Voahangy - Day 15 - Finally there!

It's been a frustrating last day: after 7 days of steady winds, our down hill run came to a halt when the breeze literally stopped. It actually started yesterday, and all the talk on the net revolved around who was going to be the first to turn the engine on approaching St Lucia. We finally admitted defeat today, when boat speed fell under 5 knots. It's not for lack of trying, we must have made 5 sail changes today, trying to catch whatever little breeze there was: gennaker up, main sail up, jibe this way, that way, we were heading towards Porto Rico at some point...then had enough, and decided to motor sail so we could at least get to St Lucia today. Under ARC rules, there is a penalty for motoring, though we won't know the extent of it. read more...

Voahangy - Day 15 - Un dernier poisson!

La journee a commence par la disparition soudaine des alizes: une minute nous avions 18-20 noeuds de vent, puis une chute brutale a 10-12 noeuds qui a continue dans l'apres midi. Bien sur nous ne sommes pas les seuls dans ce cas la, et le sujet de conversation sur le net radio aujourd'hui etait de savoir quel bateau serait le premier a demarrer les moteurs a l'approche de St Lucie. Nous sommes une vingtaine actuellement a environ 190nm de l'arrivee, et il n'y a rien de plus frustrant, apres des jours entiers a bonne allure, que d'etre stoppe si pres du but! L'usage du moteur est permis, dans les regles de l'ARC, mais une penalite est infligee. Nous avons bien essaye faire la traversee le plus possible a la voile, mais nous avons enfin. read more...

Voahangy - Day 14 - Countdown to landfall and Christmas

Another 2 days to go, 369nm between us and St Lucia. From today's position report, Terry has worked out that we have about 20 boats within 50nnm of us, so in theory we should all arrive on the same day even though we haven't seen each other since the start of the race! For some reason we all feel tired and fed up with the crossing today. It's not that it has been a bad one, on the contrary: we've suffered only minor damage, had very nice weather, no storms (so far!), no one has been sick, the meals on board have been terrific, so has the fishing, and we didn't even have school to worry about! No, I put it down to accumulated fatigue due to odd sleeping hours, stress from the past few night watches dealing with squalls ( we were hit with 37kts winds last night!), and increased temperature. read more...

Voahangy - Day 13 - High speed and night watches

What a ride! With tradewinds increasing in strength, so has the boat speed reaching 15kt a couple of times, when picked up by waves. The four of us stood in awe, Terry wishing we'd keep surfing for ever, but as thrilling as it was, I was happy to cruise at 9kts! This seems to be the speed the boat settles in 20-25kts winds. Skipper thinks we should go faster, but I remind him that this baby weighs 32 tons and carries an entire household and hardware store. So far the trip has been very comfortable, and if going slower is the penalty, then we're happy to pay it. I must say that what feels thrilling in broad daylight, is down right scary at night: with virtually no moon during most of the crossing so far, we've had to rely on radar and wind instruments for "vision". As we approach the. read more...

Voahangy - Day 12 - Daily routine on board

With tradewinds conditions still prevailing, we've enjoyed another fine day of sailing downwind. As a matter of fact, we haven't had a sail change for 5 days, fingers crossed this will last for another 3 days until we make a left for the island (the wind is pushing us towards Guadeloupe at the moment, further north than we want!) So what do we do with our time? Skipper has his morning routine of checks for weather, emails, rigging, sails and other equipment; while I do a rough inspection inside making sure fridges are still cold, toilet valves have not been left open (very messy when it happens!), provisions are still good, cooking, etc...Then the rest of the day is spent reading, fishing, cooking, eating and drinking. The kids have grown tired of watching DVDs non stop the first week,. read more...