Jack Rowland Smith - Log Day Two - JACK Rowland Smith dives South!!

So we are just under two days in now and getting into the swing of things.

Yesterday morning saw us pick up a NE breeze that those further inshore had benefitted from through the night and we set the main and cruising chute. Well, we tried to set the cruising chute only for it to wrap itself into a huge wine glass that resulted in a one hour operation to unwind and rebag before reset. It is amazing how such simple errors take so long to sort.

For us we believe south is best in the longer term judging by the 10 day forecast which has high pressure in line with Cape Verde so don’t be surprised if you see us go even further south than Cape Verde but the wind shuts off in five days so we need to get down as quickly as we can.

Main and cruising chute and a course of circa 220 degrees saw us spend the morning running downwind at 7.5 knots on average as we finally picked up and went south. The wind freshened and was probably nearly 20 knots when a big black cloud came barreling in and, once again, discretion over valour saw us drop the cruising chute (in perfect time as it happened) and revert to our poled out jib. And so it has been like that since then. The distances are huge so you start to think nothing of 24 hours on one gybe or the other.
As I write this I am on the 4.00am to 8.00am watch and we will contemplate a gybe soon, well when I say soon I probably mean Wednesday morning when it looks to us like the breeze moves offshore.

So what about life on board. Well two disappointments so far. After requiring a small mortgage to purchase the best fishing lures of all time, we have caught nothing!! We remain ever hopeful but we still have plenty of fresh food to keep scurvy at bay. The second is that we have seen no dolphins. If I sail the whole Northern Atlantic and do not see a dolphin then I want my money back.......

As to the team, well Sue is doing a fantastic job keeping us all fed, I, of course, am always available to offer advice but little of it ever has an culinary use!!! Ben has completed two maths mock papers, one we had to extend by 20 mins because it was punctuated by the need to switch from cruising chute to poled out jib - clearly this is not quite exam conditions but a real life situation at sea!!!!

Clare is slowly getting used to sea life though still finds being below in the conditions not to her liking; however she was caught yesterday evening watching the sunset and listening to Christmas tunes, I am not sure whether she was appreciating the moment or just wishing the days away...!!!!!

John and Sue are of course used to this way of life and are therefore experts in everything that gets thrown at us. The boat, and especially George the autopilot, are doing a fantastic job keeping us safe and moving at a pretty respectable speed given we have enough food on board to feed a small army. All boat systems are running well though I have now probably cursed everything. We have a broken batten in the mainsail (a common thing for those who follow the Vendee Globe), but other than that all is good.

For me, I live the dream and the feeling of openness and beauty at sea is a landscape I never get bored of.

So as to the race (well of sorts), it is very frustrating because we have no way of getting the tracker so have no clue where anyone is so we just sail our own race. We think south is best so, unless the weather update this morning suggests anything different, we will continue our run down the African coast for another day and then gybe out to aim about 150 Miles north of Cape Verde. We are hopeful we will maintain a NE airstream which is pushing us down nicely.

Today we hope for fresh fish, a visit from the dolphins and more of the same on wind and therefore routing!!

Over and out for now.

Nick (Chief Fishing Adviser For Day Three!!)