Cosmic Dancer V - Time to leave the Caribbean

Day 1: Leaving TortolaAfter 3 days of stifling heat and humidity in the Marina at Nanny Cay it was almost a relief to be throwing off the lines and heading out to the start line for the Atlantic Cup. However, if we had hoped to experience instant relief then we were to be disappointed. The usually reliable easterly trade winds had all but disappeared, leaving us feeling just as hot offshore as it had been in the marina.With just 8 boats on the start line there was none of the tense pre-start jostling that had accompanied our start to the ARC 5 months earlier. The remainder of the fleet very generously held well back from the line, leaving us free to pick our spot and hoist the spinnaker unimpeded on the line. For a full 10 minutes Cosmic Dancer had the joy of leading the fleet down the. read more...

Cosmic Dancer V - Days 13-17 - Life without Harry

"Harry" has been missed more than we could ever have imagined - as the old saying goes - you don't realise how much you rely on something until you don't have it any more. It wasn't that we had used the autopilot that much in the first 1,000 miles of the trip - we had probably hand steered 950 of those miles anyway - but what we perhaps didn't fully appreciate at the time, was just how invaluable those short "autopilot assisted" breaks are when sailing 2 handed - the chance to pop below to make an occasionalcup of coffee, someone to steer whilst reefing or hoisting and lowering sails, or simply just a short 5 minute break from the relentless concentration needed when steering dead down wind in fresh winds and big seas for days on end. It would. read more...

Cosmic Dancer V - Days 9 & 10 - Trade wind sailing ?

Trade wind sailing - the term conjures up images of yachts bounding along in near perfect sailing conditions, clear blue skies, and totally predictable winds and weather for weeks on end - or at least that was the image we had when we signed up for what was billed as the ultimate long distance trade wind sailing experience - ARC 2011!!With the pre ARC newsletters that arrived through the letterbox, came a few gentle hints that just occasionally this sailing bliss might be interrupted by the "odd tropical squall" passing through, but that these could almost always be detected in advance on radar and often avoided. Any thoughts about "We don't have radar - should we fit one before doing the ARC?" are dismissed the moment the next letter is opened - the bank statement which tells you in no. read more...

Cosmic Dancer V - Day 7 - A frustrating 24 hours

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we were rejoicing at what we thought was the beginning of some steady trade wind sailing. Today we were cursing the instability of the wind and battling to keep the boat moving in the right direction.Despite the fact that we are now mid ocean, and there was hardly a cumulus cloud in sight all day, the airstream was remarkably unstable, with the wind constantly oscillating between NE and SE and varying in strength from 5-15 knots. To keep the yacht heading on our westerly course we would ideally have needed to gybe every 30 minutes or so to keep in phase with the shifts.Therein lay the problem. Cosmic Dancer is not an easy boat to gybe at the best of times, and especially not when sailing 2 handed. With only a single spinnaker pole, but with 2. read more...

Cosmic Dancer V - Day 6 - The butter has melted!

There is an old nautical saying which says if you want to get to the Americas you should "head south until the butter melts and then turn west". Like so many of these old sayings, there is a sound factual basis to this advice. By sailing south until you reach the tropics you get into the North Easterly trade winds and from there a course of west will generally keep you in these favourable trade winds until you reach the West Indies.We are not carrying any butter on Cosmic Dancer. but the margarine was looking distinctly "sticky" yesterday so we made the decision to alter course to 270 and head direct for St Lucia on a great circle route!!Of Course the modern mariner does not have to rely solely on such sayings any more. Even on the smallest of yachts, affordable satellite communications. read more...