December 8 - Our New Bath Tub, by Wendy

Our New Bath Tub

Foul weather gear sway back and forth like ghosts on the small laundry line in our bathroom (the head). Wet towels lie in a small heap on the floor. Our sheets and our mattress cover are in a mini mountain in the corner of our cabin. I admit to myself that I’ve lost control of the towel/clothing situation. I think, I don’t care! It doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things.

Yesterday’s theme was rain. Today’s theme is also rain. Our boat is moving through a seemingly endless cloud front that shows up on the radar as red-dominated gain. It’s my watch, the time is 6am and I’m trying not to think about the fact that it’s really 3am according to the time zone we’re in. To keep things simple, we are keeping to “ARC Time”.

I fix a cup of Earl Grey, check the radar, not wanting to step outside into the on-going downpour. Glancing toward the sliding door that opens onto two steps that lead up into the cockpit, I see what looks like a mini bathtub filled with water. Water dances gaily against the glass door. I stand there and ponder different methods of handling the situation, knowing that the bottom line is this: the sliding door must be opened in order to bale out the water, and the drain plugs need to be cleared. It must be done. Actually, it must be done soon, before the situation deteriorates. The water is now 6” deep. It could go the 12” deep in a short time.

With my favorite bright red bucket standing by and a rectangular-shaped plastic container held against the bottom to the door, I carefully slide the door open 2”. Water gushes into and outside the container, and I slam the door shut. Water goes everywhere….all over the galley floor.

I’m now on my knees with a large “boat” sponge sopping up as much water from the galley floor as possible. Then I continue opening and closing the door, letting water flow into the container. Soon the water is low enough to scoop up the water, and I fill three buckets with clean, clear water. I realize that this could be an asset so I fill four 6 liter containers with rain water then rinse last night’s dishes.

By now I have no desire to unplug the drains. I contemplate having a mini bath. Instead I fill the sink with 2 buckets of water and I take a leisurely sponge bath and wash my hair. This is fun, I think to myself. I’m actually enjoying this!

Three hours later, I have emptied at least 20 buckets of water into something. The rain is becoming a whisper of a drizzle. Teresa, our crew and next on watch, wakes up and staggers up the steps to witness the Wild Woman of the galley. I am in a bikini, wet from head to toe, and I have startled flying fish eyes. She is quite impressed that I have used the rain as a resource and rushes back to her cabin to get her laundry.

Meanwhile, I go to bed.

Wendy King Fredell, crew on Worldwide Traveler

Dec. 8, 2007 NARC Spam Sunk

NARC Spam Sunk

It was a dark and squally night. Many times the wind swung 360 degrees around the boat, combining with the 15 foot waves to throw the boat about. You could hear the autopilot straining to keep our heading. The highest wind gust was 40 knots, our top boat speed hitting 20 knots. The crew couldn’t sleep, except me, and so all hands were already on deck when Lee the Captain called to triple reef the main and headsail. We had out nothing more than a white lace hanky.

For days now we had managed to stay just ahead of a storm front to the East of us and dodge the worst weather, but not tonight. We got many email reports of boats knocked down, crew members seriously injured and transported by cruise ships to the Caribbean, broken booms, rigging failures etc… Another 10 minutes later it was over and the wind died. Then we started the engine and were under power.

At dawn I arose to find the First Mate Wendy in her bathing suit soaking wet, cleaning up water that had been coming in under the door. The rain drains in the cockpit were blocked, so she took the opportunity to save the rainwater in jugs for cleaning purposes later. As soon as her watch was up she retired to bed to try and catch up on sleep. It had not been a restful night with the boat careening around at high speeds.

I had been on watch only an hour or so and was settling in to start a new book, when Sebastian came up. We spoke quietly about the rainy weather so as not to waken Wendy and Lee when all of a sudden the VHF started screaming “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” The mayday call gave us the position of a boat that had been dismasted and was sinking and was being relayed by one of the ARC boats, Blue Destiny. The position of the sinking boat was 40 miles north of us and 55 miles north of Blue Destine. The name of the sinking boat was Spam and they were not a part of the ARC, which would make them Not ARC or NARC.

Lee sprinted up the companion way when he heard the Mayday. We waited only moments to see if anyone else would respond then we donned life jackets and foulies and sprang into action turning our boat around to the north, and setting sail as fast as we could to the rescue. I, the designated communications officer, let Blue Destiny know we were altering our course.

It took our seasoned crew, only minutes set sail north, as the wind had picked with the rising sun. However we received word from another ARC boat, Regina, that they were within only a few miles and another ARC boat, Navillus had Spam within sight. Soon we were apprised by Regina that the 3 crew members of Spam were rescued by Navillus and all were on their way to St Lucia while watching the hapless Spam sink. ARC Control instructed us to resume our heading for St Lucia.

