24:28.7N 21:33.9W 25th November ... Are we Going the right way?

The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Wed 25 Nov 2009 01:53
Hello Bloggers,
 
Hope you are all well back in Blighty (or wherever you happen to be if you are off on travels).  Since we spend quite some time pouring over weather charts I noticed that there was quite a storm surrounding your neck of the woods so I hope things are OK up your way. 
 
Down here we are getting quite nice winds in pretty good direction.  The gusty winds with large choppy waves seem to have abated and we are enjoying some decent trade wind activity. For us who want to arrive safely and in some comfort winds around the 15-18 knot mark keep us flying along under white sails at a respectable pace or can give us 8-10 knots under yellow sails, but with the wave action coloured sails are quite hard work as we are trying to sail as close to downwind as the sail set will allow.  Any more wind and I have to take down the yellow canvas or even start reefing, any less and we quickly lose speed and our time to St Lucia goes up, so for us (small crew, never done it before, limited spare sails...) 15-18 knots is like Goldilocks' porridge... just right...
 
The pleasant conditions allow me to resume my dog watch habit of writing the blog and checking the weather while keeping a watchful eye on George as he steers us through the night.  Until yesterday I was hand steering for the four hours of the night shift and up and down the hatch helping with gybes and sail changes so had to find the time in between shifts (less sleep).  Great news for the crew but the down side is that George uses a lot of power in these conditions as he is constantly fighting the waves and gusts (luckily we have our generator).  While not hand steering our daily activities which in addition to turning fruit included a resumption of the 3 minute rig check (followed by the several more minutes of taping up chafe, changing pins etc), going up  the mast to re rig the lazy jack system, fishing for the one that got away (it was huge I am sure though the last fish we actually landed was a plastic bag fish, it fought like crazy), spinnaker practice and eating (and more eating). 
 
On the subject of eating, despite the lack of fish (give us a chance we only put the line out for a few hours this afternoon) we seem to be eating better and better, benefitting from the intensive planning activities and shop research undertaken in Las Palmas, for lunch we had spaghetti and meatballs (Snark veterans will be familiar) a hearty lunch to make up for a long night and less exciting fare the night before (very late lunch and Dugald feeling sea sick).  Then for dinner last night we had teriyaki pork tenderloin with salad a triumph.  I do hope for some tuna for lunch or dinner tomorrow but of course on Thursday it is Thanksgiving day, so in honour of our American guest Chris we will be celebrating the occasion with (according to our plan but subject to arrival of fish or special requests) Steak on the menu with perhaps every a smoked salmon salad as an appetizer (or even fresh sushi if available).  Unfortunately I think if we had gone for roast turkey our oven would have had us waiting till Christmas, other thanksgiving staples like pumpkin pie are also sadly off the menu, however we can crack our week one bottle of wine to mark the occasion, though this will be a challenge for me since I have to stay awake on the first watch that night.
 
Talking of Chris White our anglophile American crew mate, I was happy to have a mast monkey volunteer to grind up the mast today, We did not stop progress for the event but as the lazy jacks needed re-installing someone had to go up to gamely up he went.  Couple of false starts with the ropes getting tangled in the spars but all in all a great job.  Not much fun as anyone who has to go up the mast in a swell will tell you, bit harsh on the family jewels but a good write up for Chris' magazine.  If you want to follow what Chris has to say you can Google www.yachtingmagazine.com and check out what he has to say, there are also some pictures.  I have not seen it myself as we cannot get on line.  Dugald will not go up which is a good thing for me since I don't fancy winching the additional 20Kg all the way to the top.  I do think it will be my turn next time though I did the mast work (2 trips) in the Las Palmas harbour.
 
So to the question of the day... are we going the right way?  (currently at between variable speeds between 6.5 and 9 Knots)
It is always nice to travel in company and I am pleased to say that we have had radio traffic all day and indeed we have seen quite a number of boats on our way.  Aside from the strange and perhaps fake MayDay call (waiting for an update from control) that went out this morning most has been positive news with a few tales of fixing boats, nice to know folks are around out there.  But as I sit here tonight I cannot see any lights at all and I wonder if we have gone off in the wrong direction.  Having sailed South West for the first day or so we have now moved on to a Rhumb Line route. For those non sailors among you this just means we are sailing a straight line directly to St Lucia.  The non sailors are probably now saying...der why would you go another way???...Well the thing is that traditional Atlantic crossing advice suggests that you head south (or more south west) till the butter melts and then head across on a due west route at around 15 degrees where you should have very reliable trade winds and make up the time you lost taking a dog leg route.   Why are we scorning this advice? Well looking at the wind charts I have it seems that there should be good winds on the rhumb line route for a while to come and second there seems to be a low pressure forming around 10 degrees which I would like to stay away from.  I want to see what other boats (with navigators aboard or with a professional router) are doing the re-visit tomorrow.  We can always head south a but more tomorrow I suppose.  Thoughts and suggestions, well informed or not are always welcome. 
 
Signing off for now
 
Ben