Atlantic Crossing Blog from Yacht Phoebe B
Blogs for 2010 and 2011 direct from the boats can be read here: PhoebeB and Tranquilizer
Departing from Las Palmas on 22 November 2009 Bavaria 46 Phoebe B Heads for St Lucia on a mile building distance cruising trip across the Atlantic. The same trip was completed in 2010.
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An Atlantic crossing with the ARC this mile building cruise from Las Palmas was a fast and exciting sail an almost perfect crossing. |
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| Prepare 14 Nov - 21 Nov 26:12.4N 16:46.2W |
Three words to sum up our week in Las Palmas - preparation, preparation, preparation! The list of things that needed to be done was seemingly endless - from having the rigging checked (ours was great and needed only a little fine tuning), to loading water and food into every available bit of locker space available. It's a wonder that we managed to find time at all to take part in various ARC "activities" (most nocturnal) - but of course,getting the crew together to attend the happy hours, parades, group dinners and of course the fancy dress party was vital to get in the ARC spirit ! Speaking of crew, everyone arrived at different times during the week - and in alphabetical order are: Barry, Dan, David, Marc, Paul, Ruth, Tom, and of course our skipper Matt. I'm sure further blog entries will go into more detail but suffice to say everyone seems to be getting on very well
indeed and we're having a great time together.
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Sun 22 Nov |
So, after a fantastic welcome to Las Palmas everyone was in great spirits and ready for the start. Both boats got together on the morning of departure to wish each other good luck and have a bit of banter - even though we're not racing each other everyone wants to be the first boat in! The atmosphere was fantastic as we pulled out into the marine to slowly inch our way out - 200+ boats leaving at the same time causes a bit of a boat traffic jam - and hundreds of people lined the breakwater to wave us off with the band playing us out. There were boats everywhere as we headed towards the start line, and our initial idea of hanging back to let things calm down a bit didn't really happen as we found ourselves being one of the first across! We cruised for a while before raising the pole and goose-winging in a southerly direction, and as the evening drew in we had a few lights around us on the horizon to keep the watches busy. These gradually winked out over the hours until it was just us and the stars. Being on deck at night is a wonderful experience, and the beautiful clear evening combined with great wind gave us a fantastic start.
Everyone on Phoebe B
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Tues 24 Nov |
Dolphins today! Steady downwind sailing - re-gybed the pole an hour ago to
set a better course... had been doing 7kn in 20kn of wind, but now easing
off a bit. Everyone getting into the swing of the rota: 3 hours on, 3 hours
off for six crew, while the 7th serves as 'mother watch' looking after
cooking and cleaning. Works out so everyone gets a cabin to themselves for
their 3-hour sleep each round, while their 'opposite number' is up in the
cockpit. Paul's 'mother watch' yesterday included a great bangers-and-mash; |
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Wed 25 Nov 23:21.0 N 22:26.0 W |
The day started with more wildlife as some of us were lucky enough to see a whale go past at 6.300am, which helped to keep the eyes open to the end of the watch (we think it must have been a cuvier's beaked wale as that is the only brownish one on the list we have). Without wanting to rub it in it's been another hot and mainly sunny day this end. The wind is still being nice to us, keeping between 15 and 25 knots from the north east, perfect trade wind sailing. The skipper (Matt) thinks us that we have gone far enough south an so we made the course change and are now heading away from the African coast and towards the rum punches, with this in mind we celebrated by cracking a beer (first of the trip!!) to go with our burgers and salad. An Americanish meal so the sound track was the Beach Boys, everybody's gone surfing seemed apt as we scooted down the rollers.
Phoebe still taking all in her stride with the only problem being a heads door that locks itself if it slams, managed to sort it all out before anyone started hopping up and down. That's it for the day, every one getting geared up for the night watches, but the nights are getting warmer. so long from Phoebe B
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Thus 25 Nov 22:38.0N 25:07.0W |
Today we spotted our first flying fish - moving FAST and low... they looked like insects moving at great speed.
