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Advalorem
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Saturday 24th November 2007
Arrived Canary Islands just as it was getting dark. 4.5 hours from London. Last night the town council threw a party for all the ARC 2007 participant - over 1000 people. They local shops love it as 250 boats stock up for a month. Very windy and lying on my bunk last night with a full moon looking up at the halyards festooned with pennants and rattling the masts like Tibetan prayer flags, was surreal.
Everyone rushing around with last minute preparation, doing safety checks, cleaning and packing vegetables (which will last for one week maximum). There are a few family boats with young kids, one or two with couples, but most have a crew of 5 or more. Advalorem at 38 foot and a Bavaria class yacht is one of the smaller ones. There are some enormous yachts costing over 2 million a piece.
We are spending Saturday familiarising ourselves with the boat, before heading tomorrow Sunday 25 Nov.Our key way point is Rodney Harbour on St Lucia at a tad under 3000 miles. They are taken in Las Palmas and show a the preparation, washing apples in salt water and packing in paper, sealing boxes and cleaning gear. There is a pic of Philip Roberts on Advalorem. Our race number is 224. Most of the fleet are Brits although there is a mad Irish boat called Fizz from Cork, plenty of Germans, Norwegians and French. |
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Final preparations in Gran Canaria | |
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Sunday 25th November
Final final preparation at the Marina in Gran Canaria. Lots of farewells, fond embraces and children waving good bye.The big ships moved off first, horns hooting as they weighed anchor and cruised out to the start line. Our class of boat started an hour later. The start line was formed by an imaginery line between a Spanish warship and a point on the shore - about 2 miles in length. Advalorem had to wait until an Italian crew moved off the crowded pontoon. When they were regaled for keeping other boats from casting off, they replied in typical Italian fashion that they would not set off until the women folk seeing them off, were persuaded to travel with them to St Lucia.
When we got going, one of our crew members, Jim, played Scotland the Brave on the bagpipes, to the delight of the hundreds of spectators and well wishers who lined the harbour wall to say good bye. Advalorem had a flying start crossing the line about 6th in a field of about 150 boats. Our course heading took us south along the coast of Gran Canaria and into the Atlantic about 200 miles off the coast of West Africa. We were asked to look out for illegal immigrants en route.
The sea state was moderately rough with 15 foot waves and a wind speed of 25mph. The fist night was a long 12 hours. Our crew of 4 worked in pairs, 2 hours on, 2 hours off. We need all our character skills to cope with the first night as we tried to find our sea legs, assailed by sea sickness.. The dawn was welcome and by the end of the first day we had covered 160 miles. |
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Tuesday 27th November
We have been at sea for 3 days now. As I write this, the sun has risen up from the ocean floor, we are under full sail and the trade winds are taking us south at 7 knots. We have been visited by 2 schools of dolphins. They like to swim under and along side the boat for a few minutes. Every so often they will jump clear out of the water. There are several ARC boats in the area, the nearest is about 2 km away and on a parallel course to ours.
At the moment we have chosen to be driven south by NE trade winds. One of the features of the trade winds is blobs of cloud along your route, like puffs of steam from an old steam train. The trick is to set the sail to the conditions and let the boat run. At the moment we are running hard, sails full out, wind on the beam and we are creaming along on the tops of 15 foot rollers. At some point within the next week, we will turn west and head for St Lucia. Presently we are on a heading that will take us past the Cape Verde islands.
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Friday 30th November
Advalorem, her captain Martin Roberts and crew Jim, David and Phil, crossed the 23 degree N latitude last night. The trade winds are inexorably driving us onward and westward to the Caribbean. There are no other boats in sight, no dolphins this time but the occasional lone peterel will wheel and drop into a wave trough.
The highlight of the day has been winning an over the ships radio quiz which netted Advalorem a case of beer (yet to be delivered). The tie breaker question was "what other ingredient to eggs makes up an egg florentine?". The answer is "spinach".
The day however will be remembered for for an Atlantic squall in the middle of the night. It was the abruptness of the squall which took us unawares. Luckily we had taken down the spinnaker at dusk, as the wind was coming from the North and the spinnaker was making no impact. We were cruising along on a broad reach when we were hit by an oblique 30 knot wind . We battled for a full hour to get the boat back and running smoothly again.
