Bob Dylan
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sat 16 Jan 2016 14:48
I am reminded of the old Bob Dylan (or was it Peter Paul and Mary?) refrain -
“Where have all the showers gone?”
The answer, my friend, is certainly not blowing in the wind.
According to the radar we are surrounded by dense patches of rain and we have the sun awning deployed in anticipation of a good soaking to remove the ingrained dust. Just as they approach, the promising yellow radar patches fade from the screen and they are gone.
We can’t look to the wind for an answer as there isn’t any. With the rising sun yesterday morning a gentle north east wind set in and we looked forward to a downhill trade wind run to Antigua. By mid afternoon the wind had faded to 5kts. So, do we wallow around until the forecast wind returns or make some progress with the engine?
The answer this time was provided by an email update from Chris and Julia in Bristol. This showed the position of “Ocean Reunion”, the leading boat in the Talisker Atlantic Challenge rowing race, some 125 miles ahead and 70 miles to the north of us but on our track to Antigua. We would love to meet up with one of these boats but as they are doing around 50 miles a day in the better weather they are going faster than we are under sail!! And so here we are at 0200 on Saturday morning motoring across the Atlantic in search of four guys in a rowing boat (and hoping for a shower of rain). I also hope their AIS is switched on as it is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.
When you think about it, 50 miles in 24 hours is an amazing speed for a rowing boat. We passage plan for Vega on the assumption of a speed of 5kts which is the average we would expect, using the engine if necessary. This means we can expect to cover 120 miles in 24 hours. Maybe we sail too slowly?! Four people rowing at the rate of 50 miles a day must consume a phenomenal number of calories. I will get their meal plan if we catch up with them.
Time zone Vega is now UT minus 2 i.e. 2 hours behind UK time. It gets dark at about 1930 VT (Vega Time) but not light until 0730 in the morning. This means that we will be all together in the cockpit savouring the first coffee of the day when I should be noting the 1200 UT position for the map. I forgot this yesterday and had to go back along our track on the plotter to work out where we were two hours earlier, given that 1200 VT was actually 1400 UT. It looks like we will have the same confusion when using the sextant. Yes, it came out of its box yesterday and Annie and I delved into the RYA astro navigation handbook to find out how to use it. Unfortunately Annie became bored after page 3 and I fell asleep after page 2. It looks like taking a sun or star sight is the easy bit, one you have carried out three calibrations - one for each of the two mirrors and one for the micrometer. However, following calibration it then requires an hours worth of sites of the sun to determine its greatest height above the horizon and the precise time at which this occurs. For the time you need to know UT as well as local time with further time adjustments that I have yet to understand. Once you start taking sights at other times of the day or night the calculations and adjustments become more complicated. Maybe this wasn’t quite such a good idea.
Update 0915 VT (1115 UT) - its like Startrek - the wind is blowing at 10kts, enough to get us going at just over 5kts. About to try dropping the mainsail and hoisting the cruising chute, possibly in combination with the genoa…………. Ocean Reunion is now 135 miles ahead, further than when we had their last position. They have rowed 71 miles in 24 hours and at this rate will be in Antigua before us. This is either truly amazing or a bluff from OR to spook the other competitors and following yachts!
Next time - replacing the mainsail halyard, Minke Whales, cruising chute success, trade wind. Its all go out here today……………….