Position: 17:40:00N 31:54:70W

Transat Day 10

We’ve been watching the sunrises and sunsets get later and later as we head West.  Yesterday, we crossed 30 degrees West, so we moved Ships Time back an hour (you need to move the clock back an hour for every 15 degrees of westing) to compensate.  This means that when it is 1200 in the UK, it is now 1100 here.  This meant an extra 30 mins on the end and start of our watches, which we absorbed during the day in order to make the night less painful!

The wind dropped yesterday afternoon so Rob & I had a play with the Aries, and managed to get the rudder blade down and it steered us perfectly from 1400 through to about 2200.  Whilst we’re enjoying hand-steering, having the Aries doing the steering relieves the crew so that one person can get some extra sleep, and the person on watch can read a book or do something other than steer and watch the compass.

We all sat in the cockpit in the afternoon and played cards.  This felt like the first time we had all sat down together and relaxed, and I think we all really appreciated it.  It felt like the first day where we haven’t been log-watching – seeing how far we’ve sailed in the last hour, and seeing how our distance to go is decreasing.  People say that doing an ocean passage is in three psychological phases – the first phase, where you can’t quite believe how far it is and how long it’s going to take; the second phase, where you’re attuned to the routine, reconciled to the duration, and each day is similar to the previous; and the final phase, where you’re just willing the boat onwards to finish.  I’m hoping we’ve moved out of the first phase.

The Aries started playing up (or Rob started playing with it!) around 2200, and after that we couldn’t get it to work.  Sally & I had the 2300-0300 watch so I sent Sally to bed, and put the autopilot on instead and read a magazine.  In the morning I discovered that the Aries blade had flipped up again.  I got it back down (you have to hang over the transom and prod it with the boat hook) but it still wouldn’t hold a course.  I think there may just be too much play in it.  Very very annoying as this is the one time we really need it.  There is one last thing I might try, which is to take it off and bolt the ting together to take the play out of it and fix it down.  Although how I will manage to take it off and put it back on again on the transom of a pitching boat in the middle of the ocean is something I still need to think through.

The night was pitch black – no moon or stars due to a thick damp low cloud which made everything really wet on board.  Very sticky and uncomfortable.  There was a nav light off our port quarter but no idea who it was.  I really didn’t think we’d still be seeing boats 1000 miles out.  We’ve managed to hold onto 10kts of SE’ly wind, which I think is a bonus given the forecast yesterday.  Today’s forecast indicates that there is bugger all wind to our West, so the longer we can hold onto the breeze the better. 

Hope all’s well

Ollie x