Joy of Shamrock Quay - Day 14

Light winds again for the last coupe of days has slowed progress once again. despite a forecast of 13-18 knots we barely have had 10 and probably averaged 8, only just sailable for us. At least there is not much swell so the sail isn't collapsing quite as much as it has done. Yesterday was quite cloudy and as the evening approached those clouds turned very black so we were on high squall alert.Sure enough, at 10pm I switched on the radar for a quick look and was shocked to find an enormous area ahead showing yellow and red! It took up 3/4 of the radar screen with another smaller one behind. It was showing 6 miles away with a diameter of 16 miles, and within 10 minutes had reduced to 3 miles away, so I woke Jez and Graham to help douse and drop the Big Fella and get the genoa out incase. read more...

Joy of Shamrock Quay - We have wind!

Great news, we have been making excellent progress since 7:30pm last night when the wind returned on a beam reach and we got our sails back out again.A tiring but excellent nights sailing with gusts of up to 16 knots from some very angry black clouds. I had two shifts last night, the first 9 til midnight whilst I tracked two squalls on the radar. Whilst they didn't directly hit us, we had some excellent wind off them and a little rain. Dolphins arrived alongside at 9:30pm but unfortunately helming took a lot of concentration and I couldn't leave the cockpit to watch them, but every few minutes they surfaced next to me as much as to say please come and play!When I woke Jez at midnight for his shift they were still with us, we had travelled over 20 miles at some 8 knots!We pondered on. read more...

Joy of Shamrock Quay - Where are the Trade Winds?

We have had a very frustrating 48 hours with little wind and sails flogging. Graham has taught us how to play poker with Monopoly money (his rules though) and this has kept our minds off the flappy cloth thing dangling limply off the bow. At 3am this morning we took the decision to drop the Big Fella and put the motor on with less than 4 knots of true wind we were bobbing at 1.5 knots for over two hours with no flow over the rudder.This is the kind of decision that Jez and I find very difficult and, I have to say, depressing not only because of our love of sailing but also that we are tight farmers.We tried sailing again this morning when our wind increased from 2 to 6 knots, but that soon dropped again making sailing impossible. Three very unhappy bunnies!!So to cheer us up, we decided. read more...

Joy of Shamrock Quay - Slow progress in light winds

Slow progress overnight with very light winds, we left 'The Big Fella' out to make the most of what little wind we had, around 8-10 knots.Yesterday was a very cloudy squally day, we had rainy angry clouds both sides of us for most of the day and evening.I was on watch from 3 til 6 am, and had a big black cloud go overhead with the prevailing wind so enjoyed 20 minutes of 15-20 knots. The moon was very bright and there were many bright stars to be seen in between the rows of clouds, apart from the brief 9 knots of boat speed during the gust, we were generally achieving 4.5-5 knots on a sea resembling a lake. Not the Atlantic I was expecting!Waking today to sunshine, fair weather cumulus and a very flat sea, my bread is rising in the heat of the day and both fishing rods are out now that. read more...

Joy of Shamrock Quay - Day 5 on the Ocean

GrahamFirstly a big thanks to all our followers, supporters and fans. Apologies for not updating our log sooner.The crew on Joy are now fully into our daily and night time routine. The asymmetric spinnaker has now been up the whole time since our last report less a couple of hours this afternoon. Hand steering is the only option to guarantee best speed and prevent the spinnaker getting wrapped, so one of us is on the helm all the time. Daytime is fine as we are all up and doing odd jobs, cooking, cleaning, reading, trimming sails etc. Night time is more difficult as we each take it in turns, 3 hour watch at a time. The last hour of the 3 hour watch is a real struggle. Loud rave type music is my choice for staying awake, how skip manages to sleep next to the speaker is a mystery. Quality. read more...