Today is St Andrew's Day and once we have recovered a bit and taken some sleep, the celebrations will commence - with pipe music in the quarter deck. Today was a good day for mileage - 142 nautical miles. our second best so far. Will our decision to take the longer southern route help us to avoid the calms of the mid Atlantic that the majority of yachts lying to the north of us are heading towards ? |
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Saturday 1st December
The last 24 hours saw Advalorem cast a spinnaker halyard (again) in full flight - and celebrate St Andrews night in fine style. Luckily with some nifty foot work across the open deck, we retrieved the spinnaker and secured it before it wrapped itself around the boat. Another mast climb awaits.
The programme of events for St Andrews day commenced at 4pm when the neaps and carrots were prepared and 2 Mc Sween haggis, flown in from Scotland, were wrapped in tin foil and put on a long simmer. The pipe music started with Cock o'the North. At 1730 exactly the haggis were piped aboard by Jim, grace was said and drams were taken all round. After dinner Phil read the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens and there was much laughter before we set to our night duties. |
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Sunday 2nd December
Advalorem has been driven forward by a 20 knot wind, with rolling Atlantic waves about 12 foot high, capped in white foam.There are occasional shoals of small flying fish - each about 6 inches long. The highlight of the past 24 hours was a flying fish landing on Philips lap. We started fishing with a long line and hooked a nice dorado, brought it to within 2 foot of the frying pan but failed to land it.
Our next attempt at fishing was even less successful as we snagged the towed generator which took about an hour to untangle. Dinner last night was pasta and a tomato sauce followd by the last of the fresh fruit. Jim opened the first window of the advent calendar and got a tiny block of Turkish delight, whIch he gallantly shared amonst the crew.
During the night we changed tack (not that easy with so many nefarious ropes and rolling sea). We are on a heading of 264 degrees on a single jib. We covered 153 nautical miles and we have 1780 miles to run.. We have been at sea for a week, have covered over 1000 miles and beards are maturing The air temperature is 25degrees. The sea temperature is 27 degrees and theres not a boat in sight. |
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Team Peak Leaders on Advalorem
(From L-R; Jim Reeves, Philip Roberts, Martin Roberts, David Hughes) |
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Monday 3rd December
Yesterday was a great sailing day. We rolled along at 6.5 knots driven by a pleasant warm breeze. One of the bigger boats in the rally, Gigi, picked up 2 people who had abandoned their yacht, Barbary Duck. The reason given was that the chain plates had cracked and there was a possibility of the mast falling down.The abandoned boat was a 36 foot Westerly Corsair - the same class of boat that Jim owns and sails out of Lymington.The thought did cross our minds that we should keep an eye out for the abandoned boat!
The lightest member of the crew went up the mast again to retrieve the spinnaker halyard that had unshackled a couple of days ago. The admiral was keen to get another knot out of his boat. Heaven forbid that another Bavaria might beat us to St Lucia. The crew's advice was that the sea was too rough and the boat was rolling too much for going up the mast. With cries like "are ye a man or a moose" , admiral had his way and the job was done (gets easier the more times you do it).
Lunch today is going to be the flying fish that presented themselves for free as an offering from the mighty sea. Unlike some of the other boats who have caught whoppers, we have not fished much for fear of snagging our towed generator impellor (great excuse for not catching anything). The next big milestone will be the half way point which we hope to make by Wednesday night.
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Tuesday 4th December
The highlight of the past 24 hours was the fish that got away. We hooked a big one, hauled it to within 30 yards of the boat, before it broke our 100lb breaking strain line. So far on this trip it has been a fisherman's story of the ones that got away. We lunched off flying fish (food for free), delicious with chorizo and served with small green peppers cooked in olive oil and the last of our fresh tomatoes.We had to explain to Admiral the difference between olive oil and vegetable oil! Dinner was pasta and a sauce of tinned tomatoes, red peppers , peas spiced with a bit of botarga (dried powdered tuna fish from Sicily) followed by yoghurt.
Just after sunrise we flew the spinnaker and made another 1.5 knots boat speed. A pair of tropic birds, with long swallow like tails circled the boat once before heading off again on their journey across the ocean.During the night we saw the light of a lone boat. Was it the Barbary Duck?
We are on a course now of 267 degrees which should take us direct to St Lucia.
