching the 2/3-way mark, while Justine assumed her position in the sun after Roy and Paul went for their afternoon naps.
By 1500 we still had S/Y Wilma to our starboard side, appearing yesterday again after crisscrossing our bow a few days ago. While we’ve seen a few other yachts pop up on the AIS (Automatic Identification System) we haven’t visually seen them.
News from ARC Rally Control this morning informed us that the first of the racing yachts had arrived in St Lucia, while the centre of the fleet were well over halfway across the Atlantic Ocean.
Afternoon tea / coffee and muffins marked our milestone before Captain’s music hour recommenced after a few days of being absent, for no other reason than Roy had simply forgotten. It was inevitable that sooner or later the music hour would turn into a dance session, occurring this evening when Roy started to play Mango Groove, a band Elaine and Justine both love.
To a beautiful sunset, Justine danced around the cockpit keeping a firm grip on the handrail to the helmstation for safety and Elaine bobbed in her seat, while the boys looked on with their usual look of dismay.
By then it was bedtime for the girls leaving the boys on watch. With the deteriorating conditions, as expected, Roy reefed the headsail to steady Paw Paw and slow here down somewhat, a configuration Elaine kept for the first hour of the watch, but reefed a little more and bared away a degree or two to keep the apparent wind at an acceptable level . A tad disconcerting was having S/Y Wilma in relatively close proximity considering the weather conditions, causing us to keep a watchful eye on their progress too.
On other news, our orchid, Daphne, as she has been christened by Justine, is budding beautifully and we’re expecting to be parents again by the time we reach St Lucia.
By end of day, we had 810NM to go, not that we’re counting or anything!
However, we first had another series of watches to complete and to solve the source of various lights on the horizon, the first occurring at the change of watch last night when Roy spotted a light on the horizon; was it a yacht, a star or, indeed, a planet, eventually concluding it was a star low on the horizon, given the very dark night.
The next light appeared on the horizon around 0100, after Elaine and Justine had enjoyed some stargazing again, leading Justine to believe a cruise ship had appeared out of nowhere, only to realise it was, in fact, the rising moon again and a stunning one at that. It literally looked more like the sun with its red tint. Simply beautiful!
These distractions were greatly appreciated, though, given the extremely frustrating conditions we found ourselves in from a weather perspective. With the very light winds increasing periodically, Elaine tried, in vane, to switch the engine off. However, during Roy and Paul’s watch, the wind direction and speed became a little bit more favourable to do so, making for a peaceful sail, albeit at a snails pace. This continued for the first hour of Elaine and Justine’s early morning watch, before the wind started to back and veer through 50 degrees and the speed increased and dropped repeatedly from 13 Kts to 4 Kts respectively, never mind the horrible side swell that continued to plague us. As a result, Paw Paw rocked from side to side, sails flogged all over the place and we were getting nowhere.
With that, Elaine furled the headsail, sheeted in the mainsail, put Paw Paw on a broad reach to keep as much as possible of the very little wind we had in the mainsail and switched the engine back on to give us a more consistent speed. We were, however, now heading towards the US coast, but it had to suffice until daybreak.
When Roy surfaced around 0800, him and Elaine unfurled the headsail, taking it over to the port side and placing it on the port barberhauler, sheeted out the mainsail again and set a COG (Course Over Ground) in the general direction of west rather than northwest, then enjoyed a bacon buttie for breakfast, using the remainder of the fresh bread Roy had baked yesterday; it was Sunday after all! Justine settled for an egg sandwich, while Paul had to be woken to enjoy his bacon and egg sandwich, before Elaine trundled off to bed after everyone had been fed and watered.
While Elaine and Justine were off watch, the wind direction steadied out of the east-northeast and increased slightly in strength, allowing Roy and Paul to set Paw Paw back on a run and putting us back in the right direction, albeit still at a painful crawl.
During this time, however, the ship’s clock was set back too by two hours, completely confusing Elaine, given that she’d gone to sleep at around 0910 then woke to see her watch indicating 0915. Thinking that her watch had given up the ghost, she turned over and went straight back to sleep, surfacing at her usual 1200 to do her afternoon watch. There was just one small problem; it was, in fact, 1400 in real terms!
By this stage, poor Roy was exhausted and really needed his sleep, but had decided to rather leave Elaine to sleep, given that the past few days were proving to be more of a struggle for her, primarily due to problems trying to sleep in her off time; a struggle everyone was having at varying degrees due to the terrible swell rocking Paw Paw around combined with the noise of an engine, never mind all the clanging of the rigging. The flaky conditions had become a nightly occurrence, now adding to frustration levels at our very slow progress. Letting her sleep, however, was a quip pro quo arrangement, given that Elaine sits on watch every afternoon, while everyone else sleeps or tries too at least, or simply has downtime, an arrangement that suits her just fine because it gives her some quiet time and the time to tidy up and clean the common areas of the saloon and galley everyday.
On the upside, by 1300, thankfully, the winds had picked up again to around 13-15 Kts, increasing our SOG (Speed Over Ground) to 5.5 Kts from the painful 4-4.5 Kts overnight. Additionally by 1530 we had 996NM to go. That meant by tomorrow, we’d reach the 2/3-way mark; we had reason for a double celebration in reaching two more significant milestones. Regardless, this was stacking up to be our slowest passage of this circumnavigation!
Tonight, at the end of Roy and Paul’s first watch, Elaine was woken to the news that we had to drop the mainsail after Paw Paw had started to surf down some rather large waves. With that the usual procedure ensued, but, of course, we picked the darkest night of all; no moon and no stars due to an overcast sky.
Back on track with the mainsail secured, we continued westward on our trusty headsail alone enjoying a SOG of around 5 Kts without an engine; onwards we go!
