An uneventful first day back at the office

Serendipity
David Caukill
Mon 9 Jan 2012 21:32

Monday 9th January 2012  Caribbean Sea 13 52.9N 64 51.9W 

Today’s blog by Mr Grumpy

 

(NB Slightly different communication protocols now apply; see end of this entry).

 

Now started  on Leg 1 of the World ARC, we find ourselves back in familiar territory:  sailing downwind in 15-18kts of wind in bright sunshine with scattered clouds – the odd squall to avoid. Typical trade wind sailing.   We have our standard twin headsail rig up and are bowling along quite nicely. It is easy sailing. We could deploy the cruising chute (aka small spinnaker – the “Frog Sail”) but  that would up the adrenaline levels somewhat and might cause an upset – best avoided -  in the “stateroom”.  We have opted for calm and tranquillity – perhaps we will change our mind when the fleet disappear off over the horizon.   Not that we would know of course because, although there were I think 27 starters all starting from the same place and with the same destination  it is the nature of sailing that while you all take seemingly rational decisions, they are all different. So it was that by dusk last evening we could see only about 8 yachts (even on the AIS) and right now we can see only one – Anastasia – which has annoyingly stayed about 2.5-3.0 miles ahead of us since dawn! Still it is nice to see another yacht.

 

Of the 6 weeks we had in the Caribbean, we had about a month scratching around  in Antigua  having the rig fixed and then a ghastly sail with the family  from Antigua to St Lucia.  The story so far is available at: http://www.blog.mailasail.com/serendipity . There followed  eleven stressful days at home for Xmas (stressful for all around me too, it seems!), while trying to control a routine haul out and remediation in St Lucia , to source all the things that we needed to take back to St Lucia from shops that seemed to be eternally closed for the holiday, to pay taxes for me and Simone (Chiz, Chiz) while all at the same time as trying  to  enjoy Xmas with the family -  but only succeeding to upset almost everyone!  I think next time better to stay with the boat!

 

We returned to St Lucia to find that our  absence had led the various trades there to de-prioritise my repairs so that  on Wednesday evening it seemed that we were to set off round the world with no VHF radio, no AIS and a battery charging system that appears to be damaging the batteries. That is something of a concern given we next reach a real sailing centre (Auckland) in November 2012. So, morale was again at an all-time nadir: with all of the things that had gone wrong with this 8 month old yacht, this was about the last straw!

 

To be fair, someone was listening.  I have before commented on Oyster’s aftersales support but this time  we were stunned to learn that their proposed solution was to put a man on the next available plane with a new VHF and AIS and the wherewithall to fit them!  He arrived Friday night , worked all day Saturday, and they were working by  midday on Sunday, when  the World ARC (the “race” that is not a race) started.  There may have been extenuating circumstances that led them to do that,  but service indeed,  nonetheless!

 

About 45 minutes before the race it became clear that an intermittent fault in the SSB was indeed intermittent inasmuch  as  the set again refused to transmit. The Single Side Band radio is a High Frequency radio that cruisers use to keep in contact with each other. It used to be essential safety equipment but with the availability of Satellite Communications, it is now more a “nice to have” and indeed it WOULD be nice to have – if it worked. We can receive – so we can hear the chit chat among boats, but we cannot join in.  Hopefully we can get that fixed – along with the batteries - in Panama City. 

 

Where? Yes: Panama City, for that is the next conurbation we visit after the idyllic San Blas Islands and then the Panama Canal Transit.    For those of you who want more information about where we are going: http://www.worldcruising.com/WORLDARC2012/index.aspx

 

Finally, back to Serendipity – the frog.  Since we adopted it as the ship’s mascot, people have given us various frog mementos – all of which are still with us. This new one was a present from grand-daughter Chloe at Christmas and now has pride of place:

 

 

So: here we go again. Right now we are having a lovely sail down wind into the sunset.  The journey is 1150 miles of which we have covered 182 in the first 24 hour period.  So six or seven days to go (much to Simone’s chagrin because it seems I led her to believe that it was only four – that is going to cost me).

 

Communications

 

Now that we have joined the World ARC the organisers asked us to transfer our position reporting ”thingummy” so that – rather than appearing on the http://live.adventuretracking/Serendipity  site that you may  be used to, we are now  shown as part of the fleet at http://yb.tl/warc2012 . That site has a few more bells and whistles than the old site – and it updates every two hours  so has more functionality. So if you wake up in the morning wondering whether we are still alive that is the place to look.

 

We have also been asked to provide material to the rally blog which we propose to do by copying the normal Mailasail  blogs to the World Arc blog as we have this one.  That World ARC blog is limited in the pictures it can take; the text will be the same but if it is the pictures you want then use Mailasail.

 

Errr…that’saboutit. Bye!