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Wednesday 5th December 2007
If you can emerge at the end of a long 12 hour night with the sails as you set them at dusk and the course and speed maintained, thats good. We have been doing 1.5 hours on watch, 4.5 hours off - worked well for our crew.We wear a waterproof jacket and life vest and clip our harness to fast points on the boat. There is a bottle of water to drink and an ample supply of ships biscuits to keep you going. On the lonely night watch with everyone else in their beds, you are looking out for other boats and for that tell tale change in the motion of your boat or flapping of the sails that indicate a change of wind direction or speed.
And so it was last night as we emerged into the quiet grey dawn with crescent moon and morning star -a great night sail. Yesterday we fished
2 long hand lines with no success. We had olives, nuts and a drink for starters followed by spaghetti with tomatoe sauce for dinner. At long last we started slicing up the cured leg of pig that has hung gotesquely in the galley, trotter, toe nails and all.Cooked as bacon with eggs, you cant beat it.
Admiral repaired the torn spinnaker last night and got excited in the we small hours as we crossed the half way point - not that you could see anything except a dot on a chart.We had our radar switched on last night looking out for the abandoned Barboury Duck. We made our best time yesterday - over 160nm. The water tempertaure was 29.9degrees centigrade and the air temperature was 25 degrees.A lone tern circled the boat at dawn followed by a small dark bird with a white back that contoured the waves.
The highlight of the day was a 30 foot elegant dark blue and white whale that swam under our boat and played with us for about half and hour. We think it was a minke. |
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Thursday 6th December
A day of 2 extremes, with Phil spotting a whale early on...An elegant 25 foot minke tagged us the whole day, swimming across us, underneath and along side. We watched the leviathan with amazement. She had a long graceful swimming action, rolling over as she pased by the boat to look at us. Several times she completely cleared the surface of the sea in a gymnastic broach -once only 30 metres away.Having the minke with us all day curtailed the fishing as the last thing we wanted was to snag this magnificent creature.
Phil cooked dinner and produced a dish of rice and exotic sauce. We celebrated the halfway point with a delicious fruit cake baked for us by Emmy Hettena and carefully stowed away on Advalorem. There was a lovely alcoholic and fruit whiff from the cake and we sat on deck, ate thick wedges of this fine cake and drank strong coffee.
Contrast this sort of sailing with a following night of mid Atlantic squalls. We had winds gusting over 30 knots all night and a boat speed once of 13.7 knots - a record for Advalorem.The main sail had 2 reefs and the jib was furled past the 2 reef point and with the wind on our quarter deck, we screamed along. On one of those sailing apocalyptic moments, as the boat heeled well over and the crashing foam and wind were roaring, a bolt of the brightest lightning lit up the sea and cloud immediately round us. Dawn was welcome, and as I write, Admiral is baking bread and Phil has retired to his cabin to catch up on sleep.
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Friday 7th December
The past 24 hours have been all about weather - forecasts that did not get it quite right, squalls all day and a storm all night. It started raining yesterday at 11 am BST and tipped it down until 6pm. We had been running on 2 reefs in the main sail and 2 in the jib. At nightfall we lowered the main and ran up a storm jib. Winds were gusting to 47mph and were constantly over 25mph all night. It was very bumpy and one of the crew was sea sick again. For dinner, we had cuppa soup and brown bread that Admiral had baked. All in all yesterday was not the best part of the crossing.
As a battleship grey dawn broke, winds were still over 30mph. Apparently unfussed by the weather 3 different lone birds were spotted , a storm peterel, possibly a frigate peterel and a small egret (probably blown off course).
During the night a huge wave washed one of our life belts overboard. We did not notice it missing for a moment or two and wondered where this large ship on our stern suddenly appeared from and seemed to be bearing down on us. Such are the tricks of a stormy night. We made 160 knots yesterday and have under a 1000 miles to run. |
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Saturday 8th December
The last 24 hours were dominated by squalls and terrible weather. We have not sailed under a full set for nearly a week. At the moment we are rolling along from side to side, main sail is in the bag and we have 2 reefs in the jib. It has been raining most of the night, clothing is damp, bedding smells like the dog has been lying on it and nothing is drying out. Phil, ever the stoic has suffered terribly from sea sickness and is back on the patches, on doc's orders. Phil manages to perform his ships duties with a smile - all credit to him when right now we all want to get off the bus.