We later found out that Spam was possibly a home built older plywood catamaran called a Prout Qwest 31. Not only was it dismasted it was holed and so was the life raft the crew jumped into. We are anxious to get to St Lucia and meet up with the crews of Regina and Navillus and get the rest of the story.

Our guess is that many people who can’t afford the entry fee of ARC, plus all of the extra costs of having their required safety equipment, choose to cross at the same time and get the benefit of safety in numbers. Had it not been for ARC it is highly unlikely that this crew would have been plucked from the ocean so quickly.

By Teresa Bright, crew

Oregon

Dec 6, 2007 Systems update

Dec 4 was one of our nicest days. The wind was down a bit, the sun was out, and the seas had large evenly spaced approximately 15 foot swells that were coming out of the south and, oddly enough, out of the north as well. The swells from the south were smaller and probably more wind driven where the others were long high and from as far away as the north Atlantic.

Dec 5 the wind had picked up some but it was still a nice day. We enjoyed an afternoon of downloading pictures from everybody’s camera into Lee’s computer. Just before dinner we were hailed on the VHF by a boat that we could see to the south. He turned out to be quite a nice chatty humorous Englishman on a 50 foot monohull. We exchanged pleasantries, talked about our crews, fish caught or not, and their main excitement which had been that they had been knocked down last week. He explained that they were in heavy seas and wind, and that a large gust had caught them just right as they were running down a swell and the boat turned over enough that their mast touched the water. No injuries, and no equipment failure.

Today the wind has built and is currently a fairly steady 25 knots bringing with it larger swells yet. We are double reefed on both the main and jib and are maintaining a boat speed of between 7 and 9 knots and as high as 14 knots depending on when we catch and surf the swells. The boat is lurching and swinging wildly at times as I type this.

We just received an email update from ARC that the area just behind us to the east has concentrated thunderstorms and wind gusts of up to 50 knots. Luckily for us, we are just barely ahead of it and will mainly only feel the effects of larger seas coming at us from behind from that area. That will not be the case for a large portion of the 250 yachts in the ARC fleet. We try to plot our positions in relation to the rest of the fleet almost daily, and calculate that we are in the top 60 or so fastest boats. During most of the trip it seems that when either there have been rain squalls, thunderstorms or no wind we have always just missed the worst of it.

Last night after dinner we had experienced a slight problem, in that the batteries had run too low, and computers and radar etc were shutting down. The Volt meter registered under 9. We all scrambled around turning off everything imaginable that was drawing electricity including the inverter and refrigerator and then started both engines in order to build the batteries back up. It was actually a good wake up call to us that we needed to be even more vigilant about electricity usage and keeping the battery up to a higher level at all times. The generator had pooped out on day 2 with Lee and Sebastian working on it the next day and then again 2 days later. It appeared that the main problem might be dirty fuel clogging the fuel filter but there might be other issues as well. Since then we have run one engine or the other to charge the batteries but the alternators on the engines do not have the capacity to deeply charge the house batteries. The photovoltaic cells on the back of the boat help as well during the day. Thankfully the batteries were new 6 months ago.

Last night we implemented a new plan to run an engine when the volts got down to 11.6 and turn off the refer during that time. When the engine wasn’t running we turned off the refer to save usage. Also, we turned off the radar and navigation computer and did visual checks only for boats in the area every 10 minutes instead of every 15 minutes.

This morning Lee and Sebastian took apart the generator again, and after 4 hours we had success. The generator started, and has now been running for 2 hours. Woo Hoo. Dirty fuel was the problem, and of course may come back to haunt us. We still have a half tank of diesel but only 957 miles to go or maybe 6 days. My opinion is that when my Leatherman was used to make a vital repair to trim a fuel line that I had brought a little Oregon luck with me;) Actually Lee and Sebastian have my respect for putting in so much time in a very uncomfortable environment to make these repairs. (The smell of diesel fuel is the worst!)

It is possible that some people at home were concerned about me when they heard that we were having issues with the gen, sat phone, water etc. However, these things have really been a blessing in disguise. The boat is sound and not having unlimited water and phone and email and electricity is only a nuisance or inconvenience but never a safety issue. By having limited water, we have been forced to think about ways to conserve. We wash dishes with sea water. We think twice before ever turning on the faucet and usually turn it on slowly and for only a short period so as not to waste a drop. We have been forced think of new ways to cook and clean etc. Bathing daily and washing hair is not our highest priority.

We are very conscious now of how many luxuries we live with and take for granted. I suspect that we will all take these lessons home with us. Also, when it comes to sailing many mariners over the centuries have crossed oceans with much less than us. The boat that we talked with yesterday did not have a generator or autopilot. They have had to steer by hand the whole way. Thankfully our autopilot is working perfectly and we can adjust the steering from within the cabin.

Having the time of my life,

Teresa Bright, crew

Oregon

Flying frying fish, Dec 4.