Just as we're writing this we're surrounded by playing dolphins, about 20 of them - what a sight... and far on the horizon we can see the spinnaker of a fellow yacht, typically just one or two that we spot every day. At night we hear the radio calls on Channel 16 VHF of some maniacal sailor who sounds like he is clanging pots and pans and trying to wake someone up... grrr...
Overnight last night we could feel a noticeable 'shift' in the air, now that we've passed south of 23deg N, the Tropic of Cancer! The air is noticeably warmer, necessitating fewer layers, and there is less condensation on the cushions, as well as smaller swells/waves, even though the wind has stayed at a consistent 17-20kn.
Today Barry made a fabulous chili con carne, with which we also celebrated American Thanksgiving Day, as Marc hoisted a US flag to mark the day - toasts and thanks all around to our great good fortune at being together on this fantastic voyage. Winds and weather are generally favorable, and our average speed stays healthy.
On a technical note, Matt and Dan 'spun the pole', i.e. flipped around the pole that supports the genoa to deal with any potential chafing problems well in advance - 'chafe prevention' is definitely the name of the game!!
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Fri 27 Nov 22:15N 26:06W
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Early morning we found flying fish across the deck, the only fish so far - they were thrown back still flapping. Tom and Barry are persevering with their fishing and heard over the radio that Tranquillizer had succeeded in catching their supper. Both fisherman were eager to discover their techniques with regard to lures used etc. Dan is studying for his Astro Navigation exams, part of which involves the use of a sextant, and we all looked at the instrument and had some success in taking a reading. Today we moved our watches back two hours, away from Universal Time (whatever happened to GMT?) and towards time in the Caribbean. We have called 'our' time Phoebe B Time, PBT, now nicknamed PMT. We have settled into our system of hot-bunking, matching up with a crew member who finishes watch as other starts his, and identifying a bunk that would suit for the night. Ruth washed her sheet; it dried quickly as the weather has been favorable, hot sun and good wind. Dan was mother for the day and produced an excellent meal of sausages and mash, using the last of the fresh meat. Future meals will be more of a challenge but standards are high! |
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Sat 28 Nov |
Everyone is sitting here sunning themselves this afternoon (scorching hot), |
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Sun 29 Nov 21:05N 33:43W |
The great thing about travelling West across the Atlantic is that the weather gets better the further we go. It's really hotting up now - we don't have a thermometer here but we're all just in shorts during the day, topping up the tans ready for St Lucia! And - not to make you too jealous or anything - this blog is being written in the saloon of the boat whilst everyone is sitting up on deck, listening to Bob Marley and watching the sun go down. The sea is calm and we have 22 knots of wind pushing us along - it truly is a stunning evening here. The wind certainly wasn't perfect last night - far from it. Five minutes after the sails were set for the wind coming from one direction, it would decide that it wanted to veer around. This happened all night long - pretty frustrating for everyone involved, and all heads were craned upwards watching the Windex through the night to see how the wind was changing. I'm not sure if the Autopilot has been mentioned before - but for those who haven't used one, they certainly do make things easy when it comes to following the wind. If it starts to move around, add or subtract a few degrees using the buttons on the autopilot control - if we have to change course too much, its time to gybe the sails. Unfortunately last night it was a case of regular button pushing and being pushed off course too much, too often. And last but not least, the events of today - two important things happened as you can probably guess from the title of this post. The first was that a couple of Minke Whales decided to pay us a visit - they were clearly in a playful mood as they hung around for a good half hour, dropping astern and then coming up alongside us a couple of metres from the boat, diving under the bow and rolling upside down as they glided through the water. They are truly a wonderful sight to see, and everyone was mesmerized - each time they breached the water you could hear the collective intake of breath from all of us on the boat. The second important thing was the eating of our Dorado that was caught yesterday. It was Marc's turn to be Mother today, and he did a great job of getting the fish into our stomachs - in the form of a delicious Kedgeree. However, in the process he managed to use every single pot and pan in the boat, and left so much mess it took him a good hour or two to clean up. Still waiting for dessert...! Stay tuned for an update tomorrow, as we should be passing the halfway mark and having a bit of a party... |
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Mon 30 Nov 20:42.00N 37:13.00W Halfway |
Woohoo! We are now officially HalfWay There. Most of us have not really been agonizing over our ETA, given that it is a long trip, but just taking each day one at a time. On the other hand, this was a nice moment to celebrate, and as you can see from the Yellowbrick tracking our average Speed Over Ground has been pretty sweet at around 7kn for the entire voyage!