Admiral has made precious little headway reading his book "The Commander of the ocean" by NAM Rodger. Likewise Jim's "Middlemarch" remains largely unread. You just dont feel like reading when the conditions are so rough. We are on the mid Atlantic Ridge with 850 miles to St Lucia. Nav text has kicked in and the time difference is minus 3 hours. We continue to make an effort with the cooking. Jim rustled up a lovely chicken curry out of a tin last night. Phil fed the fish with his portion. We are all looking forward to seeing the sun today. |
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Sunday 9th December
As I staggered out of the wash room, this apparition looked back at me from the mirror - a face with 2 weeks of grey stubble and eyes like "piss holes" in the snow. Admiral said he had never seen rain like it - anywhere, ever. Phil said "this must be what prison is like". Jim, ever the reticent Englishman, had been heard "chuntering" more than once.
They talked of attrition on the radio and surviving the night. Our friendly net controller on Gortha 4 would give the weather forecast and then collect lat and longs of boats in our group, recording any engine hours spent. This goes on most of the daylight hours as group after group report in. There is news and chat on the air. A catamaran in our area (not arc) was sinking and had put out a Mayday call. The crew were rescued by 2 arc boats.Someone reported a rudder that was delaminating. A person had been knocked unconscious during the night by a crossing boom and was to be evacuated by a cruise ship. Several life belts were lost. Many reported damage. Last night for the second successive night we did not cook.My oilskins leaked like a sieve.
As Sunday morning dawned there was hope of a drying day. Morale took a turn for the good as we broke the 700 miles to run target.
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Monday 10th December
Yesterday was drying day. An opportunity to dry clothing, bedding, carpets and seats after the torrential rain of the last few days. In the afternoon we flew the spinnaker. Admiral baked bread that turned out a treat. We ate the bread with a pate that looked and tasted like kitty kat. That was dinner. For lunch we has coleslaw,oatcakes, cheese and slices of coarse ham carved off a leg of cured pork that has been ever present with us in the cabin. We have half a cabbage,6 onions, garlic and a few oranges. Otherwise our fresh is gone. We have masses of tins of meat balls and the like.
Phil had a shower out of the bag and scrubbed up, looked very human again. We passed close to a large ship during the night. From a pin prick on the horizon, within 25 minutes, she passed us, about a mile away. Inspiring night sky with lots of shooting stars.Spent the night under full sail, creaming along at 7 knots. Admiral crawled along the deck in the middle of the night to adjust things and to get a bit more speed out of the boat.
For the record since Admiral bought ADVALOREM in April 2003, she has clocked up 15,000 sailing miles with 1085 engine hours. Heres to many more great sailing days on ADVALOREM |
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Tuesday 11th December
Yesterday was a day for getting over the storms and for forgetting what the weather fuss and the 3 abandoned ships were all about. The first hot day we have had so far and we tried various sail combinations to maximise the sometimes fickle trade winds. Today was marked by rolling 10 foot high waves and the odd squall.
The day was one of fine dining having lived off bread marg and kitty kat (sorry Admirals prime pate). At 1830 just after a fierce short squall we met on the quarter deck for pre dinner drinks, olives and nuts. Dinner followed. The menu was Hors d'oeuvre - sardine, corn and cucumber. Soup cochon was ham and lentil. Main was risotto Atlantique (rice onions and chorizo). Dessert was cherries in French Brandy followed by a cheese board. The ships wine was Chateau de Montalba Cotes du Roussillon 2004.
Music was to the sea theme "England expects" played by the Scottish National Orchestra. During the night we passed a 3 mast cruiser that looked like a pirate ship. The other thing to report is that squall dodger (Phil) did it again and had no rain on his night watches. Just over 300 miles to run. Caribbean music on the radio. "O my island in the sun", Magic. |
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| Wednesday 12th December
This blog is being written by torch light at 6am BST in the open quarter deck of ADVALOREM about 250 miles from St Lucia. It is pitch black all round, no moon and a little light from the stars. The mast light is on. We have a reefed main and a well reefed jib. Nevertheless we are making 7 to 8 knots with a following wind of 23 mph gusting 35.
For those of you like me, without much night sailing experience, I will try to give you an idea what it is like. The wind is strong and noisy but warm on the face, the boat is rolling steeply from side to side, the sea is foaming white all round, with 10 foot waves and every so often the towed generator lifts clear of the water and makes a murmuring sound. A rogue wave will periodically crash into the boat creating havoc and washing anything loose overboard. Because it is night time the senses are quickened. Every so often the boat will skew from side to side,will shake violently and the sail will make a whipping noise.