A Fish Tries to Fry Itself, Too Late For the Main Course Dec. 4

The dinner dishes are done. One well-scrubbed medium stainless steel frying pan lies on the clean counter. Lee, our captain, and Sebastian, our crew from Sweden, are in the cockpit emptying the dishwater bucket and pondering over what they should have for dessert. As I move toward the pan to stow it into a cabinet in the galley, a large flying/frying fish comes in through the small hatch and lands in the pan, bug-eyed and flapping like any fish in the same situation.

Lee and Sebastian want to fry it up immediately. Just as it is. A little olive oil, a little salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon. I want to spare it’s life, feeling compassion for this strange, quirky Suicide Bomber Fish. The men finally give in and Sebastian carries it, flapping madly, in the pan to the rear of the boat where he will toss it overboard. At this point, the fish heaves itself deep into the line bin obviously thinking this is a better end than a frying pan, plainly not understanding that it’s life is about to be spared. At last the fish is found, still alive, still flailing about, and Sebastian returns it to the deep navy blue sea.

Wendy King Fredell, first mate, World Wide Traveler

musings Dec. 4, 2007

Dec. 4, 2007 Day 9

I was up early, before sunrise, and joined Wendy on her watch. Our watches are still set to GMT or Greenwich Time even though we have moved through at least 2 time zones, which means that we really should be setting our watches back. Due to reporting to the ARC and time being somewhat relative we have agreed to leave our watches set to the equivalent of London time. This means that according to our watch the sun is now coming up at 8:30 am.

The watches are set up so that during the day each of us is on for 4 hours, and at night 3 hours each. The first few days we had the watches set up to be 3 hours each 24 hours a day but that meant that we all had the same watches so 2 people were stuck with the 2 worst night watches. Changing the watches to 4 hours during the day helped to rotate everybody through each of the watch times.

My favorite time of the day has become the early morning hours and the early watch. Watching the sunrise, enjoying time alone, watching the sea, and contemplating my navel. This morning winds are lighter, the sea calmer, clouds to the east covering the sun, but clear above us. Our boat speed is between 5 and 6 knots which seems slow to us, but which would be very respectable on many monohulls. We had a lot of rain last night and some light winds so that we had to motor a bit. Mostly it is warm enough that we have not needed jackets or blankets since the first few days. Yesterday was downright muggy.

When we left the Canaries, after a few days we had lost reception on the satellite phone but yesterday it came back and it was such a pleasure to receive and send emails. Being out of touch was an odd feeling. Also, yesterday we calculated that we are now halfway across this vast ocean.

One of the emails we received from ARC Control was a warning that there was an uninhabited boat drifting at sea and it was in our path. We may never ever see it, however, that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t still run into it if we are not watching. This is somewhat unnerving on the night watch. In its posted position from last night we calculated that it is 2 days ahead of us but what with wind and current, who knows where it might be tonight. There are a lot boats out here in the ARC so we might hear more about it. Now that we have had a close call with a freighter none of us is taking it for granted that we wouldn’t see it.

Yesterday, Lee got out his sextant and gave us all a lesson is celestial navigation. That was fun. It is such a complex set of equations that I do not expect to learn it much less retain it, since it is not something I will be able to practice at home, but I have always wanted to know what it is like to take a noon sight with a sextant.

More later.

update from Dec 3

We had not had good Globalstar satellite phone reception for several days now, but last night we had one quick chance to get on and receive and send emails.

The ARC control center sends updates daily on positions of the whole fleet and weather reports. They also send out updates on boats with troubles.

Two yachts are still in Gran Canaria for repairs. One got a line caught in his prop the first day. One had a repair made on a critical line or halyard. The splice was not done properly and they had to return to Gran Canaria.

On Nov 29 one of the 60 foot yachts in the racing class was flying its spinnaker, when it encountered a large gust of wind and the boat broached. Broaching is when the boat is pulled so far over by the wind against the sail that the mast may actually touch the water and boat is nearly turned over. A sail boat will nearly always right itself from a broach. When this happened one of the crew members was burned by boiling water in the galley. ARC control was called and the medical team advised of how to care for the burns and recommended that he be evacuated to a cleaner environment. The next morning a merchant ship bound for Las Palmas picked him up.

On Nov 30 one yacht started taking on water from 2 keel boats and is now changing course for Cape Verdes.

On Dec 1 a yacht not in the ARC sent out a mayday. They had lost engine power and the chain plates holding up the mast were broken so they had abandoned ship. One of the ARC yachts heard the mayday call and picked them up. The boat is still out there sailing, but abandoned. It is a bit of a curiosity for me as to why they chose to abandon ship. A standard mariners rule is to always stay with the boat as it will be the safest place to be, until it is actually sinking.

