Alchemy of London - Alchemy- Mid point Blog

At around 1300 miles to run to St Lucia, we thought that we would post a few notes on our experience so far. The final week in Gran Canaria was  very hectic notwithstanding months of preparation.  We only managed to get the  Raymarine autohelm and plotter certified as fit for use in the last 24 hours and to get a handle on the satellite mail system in the last two hours. The boat was loaded with more groceries than the average SPAR and more wine than Odd Bins. At least we would  not starve to death in the event of the helm getting us stuck in circles in  the centre of the Atlantic.  Stuart and Bernard painted  a striking entry  for the competition of best boat mural on the marina wall ( a  red snake coiled around a  black cross- the old alchemist symbol)  and we expect to hear that we. read more...

Alchemy of London - A 1000 miles to go

It is extraordinary that , no matter how many times you see it, the night sky is a constant surpise and revelation as the mast top weaves circles above us. We are fortunate to have voyaged for so long under a full moon which sometimes seems so brilliiant but artificial that you expect to see the cast of the  Mikado  singing on the foredeck. We have seen comets ( or possibly the flash of passing satellites) frequently and  there has been much discussion  about the identity of the stars; suffice it to say that we have identified more ploughs than you will see at the Royal Agricultural Show. And inevitably we made the beginners mistake of rushing to the radar to get a fix on a  brightly lit vessel that suddenly appeared on the horizon........ We were all dreading the so called "death roll" . read more...

Alchemy of London - Alchemy at 500 miles

"A gust becomes a squall if it lasts longer than a minute and involves a windspeed at least 16 knots higher than the mean, and exceeds 22 knots. It is obviously a significant event  and potentially dangerous."  A squall becomes a storm  if it lasts for 4 hours, reaches wind speeds from all directions gusting 35 knots  and pours torrential rain  at regular intervals.  - If  in addition it frightens the bejaysus out of the crew, it is technically called a "hooley". We had one a few days after our last blog. The sky darkened all around,  the horizon closed in and then disappeared.. Close - to visibility fell to tens of metres, the sails began to flap wildly and water fell  in egg size droplets all around. Fortunately we shortened sail even further after the first impact, running eventually. read more...

Alchemy of London - Alchemy Arrival in St Lucia

We saw land at 4 oclock on Friday December when St Lucia was still 32 miles ahead.What excitement! Enough justification to break out  the remaining fruit cake, although the word "cake" is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, it has fruit and flour but more to the point,  it contains enough alcohol to subvert an entire convention  of Alcoholics Anonymous.  The previous few days had seen  classic  weather, steady wind of around 16 knots apparent and then sharp wind gradients at night which sometimes reached into the mid 30knots of real speed. Lots of sun during the day and big swells of around 4 metres that pass harmlessly under the boat and occasionally thrust it forward at  high speed, touching occasionally 10 knots. We seemed bound up in a time warp in which the constants were the sea, the boat. read more...

Alchemy of London - Alchemy - The end of the Journey

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