SKIPPER'S UPDATE
Adventure_iceland
Tue 5 Aug 2008 02:39
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Hello Followers!
It is really heartening to know that so many of you
are following our progress. The crew love the idea that they are not out
here alone in this vast grey wilderness! Somehow the balance between
remote living in small teams on this yacht and the occasional few lines by email
set the right balance.
I have been asked for some more technical data on
our progress. I have asked the watch leaders to include this in their
blogs in future. Today we have had little sunshine breaking through the
layer of grey stratos cloud. A rather mellow morning was spent up top with
Anne's Watch and an afternoon doing stuff - including making bread!
Successfully but a little dense, like damper really. I will have to try
again tomorrow. At present it is dark, chilly and nearly wind-less.
The 2 to 12 knots of breeze arrives from the East to North East and drops away
again, all due to the high pressure that has enveloped Adventure over the last
24 hours. I need to keep the boat speed at around 7 knots to meet my
deadlines but then I only have about 1000 miles of fuel, some of which has
already been expended during the 1050 miles we have travelled so far. And
I need most of that for the potential fog and ice hazards close in to Greenland
and the west coast if it turns light in the high pressure around
Greenland.
Whilst I have been concerning myself with reading
the Arctic Pilot books etc, Windy has been teaching the Competent Crew Syllabus
and more to our eager crew. They have covered much of it already during
their training since January but it never hurts to revise things and then
discuss how they apply to ocean sailing rather than pottering about in the
Solent. We have both been guiding the crew and fixing bits and pieces that
always go wrong at sea - mainly domestic stuff. For example, the heads
(loo) door came off its hinges, a small chaff appeared on the mainsail, a piece
of web strap that stops the main sheet twisting came apart and needed
replacing. That sort of thing. And Windy is great at making running
improvements too. His 90,000+ sea miles give him a great experience base
on which to draw. We all learn from him daily. And yet he is so
self-deprecating, talking of the brilliance of other skippers like Becky rather
than himself. Never happier than when he is busy, he is also trying hard
to quit smoking on this trip and so far so good.
 Picture shows Rachel, Dave and Windy during a
stormy afternoon just before it all kicked off.
You will know that the crew do 4 hours on 4 hours
off for their 24 hour day - 0000 to 0400; 0400 to 0800; 0800 to 1200; 1200 to
1400; 1400 to 1600; 1600 to 2000; 2000 to 0000. The dog watches mean they
swap about so do not do the same watch on successive days. One day in 3
they perform Mother Watch for a 24 hour period, Windy and I split the
night watches 6 and 6. I do 2000 hrs to 0200 hrs and Windy does 0200 hrs
to 0800 hrs. He is happy with that as he gets some peace to make and mend
various bits and pieces. I like that arrangement as I like sunsets not
sunrises! Windy then sleeps for a few hours in the morning and we
both grab a "Pensioners" some time during the afternoon to recharge our
batteries ready for the night watches. All our stuff is fitted around that
routine.
Anyway, it is 0125 local time and I need to
download the latest weather charts and get ready to brief Windy who comes on
watch at 0200 hrs, so will say goodbye for now.
Keep following these intrepid explorers of yours -
be proud of them; they are all doing well and all learning some really valuable
lessons.
Richard
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