During the briefings held by the ARC, the Captains were advised to be on the look out for boat people. It is quite common for Africans trying to escape their country to put too many people on a boat and head for the Canaries seeking asylum. The ARC recommended that if any one of us saw one of these boats to report it to the authorities, and stay at the site but well away from the boat until the authorities had arrived. The short mail from ARC indicated that 2 ARC yachts saw one these boats and stayed at sight. One of the ARC yachts was actually boarded by 2 immigrants who they then had to control. The next morning the Spanish Navy arrived and took away all of the immigrants. The ARC yachts are back on their way to St Lucia.

So, we are thankful that so far our trip has not been nearly that eventful. The last few days have seen mostly winds at about an average of 17 knots and seas with 6-8 foot swells. Our average boat speed is maybe around 6-8 knots. We are averaging between 150 and 170 miles a day and now are halfway across this ocean.

Last night we had a small dorado for dinner that we caught the night before.

Other than that we are all fine and looking forward to landing somewhere around Dec 12^th.

That is all for now.

Life at sea. Dec. 1

Dec. 1, 2007 04:45

I had just retired to bed after my watch and reading for a few minutes when came in and asked for all hands on deck. The spinnaker had blown! There was a large wind gust of up to 30 knots and it was too much for the 10 year old spinnaker. It started a rip somewhere in the worn fabric and then ripped the length of it vertically and a large part of it was dragging in the water under the boat, between the 2 amas. When all four of us were up and had on our foul weather gear due to the rain, and our life jackets, we clipped into the jack lines and moved to the front of the boat and started pulling the sail out of the water. It took a few minutes to get it up and a few more to untangle lines and finally we stuffed the wet mess into the bag and dragged it into the cockpit. Next we pulled in the jib, and raised the main with a double reef. This was a trickier move, as we had to turn the boat into the wind which meant the boat began bucking and lurching wildly. Wendy and I went forward and then up onto the roof of the salon area to pull at the lazy jacks so the main wouldn’t tangle in them and held on for dear life. Once that was accomplished we let out the jib again and turned the boat back off the wind and she settled right down again into the usual lurching and swaying. I had small bowl of cereal and went back to bed to sleep at 06:00.

19:00 We caught our first fish, a 4 pound dorado.

Dec 1, 2007 02:00

We have been at sea for 5 days and are one third of the way across. Today for the first time we put up the spinnaker and that helped to change our direction to a more southerly course. We had been traveling close to the lay line on a west to southwest trajectory. Now our goal is to move further south in order to catch the trade winds. We have been making up to 170 miles a day, with an average of closer to 150 miles. I believe that our speed is on average around 7 knots with a top speed of 16 knots. We attained that speed twice. Once on the first day and again earlier this evening while the spinnaker was up. At this moment our boat speed is 9 knots. Each day becomes warmer and the weather gets better.

There a number of problems with systems on the boat. I had been looking forward to the fact that we would have a watermaker, however, it broke last summer for the last time. Water capacity is only 100 gallons, 50 per side. Today is the first time I have had a shower or washed my hair since Saturday evening. Dishes are being washed in salt water and glasses and silverware are rinsed in fresh water.

The freezer had been having problems for quite some time, with several attempts to fix it, most recently in Las Palmas. But, it will not freeze, just get cold. Our food is thawing, some it that was never frozen had to be cooked right away. We have already cooked up all of the chicken, because it was delivered to the boat unfrozen. We threw away the shrimp and fish. Tomorrow we will take out the rest of the food in the freezer and inspect it. Then we will cook or toss whatever is left. It also seems to use a lot of energy and draws our batteries down causing us to need to run the generator more often.

The generator hasn’t been running right for the last two days. Lee changed the fuel filter thinking that it was bad fuel and while he was at it, tightened some belts etc. Today Lee and Sebastian worked on it for 3 hours and have come to the conclusion that it may be the fuel pump. In order to charge the batteries we have been running one of the motors in idle at 1500 RPM’s.

When we left Las Palmas we had good reception on the Globalstar satellite phone, however 2 days ago we lost reception. We weren’t using it for phone calls but were sending out emails. Now we cannot send out emails. On previous passages, including crossing the Atlantic from Bermuda to Europe the phone worked the whole way.

The Single Side Band radio gets reception, so we can tune into the ARC weather and position broadcasts, however we cannot send out a signal. Therefore our only method of communication at the moment is the VHF. Depending on the size of the boat receiving and sending to us, our range may be as far as 35 miles. In order to get our noon position report into the ARC we are having to hail somebody on the VHF to relay our report in to the ARC.

I am thankful to be on such a fast boat. Being a catamaran we are traveling as fast as many of the big monohulls in the racing division. Hopefully we will make landfall in 2 weeks instead of the predicted 3 weeks. Our electronic charts are always calculating the ETA (estimated time of arrival) for us, and usually it is guesstimating at around Dec 9 to Dec 12.