A preventor rope to stop the boom coming over, is essential in these conditions. You are checking the sails by torch light to see they have not become stuck behind the mast stays. We are on automatic steering which takes a lot of the pressure off the person on watch. From time to time there will be a squall and the wind will gust, the boat will heel over and the foam will roar out underneath her. When the wind momentarily changes direction and tries to force the boom over, you have to follow the wind and quickly change course. At the same time you are constantly checking the boat is not too stressed and you are looking out for squalls.
It is exhilarating sailing but one and a half hours on watch under these conditions, is plenty. Yesterday at a calmer moment in daylight a catamaran crossed our course at about 100m. She was an ARC 07 boat out of Australia crewed by a Japanese crew. We chatted on the VHF radio and wished them well
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| Thursday 13th December
With 30 miles to go to St Lucia, but still not in sight in the morning haze, we roll along under reefed genoa and a 22 knot following wind. Beards are coming off, the shower is in constant use, and we are trying to work out the local time difference of four hours. We had a suprise visitor last dusk when a black bird with very pointed beak and web feet landed on the fore deck, At dawn, he took off again only to land on our stern and climb into the space under the helmsman. No comments please about what was between David's legs!!!
We have fed the bird two flying fish found on deck and he/she looks determined to stay on board until we get a bit closer to land. We lost the propellor for our water towed generator yesterday so we have been on power minimise since then, including hand steering all through a stormy night. We saw the loom of Barbados to the south of us but so far no other yachts. As we close the north tip of St Lucia, we do expect to see more ARC yachts. It is amazing what a big ocean this can be at times. We are clearing our decks of ropes etc, and getting ready to hoist curtesy and ARC banners, but not until this rolling ceases in the lee of the island. We hope to be tied and secure before dark.
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| Thursday 13th December
ARRIVED ST LUCIA, We made landfall mid morning and had the most magnificent race to the finishing line. The sea was rolling with 30 foot waves that we would steeply surf down and climb back up, a strong wind on your face and glorious sunshine.Three boats were converging on the finish and a race to the line was on. The Admiral was wearing a Peak Leaders vest and a determined look in the eye. Phil was on the helm.
ADVALOREM was heeled well over and we went for it, passing between 2 sailing cruisers anchored in the bay. The paparazzi were out there in high speed motor boats, snapping pictures left and right and generously waving to us. We crossed the line 18 days and 4 hours after we left Gran Canaria. The hooter sounded and we had made it (about a week after the first of the big boats had arrived, but at the front of our class). We were boat 144 to arrive out of a fleet of 243.
We were welcomed to St Lucia over the radio. Jim played Scotland the Brave on the pipes as we motored up the channel into the Marina. After a tricky little mooring without much guidance, we were in. A brightly dressed St Lucian girl presented us with a big smile and a basket of fruit that included a champagne bottle filled with Heineken. But the past 24 hours were far from plain sailing. We lost our towed generator propellor. Loss of electrical power meant that we had to hand steer through the final night- no problem except that the weather was foul, the winds were high, it squalled all night and it was very dark.
But that's all water under the bridge now and the sheer delight at having made it, over rides everything else. The Rodney Bay marina is stuffed full of ARC boats and we are enjoying talking to crews, never met before, that we have spoken to, on air. We have been in the harbour for 20 hours now and Jim Reeves is already looking out to sea. The arrival paperwork was lengthy and we were exhausted by the end. We are now flat out making good all the minor repairs and replacing broken and worn equipment and ropes. Cleaning behind the cooker is evidence of what did not reach our bowls! At least we have not had to visit the fuel berth.
The girls arrive today from London - Hanne and Tighe. No doubt we will party and sight see an island with family connections to the Admiral. The crew are going to the Methodist chapel in Castries on Sunday to give thanks to our Maker and to visit the little Methodist church that Phil's great grandfather used to attend at the turn of the last century. However that's a story that will have to wait until the next time you meet the Admiral over a glass of port in the Little ships club. Pictures will be posted next week. And the Admiral's adventures on sailing trips in the Caribbean and beyond will continue to be posted on this site. So keep looking.
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