Matt broke out some Champagne, with Dan doing the honors sending corks overboard, and we treated ourselves to pistachio nuts and Ferrero Rocher (hey, the mid-Atlantic Tesco's was shut, and the juicy watermelon already had to be deep-sixed due to rotting); Marc dedicated the Champagne Moment on his guitar with a little 12-Bar "Phoebe's Blues" ["Phoebe baby... look whatcha done to me... " etc... the reader will have to imagine the rest.... ], after which Barry cranked out Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer" on the stereo ("Halfway there... livin on a prayer... etc... ")... great moment, and great mood all around! Rory beamed in with a radio check from Tranquillizer, a few miles ahead, and it sounded they were having a pretty good time, too... We're rapidly approaching Full Moon, so every night has been very brightly lit. Most of the time we're doing 7-8kn in 18-20kn of Easterly Trade Winds, but quite often we're getting up to 9, 10, sometimes 11kn in more brisk winds gusting up to 27kn; the swells are (as is well known) relentless, but at least nudging us along the right way, and for the last two days have been getting large-ish, at roughly 3-4Metres in height (more typically they are around 2M). It's no problem for Phoebe B or for the eight of us aboard, but the fact that the swells are crisscrossing in a less-then-regular pattern makes for some interesting motion, and David has found that the oven gas cuts off automatically if the oven swings too much. The weather is really starting to feel Tropical, but the steady breeze keeps it manageable. |
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Fri 4 Dec 18:58N 47:00 W 13 Days In |
First of all, apologies for not updating this blog for a few days. We've had plenty of time to write things, but somehow something else needs to be done when we've thought to sit down and actually post something.
Yesterday saw the big event of our first showers. It has now been 13 days at sea, and only one shower to show for it! As water preservation is key out here, we dipped buckets over the side and scrubbed ourselves using sea water before rinsing it off with fresh water from a solar shower that had been heating up all day. You'd think we'd all forgotten what a shower was by the way we all stared at the first couple of people who had one! Someone even wanted to take some photos but that idea was quickly voted down!
We had a couple of days earlier in the week where not a lot happened - so instead of writing about those days I will talk a little about food. As you know (and I believe I discussed before), we run a watch system where one person each day becomes the "mother". That person has to clean and cook for the entire day. It quickly became apparent that not only was this trip going to be a great sailing experience, but also a great eating experience - the mother's job description soon transformed from cooking one big meal a day, with everyone getting their own breakfast, to that of a full time chef providing breakfast, elevenses, a late lunch (the big meal of the day), and something else for supper. Throw in a sackful of tea and coffee and the cooking role takes up most of the day! And never let it be said that quantity < quality - the food has been absolutely fantastic. Case in point - Dan is mother today, and has so far served us Weetabix and Cornflakes for breakfast (ok, so he didn't technically make that, but he did arrange it all in bowls and add sugar); bacon, lettuce and tomato rolls at 11; a stew of sorts - which Dan describes as "the cuisine of what is left in the cupboards", which was delicious, and to follow all that he served bananas with condensed milk and figs. I have it on good authority that he will be adding pizza to that list later. I think its safe to assume that nobody will be losing weight on this trip.
So, we leave you once again, but this time with a promise to write again tomorrow to keep you updated with our adventure. |
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Wed 9 Dec
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The crew had forgotten how to write by this time or were suffering from land sickness !! They did however compose the Ode to Pheobe B.
NOTE: Phoebe B completed the ARC on 9th December 2009 at 7:30PM St Lucia time.
There was much partying and drinking of Run punch in St Lucia, with everyone having had an experience of a life time crossing the the Atlantic.
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Phoebe B left St Lucia about a week later and is operating on Charter in the Caribbean, her return Atlantic Crossing is in May from Antigua, and if you are in Greece after June this year you may see her in Greece. |
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